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Can't buy 225/50/15s?


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I only see 3 ways out of this situation.

 

1 If its a street car, then go all seasons. Your not pushing 500hp and going 200mph are you?

 

2 If you do have 500hp and plan on going 200mph, then man up and buy larger rims to go with the popular high performance rubber that is available now, and hopefully into the future. Yea it sucks, but at least they have modern tires for no holds barred performance. (Speed costs)

 

3 Don't have a ton of cash? Race tires on spare rims for the track, and all seasons for cruising the streets.

 

Goodluck!

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Word of warning to anyone who has read this thread, do not buy from onlinetires.com.

 

They do not answer the phone or emails and you can't leave a message because their mailboxes are all full. They must have gone out of business but left their website up.

 

They are completely un responsive.

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tires-easy.com hasn't let me down before. The website looks kind of shady, but I've ordered from then 4-5 times in my drifting days with no problems.

 

 

I got my Yoko AVS' from Tire Rack, seems like a decent tire, can't really say much about it performance wise though yet.

Edited by LoneStarS30Z
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Uh... 200mph requires something larger than 15" rims? News to me! There is no shortage of ultra-high speed tires in 15" rims and tire heights for use a Bonneville...

 

You're so predictable sometimes. :-P

 

Something tells me though that these tires people are using on bonneville aren't exactly "over the counter" in the sense that most of us think of as "widely available. And are any of those tires DOT approved?

 

I think it's quite obvious that ZR8ED is just pointing out the fact that the common performance tires have been slowly moving upward in rim size and now it's gotten nearly impossible to have OPTIONS with smaller rims, such as 14's and 15's unless you're sticking with fairly narrow tires.

 

I have to admit, it's fairly frustrating feeling like we've been totally forgotten about by the tire manufactures, but I have to understand that it's just simple business. Modern cars with wide tires have used larger and larger rims. The market for wide tires in a 15" rim package is a diminishing market.

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Word of warning to anyone who has read this thread, do not buy from onlinetires.com.

 

They do not answer the phone or emails and you can't leave a message because their mailboxes are all full. They must have gone out of business but left their website up.

 

They are completely un responsive.

 

My 2 cents, I've had zero issues with them...some people have, some people haven't.

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You mean 15's are being treated like 14's?

 

I know people who will say with advances in tire technology the wider widths for the most part are no longer necessary.

 

Now that's just bass ackwards.

 

Tire grip is one of the main limitations a car will ever have. It affects acceleration, braking, and cornering in huge ways. I will always shoot to use as wide of a tire my car will fit, and to buy the stickiest tire my wallet will afford. The only reason I'd give in to a smaller width would be because of cost, not because "tire technology has come so far" or similar arguments. I can see where people get that idea of thinking, but it just doesn't make sense for someone like me, and I'm sure many others.

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I spent a track day using a set of Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec (205/50/15). It was a fairly common tire at the track. I saw them on a number of makes and models (e.g. Audi S4, Lotus, and a ton of the Z's). One aspect not mentioned is camber. If you're set with factory (zero) camber then under aggressive driving you'll roll the outer edge and wear the tire in a non-uniform fashion. Going to negative 1.5 to 2.5 degrees of camber will make the car very nice for the track and help with tire wear. I found the Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec's to be a very nice tire. Unless you've already done extensive suspension modifications it doesn't make sense to go with race slicks. If you have LSD, coilovers, Techno Toy Tuning's adjustable control arms, and camber adjustment plates, then going the way of race slicks makes sense. For me personally, I have a ways to go before I switch what I have with racing tires. My set-up is a R180 STi LSD, 1" lower-than-stock suspension with Tokico Illuminas, HD linear rate springs strut bars, ST sway bars, and 15" rims. I'm not sure about race tires, but I suspect my tires would last perhaps 4 or 5 days at the track.

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