Wondering if 205/50/15 tires will mushroom on 15x6.5 wheels?

 

"mushroom"???

They fit fine. Most 205/50-15 tires are approved for mounting on wheels 5.5-7.5 inches wide.

 

Yeah, I don't know the correct term, but yoU know what a tire looks like that is too wide for the wheel you're putting it on. I just called it how I saw it. A mushroom shape. But ok thank you very much.

 

Think of truck tires = mushroom.

 

Why is that even a concern?

You don't want the sidewall to have a bugle in it, but you're trying to put wider tires on stock sized wheels. Why swap tire size if you don't want that look?

 

idk how wide GSR blades are but my 205's look pretty good if you ask me

 

Lol, sorry if my comment concerned you, no, they are not stock wheels, and I was trying to figure out if I could put wider tires on them for more tire to ground contact i.e.: more traction, But I did not want any kind of play or mushy feeling in them like if they were too wide. I think GSR Blades are 6.5 inches across, and they look great! thank you!

 

Funny, those are the exact same tires im looking at as well, Falken Azenis RT-615's I found them on Discounttire.com for about $111 a tire. Seems pretty reasonable, but Im gonna shop around see what else I can come up with.

 

Wider tires don't give you more ground contact. As long as your tires are normally inflated, the amount of area that comes into contact with the ground - tire experts call it the "contact patch" - depends only on the weight of the car and the pressure in the tires. If you inflate your tires to 33 pounds per square inch on an Integra that weighs 2,640 pounds, the area of the contact patches will total 80 square inches - and that number will be true regardless of whether you're using 185-treadwidth skinnies or 225-treadwidth steamrollers. 2640/33 will still equal 80.

No, they aren't. They are 15x6.

Wheel width is measured at the bead, the indent in the wheel where the inner edge of the tire is seated.

You can do a lot better than the Azenis. A whole bunch of tires have come out in the past couple of years that do everything better than the Azenis - they give better grip, they last longer, and some of them don't cost any more, either. I'm referring to all of these:

1. Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec 195/55-15 ($92/tire with free shipping at Discount Tire Direct)
2. Kumho Ecsta XS 205/50-15 ($88/tire plus shipping* at Tire Rack)
3. Yokohama Advan Neova AD08 205/50-15 ($122/tire plus shipping* at Tire Rack)
4. Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 205/50-15 ($118/tire plus shipping* at Tire Rack)
5. Toyo Proxes R1R 205/50-15 ($104/tire plus shipping* at TiresDirect.net)
6. Toyo Proxes R1R 195/55-15 ($116/tire plus shipping* at TiresDirect.net)

The Tire Rack website has a side-by-side comparison test of the first four of these, at http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=118

*Shipping generally runs around $15/tire, from places that charge for it.

 

damn, that's a lot. go to vulcantires.com. really good price's on Falken tires.

 

Mushroom!

 

The Falkens are a great tire, never really used much els so I cant say better on anything els, they grip like crazy, you can hear them picking up little rocks as you drive like you just did a burnout haha. Only down side to these tires is IIRC they are like a 10-15k mi tire? Next set Im going to try a trick I heard about on a different form, im going to get a set of 215/45/15's and it should give me a bigger contact patch while still getting that sidewall look.

 

Wow, way more than I asked for, thank you very much for that. I definitely feel enlightened lol.

 

Someone didn't even read the posts in this thread.

A wider tire does not increase the size of the contact patch.

 

Try the others I listed. They're even stickier. They grip better on dry pavement, and they grip better in rain, too (although the XS doesn't grip as well in rain as the others I listed).

Typical treadlife on the Azenis is 10-12K miles. The others I listed should last at least 15K and maybe up to 20K.

Like I said, these newer tires are better than the Azenis in every way.

Not true. Wider tires don't change the size of the contact patch; they only change its shape. As long as the tires are inflated normally to support the weight of the car, the size of the contact patch is determined by the weight of the car and the inflation in the tires. If you have a 2,640-pound Integra with the tires inflated to 33 pounds per square inch, the size of the four contact patches will total 80 square inches. And that will be true regardless of whether you're using 185-treadwidth skinnies or 225-treadwidth steamrollers. 2640/33 will always equal 80.

Some people make the mistake of thinking that tread width is a big factor in grip, when it isn't. Then they go out and get crappy tires in a wide size, which doesn't do anything for performance. A stickier tire in a slightly narrower size will give better grip than a less sticky tire in a slightly wider size. So if you're looking for the best grip, concentrate on buying better, stickier tires, rather than wider tires.

The tires I listed above are the stickiest street tires you can buy for an Integra with 15" wheels.

Someone didn't get to read them before you did.

 

Is that true regardless of wheel width?

 

Yes.

Whatever effect the wheel and tire width have on the contact patch is on its shape, not on its size.

Incidentally, the folks at the Tire Rack actually tested this by measuring the size of contact patches for two different width tires on the same car, and they were identical (differences were less than their measurement error of 2 percent).

 

OK, that makes perfect sense now. At first it was very unintuitive to me! I was thinking about switching to 205/45 R16 on my DC2 because I was under the impression that doing so would increase my contact patch and therefore improve cornering/braking/accel. Are there any actual performance benefits to making that swap? I'm aware that tire/wheel weight is an issue so I was thinking of ~15 lb wheels.

 

With 16" wheels, you can go with either 205/45-16 (Bridgestone RE-11, Toyo R1R) or 215/45-16 (Kumho XS). Performance differences vs 15" sizes will be minimal, assuming the same make/model tires, so don't do it for performance reasons.

 

Props to nsxtasy! turned my thread into an all out "searcher's paradise", sticky worthy?

 

they did on my cx rims but i liked the look.. all personal pref..

 

CX rims aren't 15x6.5.