New rim thoughts?

[Brett Dikeman]

At 4:36 PM -0800 3/1/03, David Thoresen wrote:

>Kind of a big purchase for me.. just making sure other people like
>them...

Why?  It's your car, not theirs :-)

Alright, now having said that, if this isn't simply for aesthetics:

Switching to 17" rims was the biggest mistake I ever made.  Stick to
15 or 16 at most.  If you don't have big brakes, you have few
technical reasons to swap to bigger rims.  They're more expensive,
the tires may be more expensive/harder to find/less choice, they're
heavier, usually more easily damaged due to reduced sidewall...

The money is better spent on a driver's ed school with the qclub.
You'll have a boatload of fun, and walk away a better driver to boot.
Or nicer tires, on reasonably sized rims; you can probably buy a
better 15" rim for the same amount of money as a not-so-great 17"
rim.  If you've got more money for tire, a good tire on a nice, 15"
rim will outperform a crappy tire on a 17" heavy rim any day of the
week.

BTW- if you go to a driver's ed school, don't get tires for the car
unless they're close to the wear limit, have damage/uneven wear, or
don't have a high enough speed rating(and "high enough" varies with
car and track.)  You'll learn a lot more with "okay" tires than you
will with something sticky.  The OK tires will also probably be
harder and hence last longer.  Similarly, don't worry about fancy
pads, brake lines, bushings, sway bars...as long as the pads and
rotors have plenty of meat on 'em and the brake fluid is fresh,
you'll be fine.

Brett
--
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"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
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