It seems lots of Japanese rear wheel drive cars have wider rear wheels to "push" the car. For instance, 17X7.5 fronts and 17X8.5 rears wheels and obviously wider rear tires.

Would there be any reasoning that would make it beneficial for us front wheel drive Hondas to have wider fronts wheels like 17X8.5 fronts and 17X7.5 rears? Thus we would have wider front tires.

I did hear that some professional tuners do that in Japan even with front wheel drive.

What are your thoughts or should I just go for a !

 

Yes, it is beneficial to have wider tires on your drive wheels. It's not just in Japan that they do that stuff...it's a common thing even among USDM cars.

Wider tires = more surface area on the ground = more traction (well, there's a whole thing about how more surface area also reduces the amount of weight per "tractive area"...but it's a pretty good rule of thumb)

Also, most professional drag race cars use super light idler wheels commonly called "skinnies" I'm not sure of #'s, but their only function is to hold the back/front of the car up, while taking up as little weight as possible.

 

Thanks for replying JC.

If we use a wider front wheel/tire combo, that will give us oversteer correct?
Most of our Hondas currently have understeer problem so this set-up woudl neutralize the effect right?

 

Yeah, I hear using wider front tires is a common cure for understeer in japan instead of the anti-sway bar/spring rate game we play here.

Just remember, wider wheels/wider tires mean more weight, so make sure you have enough power to turn that extra mass.

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

One of the reasons that wider front tires on a front drive car is not a common practice is the limited clearance in the fender well for making turns. If this wasn't an issue, I'd bet most FF racers making serious power would have wider fronts.

Kinda makes you wonder how long it'll be before someone makes a high performance FF car with plenty of room in the front fender wells for exaclty this purpose. Think it'll be a Honda?