Low or hi profile's ?

yankfan101

Torque Junkie
Points
182
Location
Taplow
Car
1987 Range Rover
Why do people fit massive rims & low profiles or the other side of the coin, smaller rims & higher profiles.
 
1. Appearance and (if they're lucky) improved roadholding and handling. They should remember that car makers do know a thing or two about suspension design, of which rims and tyres are an inclusive part.

2. People as in car makers do this as it's generally cheaper than lower and wider alternatives. There have been plenty of great handling cars though on modest rims and tyres. Nissan's Primera was phenomenal on 185/65 14 steels - decent tyres of course, not budget ones. Peugeot's base model 405 (1987) was on 165 width on 14" rims. It set a new standard for midrange family car handling and ride. Not many modders take the route of smallers wheels.
 
I was thinking of keeping the rolling diameter notionally the same thus not changing overall gearing by more than about 1-2% either way.
 
First of all you cannot just transfer something from F1 top fuel cars to road cars (or to each other )
In F1 the sizes are determined by very strict regulations. In top fuel there is only one - grip.

The tyres run mostly on completely different surfaces SO the "performance required" In both means the compounds used bear little resemblance to road tyres which in tern means the tyres are equally different.
the wheels and tyres are also designed for the car. Cant see a mini with 17" tyres working too well.

back to roadcars - low profile tyres are perfonmance based - smaller wall less flex . As most cars are not set totally for handling lower profile tyres often can improve things. Of course the suspension set needs to be taken ito account.

I think that this is more relevant to older cars as current sports cars are pretty well sorted.
 
If the gearing's right then small means fast, look at F1 or top fuelers.

F1 uses 13" wheels because the rules say so. The diameter of the wheel has no influence on speed, that is dictated by tyre's diameter.

Top fuel dragsters use small wheels so that they can fit large, flexible walled, tyres. Again, the wheel diameter has no direct influence on speed.

 
I had a caddy servile , 76-77, near as damb it 425 hp, after id re-built the eng & inject sytem I couldn't figure out why it was bouncing & rollin' at the back end, the side walls of the Pirelli 6000's were not strong enough so I stuck on a set of Merc sprinter tyres, cured the prob but whited out all the time, very strong walls, lack of grip, great fun though.
 
I am always puzzled why Pirelli's P6000 is still available. It's an early 90's pattern. Pirelli itself has far better tyres available now.
 
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