I was a fool and had Nitto 555s installed with my new rims a while ago. I had 235-40-18s up front and 245-40-18s in the back. These tires suck - I have no body roll but you can tell around a turn that these tires can't handle worth crap. They fell mushy and unstable (the car doesn't hold in the turns like it did with my old 16s with Dunlop D40M2s and even have a strut-tower brace and front sway bar!! These tires aren't sticky at all and the car feels heavy. I was wondering if 225-40-18 S02s would help get my car get back to being a handling machine?

 

The guy to ask is SleepR1 in the Suspension/wheels/Tires/Brakes section

 

They defiantly will help.

 

well, the car fells heavy because it is now with the 18's and larger rubber. Unsprung weight is the bane and should try to avoid adding weight to the wheels if possible. I could tell a difference in my car when I went from stock rims and 245/45 rubber to Konig villians (17x8 front 235/40 and 17x9 rear 265/40). In my case, my stock rims weighed in at 40 lbs a piece, where the front konigs weighed 44 a piece and the rears weighed in at a fat 52 a piece. Almost 32 lbs more in unsprung and rotational weight. I couldn't feel it in acceleration, even though it does have some effect to it, since I'm making 330 to the wheels, but I could tell a big difference in braking. I've since switch to the 99 FD rims, which BTW, are 17x8 front with 235/40 rubber and they weigh 40 lbs a piece, same as my old stock rims, and 43 lbs a piece in the rear for the 17x8.5 with 255/40 rubber. Braking in MUCH better with the 99 spec rims in place. So if you're wanting performance, then the 18's will have to go and get some 17's or you'll need to decide what's more important to you, performance in a lighter rim, or looks in the 18 rims but lower performance in handling, braking, and acceleration.

Tim Benton

 

On a side note, I recently replaced my pads and the braking "feel" that I thought I had lost with the heavier wheels, wasn't as noticable as it was before with the old pads.

Tim Benton

 

Tim,

where did you get '99 rims from?

 

tim,
please give us some pics of your car. i wanna see the 99 rims! those are nice.