ok i want to run 16s or 17s. perfer 16s on my car. i want to go with a wider tire. right now i have KDWs that are 205/40/16 and i had traction issues like a mad man. i know its not going to hook up anyways (430whp) but i would like to get a bit bigger contact patch. also i want lip/dish as much as i can get. so any wheel ideas?

 

First, what you need is better, stickier tires, not wider tires. The primary determinant of traction is the tire make and model, and its design (compound, tread pattern, etc), all of which is far, FAR more important than the width of the tread.

For 16" wheels on an Integra, you should be using either 205/45-16 or 215/45-16. The 205/40-16 size you are using is TOO SMALL!

The KDW is a somewhat expensive daily driving tire, and is not the best choice for your car. What you really need for your high-horsepower application are "supersticky" tires, tires that are designed to give outstanding dry traction. Supersticky tires available in these sizes include:

Bridgestone Potenza RE01R 205/45-16 $161/tire at Tire Rack
Falken Azenis RT-615 215/45-16 $97/tire at Vulcan Tire
Kumho Ecsta XS 215/45-16 $104/tire at Tire Rack
Toyo Proxes R1R 205/45-16 $133/tire at tiredeals4less.com ($108/tire after $100 rebate from Toyo)

You will get much better traction with any of these tires than with your current setup. Differences among these four aren't huge; the Bridgestone tested faster than the Falken (here) and the XS and R1R are new introductions, so far reports on both are very positive though.

You can keep your current wheels if you like, or get whatever other wheels you want. If you go with 17" wheels instead of 16", they won't give you better traction. The size you would need with 17" wheels is 205/40-17, for which you can get the Falken Azenis RT-615 ($96/tire at Vulcan Tire).

Incidentally, wider tires do not have a bigger contact patch than narrower tires; they change the shape of the contact patch, not its size. The size of the contact patch depends on the weight of the car and the inflation in the tires, not on the width of the tread. A 2640-pound Integra with tires inflated to 33 pounds per square inch will have contact patches whose sizes total 80 square inches, and this is true regardless of whether your tires are 185 mm skinnies or 245 mm steamrollers.



Modified by nsxtasy at 12:27 PM 9/26/2008

 

thats great info.

i didnt think there was anything wrong with the BFG KDWs. the price is not an issue. i get 44% off any BFG or Michelin tire.

so i wont have any fitment issues with a 215/45/16 then?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DjBurns &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i didnt think there was anything wrong with the BFG KDWs. the price is not an issue. i get 44% off any BFG or Michelin tire.</TD></TR></TABLE>

It really depends on what you're looking for. The KDW is more of a "daily driving tire", meaning that it lasts longer and does better in rain than the "supersticky" tires, but it doesn't grip as well on dry pavement. It's okay for people who want those characteristics (although those who don't get a huge discount on BFG/Michelin can get similar performance to the KDW for significantly less money from other brands, e.g. Kumho SPT, Yokohama S.drive, etc).

BFGoodrich has made its own "supersticky" tire, the g-Force T/A KD, but (a) it doesn't come in the 16" sizes your car needs, and (b) I think it is being discontinued, as it is no longer shown on the BFG website and most of its sizes are marked as closeouts on the Tire Rack website. So for now, there is no BFG or Michelin street tire offered in this category.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DjBurns &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so i wont have any fitment issues with a 215/45/16 then?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sounds like you're still overly concerned about tread width. Remember, the biggest indicator of performance is the quality of the tire. For example, the Bridgestone RE-01R in 205/45-16 will give you better grip than any other 16" street tire, even those in 215/45-16 rather than 205/45-16. (Obviously, though, it's more expensive than the other three tires listed.)

But to answer your question about fitment, most 215/45-16 tires are approved for mounting on rims 7.0-8.0 inches wide, and most 16" rims on Integras are in that width range, so you shouldn't have any problems mounting them on your rims. As for clearance, it depends on the offset of your rims. As long as the offset is about where it needs to be for maximum clearance, the tires shouldn't rub on your fenders or wheel wells. Most people with this size tires on Integras don't have rubbing problems. (The most common tire that size used on Integras is almost certainly the Azenis.)

 

wow thats alot of good info. thank you.

now what about wheel offsets? if i wanted to go with a wider rim and have some dish, how wide can i go and what are the offests i need? this is where i know nothing about wheels and tires.

 

Well, you really can't go too wide with the wheels and tires, unless you want to get flared fenders and stuff like that, stuff that's really suitable only for show cars or gutted track-only cars. For a car that's driven on the street, you really don't want to go any wider than 215/45-16 (or 205/50-15 for 15" wheels, 205/40-17 for 17"), and you shouldn't get wheels any wider than 7" or at most 7.5" for any of those sizes.

I don't keep track of offsets, so I don't know what offsets work for which widths on which car.

 

ok thats good info. thanks.

i will stick with my rims i have now for another year. but new tires over winter are gonna happen

 

Wow, i was thinking about getting some new rims and tires for my 2000 ls coupe and that ^ was a ridiculous amount of good information. thanks guys!