Hey, I have an Acura EL with 185/65R15 tires and I was looking into increasing the width of the front tires but I want to make sure I'm not fudging myself over too badly. I've always liked the looks of really wide front tires, especially ones with white/ yellow letters on them and I tried looking around for some.
So with a bit of looking around I believe these tires (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Coope...Q5fAccessories) are the widest and they have white letters and it says cobra on it!
I really don't know much at all about tires and wheels so maybe there's something missing that I don't understand about this. But what would I have to do to be able to get these tires on my car and what differences do you think I would have after changing the tires? I'm definitely not all about looks, this is supposed to be a sleeper k swap, I even want the rims to be oem, but the tires are fair game for me.

Anyways, thanks for your time!

 

First of all those tires will never fit on you car. Second you need to look into tire sizing, depending on what OEM rim, you wont be able to go wider than a 225. Third you need to decide what type/category of tire you want. & fourth, if you truly must, dupli-color sells tire paint pens.

 

1,2,3&4 ^^^

 

295/50/15's... really? Without large fender flares, it'll never happen safely. Not to mention how oversized they are for the vehicle. Their size alone, is a safety risk to the occupants of the vehicle. 225 treadwidth tires are hard enough to fit on the car safely. Just so you know, that first number stands for how wide the tire is. Your 185mm treadwidth is roughly 7.28in wide. The tires you're looking at are 11.61in wide. That's almost 4.5 inches of width difference.

 

What you are looking at is a truck tyre.

This tyre is 295mm at its widest point ( compared to your 185 mm stock)
It's sidewall height is 50% of it's width (147.5mm)
It's total diameter is (147.5mm X 2) + 15" = 676mm, or 26". Your overall diameter should be maybe 17" or 18".


Going wider:
1. Decreased handling. More unsprung weight, less surface area = weight spread over larger surface (You don't want to go too small nor too big however.)
2. Clearance issues with fender / control arms. etc.
3. Harder to steer: More weight, more friction = harder to steer.
4. Decreased fuel economy: More weight, more drag, more friction.

It is hard to find a tyre with font on the side alone (though truck tyres usually do have more)

 

Yeah I figured those 295's might be a little, how you say... Retarded.
So now I'm sort of leaning towards these bad boys (http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes) because they're cheap and they sound like the best wide street tires I could buy. Heck I might even buy some of that paint for them, it might look a little much though so I might not, they should still look bad *** though. What do you guys think? Could anyone recommend a better tire?

Also, another silly question:
What's the difference between tire and tyre? Is one the European spelling? A little odd because I live in Canada and we don't use American spelling usually and yet it's tire over here. I don't mean to get into who made the tire and there-for who is spelling it wrong discussion but it's my opinion the spelling "tire" makes a heck of a lot more sense.

 

you're too concerned with how wide the tire is. stick with a 205 star spec/re11/azenis/etc if you're looking for traction. i wouldn't dare go any wider with a stock wheel.

 

Hmmm, I'm sort of thinking that new tires arn't worth my time right now because if I were going to a track I might just rent slicks anyways. And I really don't need to go any faster on a street lol. I'm at 200whp and I don't have k-pro or aem or anything and the thing's a little tough to drive at gear 1 and 2 so maybe I just need to take off the winter tires lol.

 

225/50/15's are going to be 2.5% smaller in diameter than your original tire setup, just as a forewarning. This is borderline too small for the car. This will have an effect on your speedometer, as well as your overall braking/handling characteristics.

As for the spelling, "tyre" is certainly the European way to spell the word. Neither is really the "only" way to spell the word. Although, Firefox doesn't know the word "tyre".

 

this. just stick with the correct size for your rim, but get a soft compound tire if you want grip. something like a yokohama ad08, falken azenis rt615k, kumho xs, dunlop star spec, bridgestone re 11 etc. these tires will give you lots of grip and (mostly) should be available in the size you need.

 

Yeah that's a good idea, I'll just get the stickiest tires I can because starting fast is really a pain with my winter tires, I'm putting my summers on really soon but I doubt they're anything amazing. Right now I'm about 200whp and I get wheel spin at 3k rpm's with winter tires so I'm pretty sure that's really bad. If I was able to start at 5k rpm's then I'd be able to get some crazy fast starts.

Does anyone know what the best tire for me would be then? The most grip?

 

The most grip? Well you might want to consider costs. The softer the compound tire you use, the quicker it will wear out under typical road use. Softer compound tires also cost more then more standard tires. A good compromise, would be something in the 200 - 300 UTQG range. I personally have had good luck with the Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec tires.