who here has autocrossed their car with 18 inch tires. I have a honda civic 95 coupe. Suspension is ground conrol coilovers 800 front 700 rear. No shocks yet. Falkin 215-35-18 tires. I will add shocks and strut bars before i take it to the track. Are my wheels too large for track racing? Has anyone else use tires this large. It handles really well with the large contact patch but i was curious about fender clearance. I will add pics later if it will help. Thanks

 

18's are a bit much, you are giving up a lot performance wise with 18's. you will get better performance and cheaper/wider slecetion of tires with 15's.

 

Damn, you have 800lbs front and 700 rear on factory shocks??

-sell the rims and tires
-get some 15's or 16's wheels and tires
-get some shocks and maybe some softer springs (you will need to spend some $$$ to get shocks capable of such high spring rates)

Just my opinion.


[Modified by 6ghatch, 5:03 PM 10/9/2002]

 

And the opinion of many others.

 

Sure, it can be done, but you will probably frag your expensive tires rather quickly. From what you've posted, I will assume you are new to AutoX. I would suggest you use your stock wheels and throw on some 195/60/14 Falken Azenis tires. These are real reasonable in price and a very good starting point.

I'm just curious how you ended up with such stiff springs and how is the ride on the street with 35 series tires and stock shocks.





[Modified by Steve91, 2:19 PM 10/9/2002]

 

Well I'm sure everyone will be impressed with your Bling Bling rims being ruined as your ride on the rim edges cause your 35 profile tires flexed to much in the tight turns. Personally I never understood the desire to put 18s on anything with the name Honda on it but what ever you like bro.

 

Yikes! How can possibly keep your finger still enough to change the buttons on the radio?

Seriously, 800/700 is too much for autox. And as was stated earlier, finding shocks that can handle that rate for less than a grand will be... uhh... difficult. The 18s are just icing on the cake right now.

Andy

 

your contact patch didnt change

 

hey guys thanks for the input. I might have been reading the wrong # off of the spring. I assumed it was the first of the three sets of numbers, but i could be wrong. I do have a set of gsr wheels that came stock on the car, so i could use those until i can get a lighter and wider wheel, and i really want spoon front, spoon rear upper and a dc lower tie bar (just becuase they look nice). If anyone is trying to get rid of one of these mentiod items i would be interested.

 

i went from a 185 mm wide tire to a 215 mm wide tire. They are significantly larger and with a lower aspect ratio going from 70 to 35 doesnt that assist as well in increasing the contact patch?

 

Yeah, the springs are probably 8in front and 7in rear.

 

glad to see that you are interested in auotx. it always good to have new people involved. as you will find out when you start, your setup is not good for auotx. You probably have a 7" spring and an 8" spring on the car. The weights are usually around 300 lbs ( just a guess). Your wheels and tires are a bit to much. Like stated above 35 series tires will roll right off the rim when cornered too hard. Your 18" wheel size leaves you with a screwed up gearing pattern that eliminates a lot of potential power that the car could put to the ground. Your contact patch is almost the same between stock and those tires so you will have to go with a different setup of wheel + tire to increase your contact patch.
Keep looking into autocrossing and you will start to understand more about what we are talking about. Where are you looking to get started?

 

Your contact patch didn't increase unless you let less air out of your tires. It's a function of pressure in the tires versus corner weight.

Wider tires are better cornering, but you did not increase your contact patch.

Simple semantics.

BTW - putting some Falken Azenis tires on those GSR rims will be a great starting point for learning how to better contol your car. I'd also either go to stock springs or get some shocks if your spring rates aren't as insane as you say they are.

 

Just like the above post says, basically its the same contact patch area, but a different shape. It's wider now. This is better for lateral grip (auto-x) and worse for straight line.

I would say if its your first few auto-x's dont worry about your car setup, concentrate on your driving. See if you like it and then if you get into it as you become a better driver upgrade your equipment as you go along.

 

 

Do you know the price you are paying just to run 18s? 18" tires are EXPENSIVE!!! Compared to 15" tires. I'd rather shred a set of cheaper 15s than my show 18" wheels/tires.

But as someone said you can do it, but it's not the most practical setup.

 

18's oWn.

 

Use your GSR wheels for now. No need to wear out expensive 18" tires. Don't do anything else to your car for now. Just go out and have fun. If you decide autocross is something you want to take seriously, start asking lots of questions and talking to other people at events. In a short time, you'll figure out what you need to do to get fast. Remember, autocross is ~80% driver, so there is no need to jump into modifying your car.

If you do feel the need to tinker with your car, start with some better shocks. Koni, Tokico, KYB AGX, Bilstein are all decent (Koni is probably the crowd favorite, but also the most expensive listed).

 

I'm not trying to be an ***, but there is so much wrong with your (yusoslo) initial post that I can't tell if you're serious or just doing this to **** us off. Seriously, I can't tell. If you are honestly this un-knowledgeable (not a flame, we all were at some point) then we'll help you. IF you're just trolling, then we'll still help you, but just in a different way.

 

I have autox with 17s before - I can tell you that the car was much slower off the line than the 15s that I now have, but the handling was fairly good with the lower profile tires.

In regards to your spring rates, you must have some serious back problems riding on 35s with rates like that. Like many others have already stated, ditch the rims and get some 15s-you will be happy with the outcome - like that one Volk ad - "no fat chrome." Good luck!

 

I autocrossed on 18s:


And it sucked! My car bogged so bad, and the tires/wheels rubbed all the time.

This was in my bling bling days 4 years ago So make all the wise cracks you want

 

Yo dawg, datza tiizzite ride beeahch. Luvz 'dos phattass wheels. Werd.

 

glad to see you traded up!

I auto-x on 17"s....of course they are standard on my car.

 

Didn't somebody do a review (GMS?) and find that bigger wheels did actually perform slightly better? That being said, larger tires are a bitch (moneywise and optionwise).

 

I read that article. They tried 15s, 16s and 17s and the 17s were quickest on there autox course. I think it was on a civic. I guess the advantage to a lower profile tire is less sidewall flew but once you get into a decent set of tires designed with stiff sidewalls that shouldn't be a problem.

But of course you're best option is to race on small wheels (13" maybe) with R-compounds with a lower aspect ratio (maybe -50s). That way you have very little mass to spin at each corner and a higher (numerically) gear ratio to the wheels.