Tyre Stretching!!! PH strikes again.

[big dub]

I know there's been quite a bit of debate on a couple of forums on here lately about the 'Euro Look', whereby stretching tyres onto wider wheels. Being a huge VW fan, I've seen this on the scene for a while and have to say I like the look, although it depends on what car you do it and some people can take it to extremes.

Anyway, suffice to say I haven't posted on here for a while, but having just read a short article in Performance VW magazine, I was sufficiently pissed off to put fingers to keyboard.

Quoting the article:

'Unless you've been living under a rock the past few weeks, you will have no doubt seen the debates on some forums about tyre stretching. Step forward our Dave who, after seriously stretching a set of Marangoni tyres over his 9.5 and 11x18 TH Lines, offered them up to the car and took a few shots. After posting them up on www.wheel-wes.com, the pictures soon found their way onto Edition38, VW Vortex and Retro-Rides before finally hitting an already existing thread on Pistonheads regarding the 'Euro Look', and all within a matter of hours. And that's where things started to go wrong.
So offended were the users of Pistonheads by the images of his and other cars with stretched rubber, that a thread was started in Pistonheads very own 'Police, Plod and Law' forum.
Then some kind person took it upon themselves to bring the stretched tyre debate to the attention of the members of a genuine police forum. Quite who did this we do not know, but we can't help but think this is like being at school and being grassed up to the teacher.
Considering Pistonheads' moto is 'Speed Matters' and is populated by people who like nothing more than going for spirited B-road blasts and enjoying fast road driving in sports cars, it's good to know that massive hypocrisy is very much alive and well amongst its members. Pistonheads - Hypocrisy matters.'

I can only say that the narrow minded wr that posted onto a genuine police forum is hardly a true subsciber to the ethos of Pistonheads! Tyre stretching has been part of the VW scene for some time and while I can say that some people do take it to extremes and the 'usability' of the tyre looks in doubt, it's a harmless side of the VW (and other makes) modding scene and quite up to individual taste. So why some people have been quite so openly disgusted and negatively opinionated by it is a huge mystery to me. We are all entitled to our opinion, but when people post pics of their pride and joy on here, I don't think some people have to be quite so rude.

Anyway, that's my 2 penneth worth, which no doubt most people will disagree with, but quite frankly I don't care. I like a mild stretch on a VW, like the one below. Thanks for reading. Bring on the backlash! lol

[big dub]

Darkslider said:

Does anybody know where tyre stretching originated from? It's obvious it's just the latest euro bandwagon that dub owners in the UK are jumping onto because they lack the intelligence to have their own tastes and decisions. But I'd be quite interested to see where it first started.
Most pointless chav modifications, the huge wheels and exhausts, over the top bodykits and chopped springs and excessive lowering can be attributed to people mis-interpreting the modifications on racing cars. 'Hey, race cars have big exhausts, aerodynamic spoilers, wide wheels and lowered suspension so if I carry out all the above on my hatchback I can be just like them' However I fail to see where the idiots got their idea of stretched tyres from.

You're so off the mark as far as the Dub scene goes. I can see it with the Max Power brigade, but IMO, VW modders don't do the modifications to replicate racers, unless specifically trying to.

Personally I can't stand the Max Power type of cars or a lot of the PH cars, but I'm not going to come on here sgging them off. As far as the safety of the tyre stretching goes, have any actual tests been done? I've not seen any evidence against it.

Fine, you don't like tyre stretching, I say give it a rest now.

[big dub]

There is no law stipulating how far the rims stick out, only that the tread of the tyre is covered by the wheel arch.