MADTIB

Right now I have 205 40 17's, and front/rear tie bars.I need to do more suspension mods but I started wondering if a wider tire and/or a little more sidewall height might help.Traditional thinking,from my understanding,has been to go with a larger wheel and use a low profile tire.Reason being,the less sidewall you have,the less the sidewall of the tire can bow under hard cornering.Well, today I drove my moms 00 VW Jetta,which has no mods what so ever.The factory wheel/tire size is 195 65 15 ( I think that's right ?) Anyway it pissed me off,cause I can throw that car around corners pretty fast and it's very responsive and grabs the road way better then my Tib.I know alot of it has to do with the way the car is engineered,but you have to also wonder about tire size.

If I went with say, 215 45 17, I wonder if the cornerability would be any better.Or maybe keep the 205 and go to a 45 or 50.I'm not sure exactly, so I was hoping some of you might know what I'm looking for.If any of you have ever driven a German car,you know what kind of cornering capability I'm looking for.

TIA!!

x7xstring

Yeah, but what tire pressure are you running?

I run 32/30 psi (205/40/17) and I can fly around corners with minimal tire squeal.

MADTIB

I generally keep them at 35psi.

The Tib has a very light weight feel.For me,it doesn't feel very smooth and responsive on most corners.Basically, I feel like I have to be careful otherwise the car isn't going to hold the corner very good.Unlike my moms Jetta,and even the Turbo New Beetle I used to have,where I feel much more confident about aggressivley entering/exiting tough corners.

Another thing I forgot to mention..............I seem to have a bit of a pull in the alignment to the left.I had my dads shop check it out and they didn't find anything significantly wrong with it.Just to double check,I'll probably take her to the Hyundai dealer and let them check.

But anywho, I want to try and keep this on topic.Let me know what ya'll think of different sidewall and widths.

tibwrcsbj

by "tie" bars.....do you mean strut tower bars?? or sway bars?? sway bars will make much more of a difference in cornering than strut tower bars....

the both do similar jobs :
strut tower bars "tie" the engine bay (frame side to side) toghether (reduces chassis flex)
sway bars "tie" the lower suspension together (reduces body roll)

also, Im running a non stock tire size on my stock wheels (dont know the size off the top of my head) but running slightly wider tires made a huge difference in not just cornering, but the ride overall. Im running toyo proxes. I'll try to remeber to get the tires size later today.

canadianshark74

what springs are you running?

I had 215/40/17's, they handled awesome, they could really grip the corners. I now have 205/45/R16's and I find that my car will corner just as good, but it is not as harsh of a ride.

MADTIB

Thanks for the replies,guys.

tibwrcsbj.....................Yes they are strut bars.In the Euro community,they refer to them just as tie bars.I know sway bars make a pretty big difference.Right now, I'm just curious about tire/wheel sizes.So wider tires do make a differance in cornering?

canadianshark74............................Right now the suspension is mostly stock,except for the front/rear strut bars and the 205 40 17's.Oh,and I am using Toyo Proxes.I was using Yokohama Parada Spec 2,which seemed to be better on both dry and wet roads,but they were pretty noisy.

I'm not sure what my wheel size is.Yeah,I know they're 17's,but X what I'm not sure.Can ya'll give me an idea of max tire widths for particular 17's.In other words, a 17 x 7 can handle a 205.A 17 x 7.5 can handle a 215.That sort of thing.

I'm not worried about comfort too much.I wnat to be able to swing corners with max confidence,and not have too loud of tire noise.I'm into my custom car audio stuff,ya know. 8)

canadianshark74

put a set of Eibach springs in your stocker struts, you will be able to corner better with less body roll, it is a huge improvement over the stocker springs. or if you want lower, go with B&G springs
On a 7" wide rim, you can put a 215/45 or 205/40. those are the 2 sizes that work well.
*just remember*: depending on the offset of your rims, you might have to "roll" the fenders with the 215 tire.

MADTIB

Cool,okay.

So the ride quality would be okay with Eibach springs on the factory dampers??

canadianshark74

thats what I had for a bout 1.5 years, after that the stocker struts were kinda dead. So I had a set of KYB GR2 struts installed. (kyb's are inexpensive and, are a little firmer than the stocker struts) The ride is really good now. It is firm, but not bouncy uncomfortable. and I can handle on-ramps just like its on rails.
check this thread too:
http://www.rdtiburon.com/index.php?name=Fo...t=25&highlight=

supry

What I would do is chaulk your tires around the sidewall, then go play in a parking lot somewhere and really push then to the limits, by seeing where the chaulk has rubbed of it will tell you how much sidewall flex you have. If the sidewall is flexxing to much, put more air in untill the flex just to the end of the tread. That tire size should be ok, and I wouldnt go any lower in sidewall than a 40 series, with anything smaller your risking ride quality and damage to your wheels. During daily driving I keep my tires around 35psi, for more comfort, but when I go autocrossing I push them up to as much as 48psi to reduce flex. Alot of tuning can be done just by changing your pressures, every car and every tire are different , hell, even the air temp will change how your tires perform.