F-Body Europe

As my current tires won't last past the end of this year, I was thinking about upgrading from 16x8 245/50R16 to 17x9(.5) 275/40R17 rims and tires.

Now, what are the advantages and disadvantages? I was thinking the following:

Pro change:
- look better (absolutely not important to me)
- enough space for optional brake upgrade in the future
- wider tires (275 instead of 245) mean more grip in the corners... really?

Contra change:
- tires more expensive
- need to buy/spend money for the 17" rims, where to buy them?
- change in acceleration and top speed... really?

Please tell me what you think, thanks!

Ben

if you get some over weight "bling bling" triple crome plated wheels they could make the car feel a little more sluggish both accelerating and braking, but if you stick to a good quality performance wheel, you'll be fine and I've never really liked the chrome look anyways. In the states CCW (http://www.ccwheel.com) has a great reputation for track wheels for both quality and service, and since they are a 3 piece wheel, you could replace the outer rim fairly cheaply if you needed to. Kodiaks are a little lighter, but there have been a lot of complaints about their service and quality from the corvette T1 and WC teams. And if you realy want to get crazy, you can get a set of Carbon fiber wheels that weigh about 8lbs each for something like $4K per wheel. Unfortuantly, I wouldn't even know where to start with european wheels.

Concerning the width of the wheels, T1 cars have the option of running either 275s or 315s. On the faster tracks, they run the 275s for less drag and on the slower, tighter tracks they run the 315s for the extra grip, but back in the real world, I went from 245 to 265 the extra traction has been great for turning. I haven't tried for top speed with these tires, but my finely tuned butt-o-meter can't feel any difference in the aerodynamics of the car and my next set will be 275s for the front to try to dial out some of the understeer.

The other advantage to 17s is that you will get a slightly better turn in response because of the smaller sidewall which is nice

Thanks for your comments.
Any other opinions?

Ben

Some more drawbacks
more unsprung weight
more sensiteve to tramming on rutted roads.
A definite alignment necescessary especially if at stock settings or you will wear the outside edges right off the tires.
oddball size in Europe.
depending on rim offset and tire manufacturer ,it may rub
suck in inclimate weather
steering may be harder to turn

other than that the camaro canuse the extra tread width for all that nose heavy weight.

Thanks, Roy.


But I guess that's not the case with e.g. the OEM SS rims, cause the (your) SS came from the factory with 275s, right?

Ben

That is correct

I can only talk about improvements when upgrading my 16x8 & 245/50ZR16 to 17x9,5 & 275/40ZR17, even tho I had to roll in the edges of rear fenders coz my car was so low. If you find a set of 17" SS you won't do anything wrong by taking em

You had to roll your fenders when putting 17" 275's on your car?? Something is NOT right if you had to do that, even if your car IS that low. I just installed 18x11's on the back of mine and didn't have to roll the fenders because I went with 295's as opposed to 315's.

Yeah, not that I really had to, I just wanted to be sure no tire is gonna explode somehow, plus my wheels were having a deep dish

Hi,

I changed from the stock 16" 215s to 17" 245s. They look great, but the handling of the car is not as good as it used to be:

I can sence a certain nervousness on uneven roads, the car tends to stear by itself into worn out lanes. Also the ride has become harder - I guess tires with a higher rubber section are softer and absorb certain shocks.

When I put the winter tires on the car, which are 16" 215s again, the car drove much better than with the summer tires! Just that it doesn´t look so nice anymore. But what do I care: I do not see the tires from the inside.