right now this combo seems like its the best option for me to get, my car will be daily driven, and i've never tried autox, so i might try this summer possibly, will these do the trick?

these will only be summer tires, and if you guys have any recommendations let me know

these just seem to be a good price, and people say good things about them

 

I assume you will be getting the tires in size 205/45-16 for your '97 Civic.

Excellent choice!

 

205/40/16 .. do you still approve?

 

The 205/40 will give you closer gearing and better acceleration, but won't be quite as wide. It might look a bit funny though if the car hasn't been lowered, since it's lower profile.

The SPT's are excellent in the rain, and pretty grippy overall. They won't be super competitive on the autox course, but still decent.

 

yea i plan to lower my car pretty low, so the 40's should look nice, although the 45's are $40 cheaper, but i like the look of the 40's better

i keep hearing good things about these spt's i'm very happy about that, and as for the autox, i've never done anything like it so i just need these to be ok, i'm not serious about it ....... yet

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pjr710 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yea i plan to lower my car pretty low, so the 40's should look nice, although the 45's are $40 cheaper, but i like the look of the 40's better

i keep hearing good things about these spt's i'm very happy about that, and as for the autox, i've never done anything like it so i just need these to be ok, i'm not serious about it ....... yet </TD></TR></TABLE>

Don't buy tire sizes for looks, buy the correct size to keep the speedometer and odometer accurate. Now, if the tires were only used for auto-x, then thats a different story.

And SPTs will be fine for autox. I started off on the stock Michelin XGT V4s(much much worse then SPTs), and they held up fine for a couple of events, until a practice got them hot enough to start melting the tread blocks together (my fault for not cooling them adequately). Just don't keep running them lap after lap during a summer practice without cooling them.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TunerN00b &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Don't buy tire sizes for looks, buy the correct size to keep the speedometer and odometer accurate.</TD></TR></TABLE>



The correct size for your car is 205/45-16. Buy the correct size.

 

why is it the correct size? .. and what advantagess to i get with 45'd

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pjr710 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">why is it the correct size? .. and what advantagess to i get with 45'd</TD></TR></TABLE>

It's the correct size because the outer diameter is about the same (within 1 percent) of the outer diameter of your stock tire size, so it will maintain the accuracy of your speedometer and odometer. 205/40-16 is too small (over 4 percent smaller than stock, a full inch, which is a big difference) so it will throw off the gauges. It will also look rather silly. (The 205/40-16 is the much smaller size that fits older Civics that came with 13" wheels.) And, as you mentioned, the correct size for your car is $65/tire, and the too-small 205/40-16 is $77/tire, so a set of the wrong size tires costs $48 more than a set of the correct size for your car. So there are a whole lot of advantages of getting the correct size, without any significant disadvantages.

Look at the calculated outer diameters for yourself:

185/65-14 - 23.47 inches (stock)

205/45-16 - 23.26 inches (-0.9 percent)

205/40-16 - 22.46 inches (-4.3 percent)

 

hmm thats interesting .. i just thought the 40's look better because it makes the wheels look a bit bigger, the 45 shows a lot of tire ..

im curious as to how the 40 is "much smaller", i thought 205/45 and 205/40 are both the same width just with different sized sidewalls .. am i wrong about this?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pjr710 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">im curious as to how the 40 is "much smaller", i thought 205/45 and 205/40 are both the same width just with different sized sidewalls .. am i wrong about this?</TD></TR></TABLE>

You are correct; the tread is the same width. The sidewall is taller with the 205/45 (since it's equal to .45 * 205 mm instead of .40 * 205 mm). That's why the outer diameter of the 205/45 is larger than the 205/40.

For your car, just get the 205/45-16.

 

That's probably incorrect... most likely they are going to have different treadwidths, but I can't find the exact specs anywhere.

 

nxnasty i must say.. i had absolutely no intentions of buying the 45, but after you saying this stuff, and after doing some searching of pictures between 40's and 45's and hearing people say how much more they like their 45's .. i think im going to go with them ... so thanks man

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JustinHoMi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That's probably incorrect... most likely they are going to have different treadwidths, but I can't find the exact specs anywhere.</TD></TR></TABLE>

How can a 205 width be different from another 205 width of the same brand tire? If you are talking about a 205 SPT vs a 205 RT615 then I could see the RT615 being a bit bigger.

To the OP, I have alot of experience when it comes to tires but compared to Nsxtasy, I am noob! Don't be a idiot and think you know what you are talking about because let's face ityou don't. So get the right size for you car and not the one that looks cool! You will thank us later! Also I have the SPT's and I am really happy with them. For auto-x they will do fine in the beginning as you are learning but after you might want to get something a little more sticky.

 

i'm gunna get the 45's .. but just out of curiosty .. 16's with 45's are w/in an inch of original wheel size what would 17's and 40's be?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pjr710 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i'm gunna get the 45's .. but just out of curiosty .. 16's with 45's are w/in an inch of original wheel size what would 17's and 40's be?</TD></TR></TABLE>

205/40-17 is fine for your car. It has exactly the same outer diameter - 23.46 inches - as your stock size.