curious what the op ended up doing regarding tire choice. even more curious how a 195/55/15 ventus td soft ended up faster than a 225/45/15 rs3 on track.

 

Shall let some of you say "see I told you so"
Trial fitted 17" with 225/45/17, it looks physically impossible. Don't think the wheels can turn without raising it substantially. See front wheel pics here:

 

So you're sticking with 195/55/15 ventus td softs?

 

Time to pony up some $$$ and import tires

 

Well, found some dunlop d03g 205/50/15 at $160 or spend a lot of money to import yoko 050 225/50/15 at $320.
Will try and see.

 

I don't suggest the 225/50 Once again the size is larger than what you can comfortably fit under the car. You might be able to squeeze it in, but its a compromise over a 225/45

 

Well I'm not God, so it doesn't take an act of God. Lots of cutting and a little welding. 12" wheel.

 

Post pictures of your baller, shot-caller wheel and tire set up or I will have you banned for insubordination

 

I have run these exact tyres for half a race season and found them to be excellent. Dont count them out. I may not be quite as low as "suggested" but pretty close....

The 50 profile didn't rub for me much if at all (the sig picture shows these tyres fitted). The car handled amazingly well, very balanced with my setup.

I am trying to replicate the balance I had with that setup on my new 9" wheels and 225 nitto's...

P.S - I ran the Dunlop d03g 205/50/15 On a 7" wide rim BUT to also point out, a 6UL 9" rim and 225 tyre has proven to be apprx 2 secs a lap quicker, even with the car "balance" being out/not right.

 

50 profile isn't really expected to rub on a 205 tire...

 

Don't have any pics with those up front. The pic I attached is with the 23.5x11.5 bias, which is basically the same size as the 23.5x12 radial, on the rear. The radial is .3" shorter and has a .5" larger section width. In the pic on the front are a 22x10, which are .9" shorter and have a 1.8" narrower section width. When the 23.5x11s went on the front, the fender had to be trimmed more at the rear and the inner wheel well had to be "adjusted" more in the rear as well. They hang out pretty far and need some big flares to make it look good, but they do work. Too much tire for a depowered rack at autocross speeds, so power steering is going back on to see how that feels.

Sorry this is so off topic from the OP

 

205/50 is not the same height as 225/50.

 

I really don't understand why street tires are sized with one dimension relative to the other one. It seems like overall diameter would be a more intuitive and useful spec.

(And, for that matter, why they're spec'd with one dimension in inches and another in mm.)

--Ian

 

haha, not intending to be a smart ***, but...its the standard...

 

 

Your particular race tires are not the subject of his rant.

 

The non-DOT racing slick world agrees with you - they're all dimensioned as width/diameter instead of width/aspect ratio (except when they're dimensioned in all inches). A 205/50, 225/45, and 275/35 would be dimensioned 205/580, 225/580, and 275/580 respectively.

It's not like it's confusing or anything, come on guys

 

You know what the wonderful thing about standards is, right?

There's so many to choose from!

(old, old joke, from Grace Hopper I think).

But I haven't seen a standard stupider than the street tire sizing one since the ISO was still trying to convince people to use CLNP back in the early 90s...

--Ian

 

Yes I tried Dunlop D03G 205/15/50 H1 compound and Hankook Z221 195/55/15 C5 compound both on a 8" wheels.

I have also been on 195/50/15 Toyo R888 and 205/50/15 Federal Z201 and they have been outclassed by the Dunlop and Hankook.

I hope to try the Yokohama A050 one day but they are really pricey.

The dunlop does feels better and is consistently 1s faster than than the 195/55 Z221

 

This car ran 315/30R18 front and 335/30R18 rear at nationals in SSM both sizes are listed at 25.6” in diameter. I would really like to look close at their car. Every time I look at it I don’t see how you could allow the suspension to move or be able to turn without hitting chassis parts that are forbidden to be modified by class rules. It won SSML and finished 8th and 11th n SSM.