Forgive me if this has already been ground to bits, I've tried the search function to no avail.

I'm looking to get new wheels and tires for a B16 88 CRX Si. The choice seems to be boiling down to 205/40/16 vs 195/50/15. Considering weight, rolling resistance and lateral cohesion, I'm leaning toward the 205's. Could anyone point me in the direction of some help with this?

Also, what about forged vs cast aluminum? Spoon's SW388's are a tad pricey, so I was looking at the Rota Slipstreams. Obviously a cast wheel is going to be weaker and more prone to manufacturing and stress flaws - I'm wondering how much real difference that makes in this context. All of the wheel designs I'm considering are much more open than stock, so presumably structural integrity is an issue.

I'm not planning to race the car, either on the road or track. I just want to be able to get the most out of it for a reasonable cost.

Thanks a lot for any help.

 

Here is my experience-granted with a different car, but the package will work. I have a 96 Civic HB with 195/50-15 BGF Euro TA's mounted on American RAcing Spyder rims that are 15 x 7. The car is lowered and there is no rubbing at all. We have a vintage GP course in a park here that is brutal to lap fast. The car behaves very nicely and is reasonably quick with the package. My CRX is going to run in ITA and I am not allowed to use a rim larger in diameter than 14". I have done some testing with the car on the same course running Dunlop Sport 'A2s on the stock rims and it is ok. The rims I will use are AR Carrera/Motegi MR12 14 x 6 + 40. We are looking at several tire choices over the winter.

You need to decide on a number of things. One is how you will use the car daily/show/road race/drag or some combination. Road conditions in your area are another factor along with the question of lowering. An SCCA or similar group race car is required to be at a minimum height off the pavement as to the distance from the ground to the lowest point on the rocker panel (5"). You will also need to think about camber correction as it relates to both handling and tire wear.

That's right-it is not as simple as it appears. You can go with the 205 size, but I find that 195 is just fine for what I'm trying to accomplish both road and track.
Happy holidays

 

Thanks for the reply.

My primary interest is just spirited road driving. The car is a daily driver and needs to remain functional in that capacity. I'm trying to keep the overal mod budget to $10K, so I don't have a ton of money to spend in any one area.

I plan to get coilovers and adjustable struts, and I also plan to do a four wheel brake upgrade, probably an Integra swap. I thought I would probably lower it an 1 1/2" or so - I don't think that's enough to require camber adjustment (?).

I don't really know anything about autocross, but I'm guessing that it involves a lot of lower speed driving, where low-end acceleration is really critical. For recreational driving, I'm more interested in second and third gear with high enough RPM's to get the VTEC into play, so 30-80 MPH or so. I have no interest in drag racing. If I were going to drive on a track, I'd probably just look into lap time and try to learn some technique. I doubt I'd want to compete formally.

The roads around here are in fairly good shape, and I tend to have good luck with potholes. I don't want a crazy hard ride, but I don't think 40 series tires are going to be a problem.

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the 16's would probably look better, but in this case form ought to follow function. Personally, I think it's pretty silly to drop a CRX 3"+ and put 17" wheels on it - kinda seems to defeat the basic design parameters.

What I want is a light and sturdy setup that balances forward and lateral acceleration. I'm guessing that driving a little faster at higher RPM's probably makes fairly good use of 205's. Obviously the 205's are going to offer more rolling resistance than 195's. I'm also guessing that, generally speaking, 1" of wheel diameter is lighter than 1" of tire diameter, so the 205/40/16 setup might be advantageous there. 40's are going to exhibit less roll than 50's, but probably not be too much harsher ride-wise.

I'm hoping to get wheels for $200 or less each, not including tires. I am considerng Kosei K1's, SSR Competitions, Rota Slipstreams, Rota Group N's, 5-Zeigen FN-01R's and a few others. The authentic versions of the Rotas are a bit more than I want to spend, but we'll see.

I haven't really started researching the tires yet. It does seem like 16's offer a wider tire selection than 15's.

The main thing that draws me to the 15's is that they seem to have a following among racing enthusiasts, and presumably there is a reason for that. It may just be that 16's are not permitted in some events - I don't know. As you can doubtless tell, I'm not very knowledgable in this area. I've had the car since 88, and thought it would be fun to build it up a little - so far it has.

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

 

hey look at sonny's new look,........................very nice................mad props

 

Or you could just pick up a pair of Integra GSR wheels.

 

I continue to think that for your purposes the 15" rim will be an excellent choice overall. As to lowering the car-again my experience is with Skunk2 coilover sleeves and Koni shocks (what I use on ALL my cars). You can do either Skunk2 or Ground Controls and either company will supply spring rates to suit your needs. My CRX is on the Skunks with 400 lb front and 500 lb rear. The box will tell you to do the reverse of this for a daily driver. It will be stiffer than stock-but not unreasonably so with the Koni shocks (yellow). For less than $1000 you will have a great suspension. You also want to budget for a rear sway bar (~$150)-mine is an ADDCO (direct or from Summit) with Poly bushings and end links. Get yourself a set of poly bushings and end links for the stock front bar from ES or Prothane.
Now to the swap-do not bother for a daily-unless looks are what you want. My CRX has drums on the back and they do less than 20% of the work. Pain to adjust-but simple to service. You will want to budget for poly bushings on the treailing arms and lower control arms while you have everything else apart. We put ES bushings in and that really helped. We are dealing with older cars here (10+). I replaced the rear upper control arms with stock units and rubber bushings. Up front is another story as there is no real need to go with poly except for the radius rods.
Since I have a race car that must meet a specific set of rules for the suspension I am only allowed to do so much as to adjustable pieces. We are limited to shims in the rear and eccentric bushings up front for Camber adjustment. If you are going to do any AutoX you may be permitted to use either Ingalls or Specialty Products adjustable front control arms and rear arms as well. The cost of these parts can get up there-my Civic has them.
Keep in mind that I speak from 3 prepared cars. Two of them ride on Skunk/Koni and the Prelude is on Neuspeed/Koni. ALL of them have been seriously tweaked.
More q's-drop me an e-mail.

 

check out http://www.tirerack.com..

i have 195/50-15's on my 1990 CRX Si.. they are on a seto fo 15x6 +35 offset wheels..
they are bridgestone potenza S-03's. they are really nice..

check out the 15 inch kosei K1's.. really nice wheel, especially for the price..

 

Go with the 15's man. I'm running 195/50/15's on 15" miata rims. Yeah mazda miata rims that is. They fit perfect, the tire's are exactly flush with the fenders which kind of restricts lowering possibilities but i'm getting ready to lower it 1 inch all the way around with some ground controls. But yeah go with 15's, if you're worried about width just think about it 205 is only 1cm wider than 195 that's not going to help you much....plus a little bit of sidewall flex can be a good thing during some "spirited driving" on some nice twisty roads. I say the 15's are the best all around choice.