OK, I've got some peculiar rules I have to work around in my wheel/tire upgrade dreams. I'm hoping to play in SCCA's H-Stock class of autoX, and that really limits any changes I can make from stock - go fig. In a nutshell, no lowering springs at all, and I've got to run wheels that are the same size as stock, 15x6, and not more than +/- 1/4" difference in offset. So, I'm pretty much locked in to wheels with between 48.65mm and 61.35mm offset. I've found some that are +50mm, and I'm going to run with those until I can afford something lighter/cheaper/better.

Now comes the fun part. Tires are essentially unrestricted in H-Stock, so I can run full slicks if I want to, and the really serious folks do just that. Plus, they can be as wide as you can fit on the wheel. Since I can't justify a dedicated set of race slicks right now (kiddo #2 arriving in May, so not much race time for the next couple years), I'm thinking about using a street tire instead, and having those as my summer wheels/tires and keeping the stock wheels and A/S tires for winter use.

I'm looking at 225/50's or 225/45's to do this job. These look like they're probably the widest section tires that will semi-comfortably tuck up under the fenders/quarters, and aren't TOO badly pinched on the skinny 6" wheel.

What are the widest tires the rest of y'all are running with some success? I can't really tolerate much rubbing, since trimming panels or rolling fenders is illegal under the Stock rules. I have tried a 225/50 on this wheel front and rear, and it really seems to fit pretty well, with just a little bit or rubbing under hard turns (photos to be posted when I get them uploaded to my web pages). Any other experiences would be greatly appereciated, though.

 

225 is the widest tires I have heard of people running, I think 45 is the lowest profile you can get in this size... a quick look shows that tirerack has this size only for competition tires.

 

I just ran a Solo event with Kuhmo 225x50 tire mounted on 50mm offset 15x5 inch wheels. I didn't have any rubbing issues but it maybe because I used a staggered setup with 205x50 tires on the back.

 

Yeah, the selection in the 45 series is pretty slim, but Edgeracing.com has the Hankook R-S2 and Toyo RA-1 in that size as well, so there are at least a couple streetable tires in that size. If the 50's aren't too heavy, I'll probably go with those from a pothole-tolerance standpoint, but I need to check the height of the 45 wrt the stock tires. I don't really want to go shorter on any long-term basis.

Good to hear about your setup working at the autoX. Do you think the BE sway bar played a big part in that result? The fronts don't rub too bad at all, but the rear I tried was noisier for sure. Not sure if that means it's worse, or just louder.

 

225/50/15's on a 15x6in wheel. 45mm offset, lowered on T1R v1 springs.
Fit fine and looked mean.

 

Hey, MX6GY89,
I was hoping you'd chime in. I saw in some other thread that you had run 225/50's before, but the search fnx doesn't work on words with 3 letters or numbers so I couldn't find it again to see what wheels you used. You're pretty aggressive on the offset side, too, so I was curious to see what you used. Since my car won't be lowered and will have a little more offset on the wheels, I bet these will be OK for normal driving, and will probably just have a little rub on super hard cornering. I think I'll go ahead and swap my beater tires over for a test and see how they do for a week or two. Then when I find the right deal on the tires I want, I'll snag 'em.

As soon as my computer cooperates for an hour or two, I'll post some pics of what I found the other day.

 

I used GSR Fat5's. (AKA; Se's, Sunflowers)
As said above. 15x6in, 45mm offset. Tires were Kumho 711.






Man, those pics suck the fatty.

 

My take is that the profile on the diameter of the Kuhmo V710 225x50 on a 15x6 wheel isn't that much different than the 205x15 Kuhmo street tires I run on a 15x7 wheel. The stronger sway bar does keep things furmer when corning and hitting the bumps. This may account for less extrema reactions from the stock struts, and thus less chance of contacting body parts. Sorry, but that is the extend of my technical knowledge. I was worried before driving the car in the autoX, but with a very spirited drive over a long, fast course, I was very happy with the results.

 

We have 205/40x17 tires (23.5" OD same as 195/55x15's) on 17x7/42mm rims; 205/45x17 (24.25") rubs those funny little fasteners inside fender. If you back off to 50 mm offset wheels 225 may fit but watch out on clearance to shocks. Personally I think 225's are too wide for the Fit's McPherson type suspension. McPherson's aren't the best for keeping tire centerlines perpendicular to the road surface. Any deviation from perpendicular causes the contact surface to decrease and the wider the tread the worse the loss. In fact I'm not too sure about 205's we have til we test on track.Right now we expect 205/50x15 sticky tires are best. We'll see.

 

I'm still not able to upload any photos to my web site (computer issues on my side, not the site's), but there's a thin 1/4" to the rear shock and over a finger's width on all sides of the front strut with my 225/50, 6" wheel, 50mm offset combo. I was pretty impressed with the front fit, and surprised by the rear. I'll see how they do in a DD situation once I get a full set on the car for a bit.

 

Got my pics uploaded this morning! Rather than explaining a lot of crap, I'll let them speak for themselves with short captions...


Difference between the 195/55's and 225/50's. Height is about 0.4" taller on the 225.


Makes a little difference in the view from the rear vs. the stockers...


Doesn't seem out of proportion from the side, either.


Rear camber tucks in nice at the top, although I think it still rubs a little on the screw tab.


A thin 1/4" clear to the rear shock. Running 225/50's on OEM wheels might be an option with a thin spacer in back.


Puts some meat on the ground up front...


...and fills out the wheel openings nicely, too.

So there you go, a visual for my experience so far.

HF

 

Got another pair of 225/50's mounted, so I'm testing a pair of the cruddy-but-wide directionals in the photos above, and a pair of Sumitomo HTR 50's. This is a good test for me, because the Sumi's are quite a bit less aggressive in the tread than the No-Name directionals, with much rounder shoulders than the No-Names. Since the worst rubbing was in the rear, I put the Sumi's on the back to start with.

After a short toss around drive, all I can say is that the rubbing in the rear is all but eliminated. It's only slightly evident on really hard corners with full throttle on pushing weight to the rear. No rubbing in front was noticed at all. Over all, I'd say this is going to be a great combination.

Also, FWIW, my TPMS system hasn't thrown a code yet. Even taking it down to fill up the tank, no code. I figured the sensors in the garage might still tell the computer all was well, but I expected to see things light up at the gas station. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a while, I guess.



HF