[NAC] wide wheels with rather narrow tires

[Peter Berrevoets]

My preferred way of getting a car to handle better. Stock wheel and tire
combo's give a compromise biased towards comfort and ride over handling and
performance.

Wider tires on stock wheels are the american ;-)(nomex on!) way to go for
improved performance when actually the cars handle better with narrower
tires. My 200TQ with stock 205/60 15s had far too much (IMO) sidewall roll
when cornering. Dropping to 195/60 15s maintained relative speedo accuracy
and produced effectively stiffer sidewalls with a crisper handling feel and
more predictability in the corners. I did sacrifice some straight line ride
comfort but I certainly could care less!

IOW:   wider wheel + narrower tire = more roll stiffness (not of the
chassis, just the tires)

narrow wheel + wide tire = donut roll comfort with wallowing in the twisties

HTH

Peter Berrevoets
1990 200TQ
Toronto, Canada




> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: quattro-admin at audifans.com
> >[mailto:quattro-admin at audifans.com]On
> >Behalf Of BenediktRochow at oaktech.com
> >Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2001 5:07 PM
> >To: quattro at audifans.com
> >Cc: lindgre at online.no
> >Subject: [NAC] wide wheels with rather narrow tires
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>> This is the certainly desired bumper fitted to a B4
> >>> http://home.germany.net/100-504219/treffen/celle/07.jpg
> >(it looks too
> >big
> >>> with with rather small looking wheels I might add).
> >
> >>This is the same as the coupe/cab bumper, with a deeper
> >front spoiler. The
> >>"toilet-roll" wheels are THE trend in Germany on VW's, 8x14
> >or 9x14 wheels
> >on
> >>Golf 2's are not uncommon.
> >
> >What I've been wondering for years - what is the reason for wheels
> >as shown/described above, with low-profile tires where (as
> >somewhat visible
> >in the above photo) the sidewall angles inward drastically,
> >as the tread
> >is apparently a lot narrower than the wheel.
> >I saw that occasionally in Germany in the late 80s, and now on a lot
> >of 'tuned' cars in Europe, and very rarely also in the US.
> >Is there a point? Is this setup not a problem, e.g. when going
> >around a curve faster than walking speed?
> >
> >Another illustration, particularly visible at top
> >edge of rear tire:
> >http://www.motorscene.de/Opelgalerie/Stefan_s_Astra_/Untoucha
bleAstra03.JPG

??

-gbr