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Originally Posted by Blue_Forenza
I dont understand, increasing the size of the rubber makes the diameter bigger right? its the same when you put 17" rims, it increases the diameter right? so its better just to have the stock size rims and tires and just drop the car???? wont dropping the car ruin the tie rod, sispension bushing, etc?
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Bigger tires on the same rim will throw off the speedo/odo. It will take less turns for the wheel to travel the same distance on the road.
Bigger RIMS are usually offset with lower tires. And like Zipp says, the overall diameter stays the same. So nothing gets thrown off.
The benefit to more rim/less tire is a tighter grip on the road, due to smaller sidewalls. It also looks better (at least in most people's books...heh).
Dropping the car with shorter springs shouldn't harm the tie rods or bushings. Think about it like this. When you weigh your car down with people/stuff, it can very possibly drop 2 inches or more. The car is designed to do this already. So you're just making that drop permanent.
The worry here would be that when you weight it down again, it'll drop TOO far for the tie rods, bushings, etc. BUT, usually the lower springs are much stiffer to prevent that from happening.
Generally, you can drop the car up to 2 inches with good stiff springs and the rest of the suspension will be fine. Just make sure you don't wind up with tire rub.
I had thought of keeping the rims I have (again, I actually happen to like the mags that came with the car) and just go with a thicker tire. Screw the speedo, I'm fine with that. But I realized that if this is done, I will lose acceleration. It's like chaging to a higher gear on a 10-speed bike or the like.
Now, Dog had mentioned going smaller. This would increase acceleration. Either going down to 14" rims or using a lower profile tire on the 15's would do the trick. It's not a huge difference mind you, but every little bit helps, right?
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