I have a 93 del sol s. I have 205/40R17 wheels/tires. They do weigh about 7 pounds more then stock. What does this do to my performance, I've herd people say "bigger tires speed you up" I've herd many different things, and i want to truth.

 

bigger tire make your speedo off, but technicaly makes you theoretic top speed higher....but it takes alot more to turn them big heavy wheels

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pythoner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">bigger tire make your speedo off, but technicaly makes you theoretic top speed higher....but it takes alot more to turn them big heavy wheels</TD></TR></TABLE>

Most what Pythoner said is true. Bigger wheels do make your theoretic top speed higher but then again you have to have enought power to get to that top speed which I dought you will ever reach.

Also, it's not that it gets hard to turn big wheels its that you could start rubbing with big wheel such as 17 if you don't have the right size tire for your car.

Bigger tires don't necessarily make you speedo off but using the incorrect tire size will. Such as if you have an EG and you want 16 you would put 205-40-16 and not 215-40-16. The later tire will cause rubbing.

If you have more questions plz post it in the wheel and tire section of this forum. I and other will be glad to answer your tire and wheel questions!

 

For performance you should decrease unsprung weight, not increase it.

Smaller wheels aid in acceleration, as they makes your gearing shorter. (and by smaller I mean a smaller diameter tire/wheel combo)

Larger wheels makes your gearing taller, which slows down your rate of acceleration. As pythoner said it increases your maximum speed - because the gearing is taller. But if your unsprung weight is higher, it's even harder to take advantage of the taller gearing.