Do keep in mind if you get larger diameter wheels and low profile tires, your wheel weight will probably be heavier, and that and related factors will mean a decrease in your car’s acceleration and/or gas mileage. Nothing makes a car more unwieldy than too-heavy or too-big wheels and tires.
Larger wheel, shorter, low profile tire, same overall diameter. He doesn’t want a larger diameter package.
But, yes, the 17’s will likely weigh more.
Again I say thank you very much
In the end the bank account won out
I ordered a slightly taller tire, same width, 2 lbs lighter, with good rain ratings
Michelin energy savers, 195-65- r15 T rated, all 4 for less than 500 delivered to my door
a 22% savings from MSRP
I just had to do the shopping, must be a strong female gene in me…LOL
I thought this thread was about having performance handling , I never would have put Michelin Energy Savers in that category. Good tires yes, but sports car type performance ?
You went up about 8/10’s an inch in diameter. Your speedometer and odometer will be off by about 3.3%. Effective gearing has also been changed a little bit as well. You also went down a speed rating vs. OEM. Basically you went in the complete opposite direction in terms of performance.
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In the end, it boiled down to this, needs, wants, and desires
The car does well enough on dry roads with the old, worn, hard rubber Cooper CS3 on dry roads
My want was to have something to brag about, my desire was to have the car look like no other
My need was a new set of tires I could trust would be a good long term investment, and be better than fair in the rain. In the end I’m sure any new tire would be a huge improvement, I have logged roughly 750,000 miles on Michelin tires with out any issues, It is what it is, soon I will know if the decision was good, bad or indifferent.
The increase in diameter was one of my goals, all to often I look for another gear when in 5th, even at city speeds. I was very interested in a 205-70r-15, taller yet with acceptable other dimensions.
Only the cost made the difference to the final choice.
Speed rating well mmmmmmmmmmm I rarely find an opportunity to drive over 100 mph.
When they build a car a 10% plus or minus accuracy in the speed meter is acceptable, according to my GPS the meter reads 4 mph faster than it is, in my opinion the tach should be reading lower at HWY speeds. I don’t believe the little 4 cylinder would suffer if a 2 inch taller tire were installed, it may suffer some at the start, clutch may suffer but all else would be good.
We will soon see!
More to it than that. H rated tires are often constructed differently (extra ply) than the T-rated version.
Handling can be different.
Not sure how tires and wheels would accomplish that .
You’d be very surprised. even a truck with a 5-6 liter V8 will be noticeably more slugglish if you went up two inches in tire diameter without regearing to compensate. On a four cylinder with less than half the torque, the difference would even more pronounced. Next time I need tires, I’m planning on getting a new set of wheels for my car. The rear tires are 275/40/R19’s on 19x9.5 inch wheels. I plan on dropping the car slightly (1 inch) with some lowering springs. The plan is to go to a 20x10 inch wheel all around (currently it has staggered wheels 255/40/R19 on 19x9 inch wheels in the front), tire selection is key, a 275/35/R20 will only be 1/10 of an inch in overall diameter smaller which is negligible. anything over 4/10ths of an inch is going to be noticeable, anything over a 1 inch change is large, and a two inch change in diameter is going to change the driving dynamics of the vehicle significantly.
The speed rating a manufacturer selects has more to do with top speed of a vehicle. A tire with a higher speed rating will generally have a softer compound that affords more grip, and is more likely to have a stiffer sidewall and/or more belts to stiffen the tire up. @CapriRacer can probably explain better than I can. But when you see the same model of tire with different speed ratings, those are typically why the speed rating differs despite the tires having different speed ratings. While it’s likely not a real safety issue for most people, going down a speed rating vs. OEM will change the way the car handles to some extent.
Thanks, FoDaddy, for the vote of confidence - and what he says is sort of, kind of correct.
But one thing a higher speed rating does is make the tire less prone to failure, because the tire has more capability. So even though one doesn’t drive over 100 mph, a 160 mph tire is less likely to fail than a 120 mph - all other things being equal.
OK then, seems the group has determined I made the wrong choice, I will soon find out.
Dropping one speed rating isn’t going to make your car unsafe, and you are unlikely to drive your Celica in a way that would exceed to capabilities of the tires. The last set of tires I bought were low rolling resistance (energy saver) tires. They handled well, were quiet, and had good performance whether the road was wet or not. They were also well priced. As long as your new tires do those things for you, they are good tires for you.
Yep! Back when I was playing with my CRX rather than having it sit and collect dust, I had a huge problem trying to find decent tires for the stock 14" wheels after awhile. Went to 15’s just so I could put good rubber on them and noticed a difference immediately.
And it gets worse the larger you start with - so 15 to 16 will hurt performance more than 14 to 15, all other things being equal (and this stinks, because my MR2 has 15’s and good tires are getting hard to find for it, so I’ll end up up-sizing again and being annoyed about it).
I roll around on 17’s on my daily now, but it’s also got 270hp and a whole lot more torque than the 4 cylinder stuff from Honda/Toyota. I definitely wouldn’t want wheels any bigger than they had to be on those cars.
I wouldn’t say it was the wrong choice. You worked your way thoughtfully from dreams to practical realities. You wanted new tires, a bit taller gearing effect, better dry and rain performance, no weight gain and that is what you will have with your new tires. The pushing the limits on corners and stopping on a dime - maybe not so realistic. We all make compromises when we carefully select tires.
Allow me to suggest that you visit
www.carbibles.com.
There’s a section that clarifies a great deal about tires and wheels that you might find interesting, and it’s written in real-people-speak rather than overloaded with technical jargon. You might find it very informative.
Well the deal is done, buying on line with no way to mount and balance the tires was the wrong way to go. Any savings I got was more than devoured when I paid for mounting and balancing .
Short test drive home proved that there was no lack of power/ torque to turn the tires, and the speed meter now reads with in a 1/2 MPH of the GPS a nice effect. Have not pushed them to any extreme but I am satisfied with the results thus far. In the end , I’m not disappointed with the choice!
Good to hear you are happy with the tires. On a couple occasions I have bought from tirerack, but first checked with a local shop who agreed to have the tires shipped to them, and do the mounting and balancing. At least once, the local shop could about match or better the overall price of buying on line, and I had them handle the whole biz.
I buy tires on line, but not to save money. I get the tires I want and get them mounted by someone I trust.
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