Wheel sizes getting silly?
Discussion
This is a little annoyance I find wit modern cars - the ever increasing size of alloys along with vast tyres on rubber band profiles. German metal is the most "guilty" and this months Evo has a great little rant from Harry Metcalfe about how BMW engineers are slaves to the designers - weight, comfort, etc just does not seem to matter.
So anyone with me on this one?
I have a 335d - perfectly decent, nippy estate car. But I spent ages looking for one on 17s (the smallest you can have to fit the brakes) because 18s and even more so 19s just kill the ride, weigh a massive amount more (my 17s on non RFT tyres aren't that lightweight yet weigh nearly 10kgs per wheel/tyre LESS than average 19s on RFTs!!), are much more fragile, the tyres are comedy money and limited in choice, etc, etc.
The current F10 5 series has arches so vast that even 19s look fairly dinky. Audis are the same. Merc seem to resist them more for some reason.
A few hot hatches are being made with 19s as standard too!
Will this trend ever stop and where did it come from?!
It's certainly not motor racing - look at rally wheels, F1, Lemans, etc. It doesn't seem to make any sense apart from simply being fashionable.
Answers on a postcard.
So anyone with me on this one?
I have a 335d - perfectly decent, nippy estate car. But I spent ages looking for one on 17s (the smallest you can have to fit the brakes) because 18s and even more so 19s just kill the ride, weigh a massive amount more (my 17s on non RFT tyres aren't that lightweight yet weigh nearly 10kgs per wheel/tyre LESS than average 19s on RFTs!!), are much more fragile, the tyres are comedy money and limited in choice, etc, etc.
The current F10 5 series has arches so vast that even 19s look fairly dinky. Audis are the same. Merc seem to resist them more for some reason.
A few hot hatches are being made with 19s as standard too!
Will this trend ever stop and where did it come from?!
It's certainly not motor racing - look at rally wheels, F1, Lemans, etc. It doesn't seem to make any sense apart from simply being fashionable.
Answers on a postcard.
Edited by Vladimir on Tuesday 26th April 15:40
Couldn't agree more. Just bought a Mercedes and the two "must haves" for me were heated seats and 16 inch wheels (they fit 16's, 17's, 18's and I think 19's).
It's not just the ride comfort (and it's plenty harsh enough with 16's, I dread to think what 18's would be like), the other issue with big wheels and wide low profile tyres is road noise. I borrowed an Audi A6 1.9 TDi oncefor a long trip, perfect comfy barge. Or it would have been if it hadn't been pointlessly equipped with 18inch wheels. Terrible blimmin road noise ruined the car!
It's not just the ride comfort (and it's plenty harsh enough with 16's, I dread to think what 18's would be like), the other issue with big wheels and wide low profile tyres is road noise. I borrowed an Audi A6 1.9 TDi oncefor a long trip, perfect comfy barge. Or it would have been if it hadn't been pointlessly equipped with 18inch wheels. Terrible blimmin road noise ruined the car!
Leaning over the fence at Castle Combe yesterday I noticed that the tyre barrier was made up of loads and loads of 195/55 R16 tyres. If I remember correctly, they were the "sporty" tyre quite a few years ago and fitted to fairly high-end cars like the Golf GTI 16v etc, because of their low profile and size....
Oh how times have changed. Most boggo hatches wouldnt dare to fit something like this now. Cast aside to act as a tyre barrier to racing cars...
Oh how times have changed. Most boggo hatches wouldnt dare to fit something like this now. Cast aside to act as a tyre barrier to racing cars...
hardly sporty though!
DTM cars/ touring cars have mostly used large diameter wheels and low profile tyres for many a year.
For any road biased it is sometimes necessity but more often vanity. My father in law bought a new Insignia last year and it came on 18" as standard, the car can be specced with 20". Even on 18" replacement premium rubber is £160 a corner and the ride isn't exactly great.
All looks great in my opinion but for cost/comfort/ practicality on s
te roads I'll stick with my 195/50R15s
For any road biased it is sometimes necessity but more often vanity. My father in law bought a new Insignia last year and it came on 18" as standard, the car can be specced with 20". Even on 18" replacement premium rubber is £160 a corner and the ride isn't exactly great.
All looks great in my opinion but for cost/comfort/ practicality on s
te roads I'll stick with my 195/50R15s
v8will said:
DTM cars/ touring cars have mostly used large diameter wheels and low profile tyres for many a year.
This was for four reasons:a/ Wheel width is limited in saloon racing formula, so the biggest possible diameter wheel/tyre is used to maximise the rubber footprint avaialable
b/ Stopping a ~1300kg car from race speeds over a race distance creates enormous amounts of heat. Large brakes are needed to get rid of this, which only fit under big wheels.
c/ Their suspension is extremely limited in travel, partly to avoid unwanted geo changes, partly because there's not much room under the arches, partly because ride quality and compliance are not needed in race cars. So the extra unsprung weight of big wheels doesn't really matter, and anyway Mag alloy wheels and race rubber are lighter that road equipment
d/ They look well wicked innit*
Only one of these is a factor in the current fashion for large wheels on road cars. As evidenced by the recent piece of John Watson's old 911, all the driving engagement you could ever want on 15" wheels.
SS7
*I might have made that up
I've been saying this for ages.
My "hardcore" ITR runs 15" wheels with 55-profile rubber, and as a result rides better than most modern hot-hatches. It also has the lightest wheel/tyre combo of any of our cars - the 18"s on the "everyday" Golf GTi being the heaviest...and the hardest to put on/off because VW use bolts rather than Honda's studs and nuts.
Even the 16" steels with winter tyres are lighter than the 18"s - so much for 'lightweight alloys'...
It's not like modern cars even need the grip - any 90s warm-hatch or hot-hatch had enough grip to enable you to travel faster than safe down a country road, while the modern stuff (Golf V GTi, Focus ST, MeganeSport etc.) is actually rather boring until you're doing insane speeds...because you can't get the cars 'up on their toes' that easily...
My "hardcore" ITR runs 15" wheels with 55-profile rubber, and as a result rides better than most modern hot-hatches. It also has the lightest wheel/tyre combo of any of our cars - the 18"s on the "everyday" Golf GTi being the heaviest...and the hardest to put on/off because VW use bolts rather than Honda's studs and nuts.
Even the 16" steels with winter tyres are lighter than the 18"s - so much for 'lightweight alloys'...
It's not like modern cars even need the grip - any 90s warm-hatch or hot-hatch had enough grip to enable you to travel faster than safe down a country road, while the modern stuff (Golf V GTi, Focus ST, MeganeSport etc.) is actually rather boring until you're doing insane speeds...because you can't get the cars 'up on their toes' that easily...
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