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How much tire is enough?


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I'm having a dilemma. Right now I have 225/50R16 fronts and 275/40R17 rears. I have a turbo LS, maybe at 600-700hp.

The rears are 17x9.5 -20mm rota wheels, but now that I have changed my suspension, the offset looks kinda horrible. I think I would need more like +10mm offset to have them tuck correctly. That said rota doesn't make any wheel in that offset. 

Do you think I should keep a 275mm tire in the back and find a wheel that works? Or go to a 245/45R16? I personally think 16 inch is the perfect size, although the 17 is ok with the high negative offset. All that said performance is my top priority, so if going down to 245 is going to be a noticable traction loss I'd rather not.

Edited by zboi
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I run ultra high performance all season tires, nothing too fancy. I do spin the tires when the boost kicks in, but only if I try. My turbo spools pretty gently, it's a cheap cast impeller one. I'd consider the traction very satisfactory as is, I always think how much better it grips than my old 78 Camaro did.

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Based on your driving style it sounds like you'll be fine with sticky 245s.

 

Fwiw I'm probably putting down half of what you are and on 225 r comps I can easily spin at speed if I don't roll into it when boost comes on so I've been eyeing 245 45 16. 

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What transmission are you tuning?  And again, what’s the intended application for the car?  Anything with hard power application (auto-x, drag) would benefit from the biggest tire you can fit.  (Road course usage could get away with smaller rears, and it’s nice having a square tire setup from a rotation perspective.)

 

If mainly street driving, the 245 may be perfectly fine.  There are lots of extreme performance tires at 200-30tw that give very nice, predictable performance.

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I have a TR6060, Ford 8.8 with 3.55 in the back and a Detroit trutrac. Realistically the car will be mostly street. I would like to track it though. I don't forsee being able to do tire rotations any time soon as I have the stock 4 lugs up front with AZC brakes, and 5 lugs in the rear. I've been wondering if this is a good time to just change all the wheels to something lighter too.

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Yeah, I can see having two different lug patterns would be a real pain.  There are a couple of easy swaps to convert the fronts to 5-lug…or just use some 4- to 5-lug adapter/spacers.

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I'm starting to lean towards doing 245/45R16 on all 4 corners. Now to see if I can get new spindles and rotor hats for the front and find a wheel with the right offset. 

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