Feel free to educate me on all the pros and cons of running a set up like this (same size front and back).

I've found limited threads on this and a few folks have done it w/out problems.

Anyone else have practical advice or warnings for this?

Thanks

 

not an expert, but basically the rear is easy to break on the car stock, so by getting equal size all around the front will stick better (if you increase size, the back sticks less if you decrease back size) and so the rear breaks even easier

 

I remember once asking, on a Prelude board, why FWD "performance" cars didn't have wider tires up front than the rears. I don't think I ever got a good answer except "well that would look ugly."

This is an interesting subject but I think if would be helpful if responders differentiated between 5/10ths driving and 10/10ths driving when responding to this topic. If you run the same size front and rear, does it make a difference at 5/10ths? What about 10/10ths?

If I had 215f and 245r, wouldn't 235f 245r be better for 5/10ths driving (better braking, for example, but at 5/10s I don't need to worry about the more extreme risk of uncontrolled oversteer?) but worse for 10/10ths driving (less able to control what part of the car is stepping out of line?)

 

It has to do with the way the car was engineered. If you have all wheels the same size, it would make the car handle edgey. I know we can't rotate tires now, but Honda knew what they were doing when they designed the S. Leave it OEM.

 

Like CyrusA said, the car is tail happy. If you make the front stick even more, it will become proportionally looser in the rear.

 

Ok, thanks guys. I seem to recall a thread where some folks have said that no handling loss occured from this setup. Can those who have this chime in on whether or not the rear breaks loose more than usual? The new wheels that I got are Konig Imagines 19" all around w/ Nitto NT555 Extreme tires. I'd think w/ more rubber all around this should help matters too no?

 

I currently own a spa yellow 02 s2k. I run 18x8's with nitto nt555 all around without any adverse side effects. I also run the car hard at times, while still keeping in mind the s2k's limitations. When it does break loose, it does so with a vengence............so be wary! Just like it takes a good education and experience to be good at our professions, so it does also with driving a car. Good luck and be safe!

 

one person's "running hard" is another person's commute speed. driving style's differ as do individual impressions of specific handling traits. oversteer and understeer are pretty easily described, but the exact amount of each is completely subjective. so i don't think that their are many "facts" to be had on the subject of equal sized tire/wheels combos. someone can run some skidpad tests or slalom tests but what about real world driving? you won't know until you "need" a specific amount of grip or stability or whatever.

speaking from my experience, a godd handling rear drive sports car has been tuned (brakes, suspension and tires/wheels) pretty well from the factory, and screwing with the any and all will produce results that cannot be easily forecasted. personally, i probably won't ever "upgrade" the factory wheels on a car ever again. it's a huge cost and produces little, if any, results. my opinion also will tell you that "upgrading the brakes on the S probably will cause you more grief than gains. suspension pieces are a whole different animal and are so complex in their relatationship that i don't belive in throwing parts together and hoping that they work out. although i have had luck upgrading the shocks (once worn out) on previous cars, but that it because i generally think that manufacturer's cheap out on that particular item and replacing with oem is very expensive.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by phoenix9999
I remember once asking, on a Prelude board, why FWD "performance" cars didn't have wider tires up front than the rears.

 

I'm no suspension/handling expert, but I think of it this way.

A tire has a certain limited amount of traction that can be used for acceleration, cornering and braking. If you use up 100% of the traction by any one or combination of two previously listed reasons, you start to skid.

Getting bigger tires increases your available traction, so increases the limits of your acceleration, cornering and braking, so less of a chance of exceeding the tire and skidding with the same driving style. Changing the ratio of tire widths change the available traction front vs. rear. The same sized tire all around will definitely increase the car's tendency to oversteer. You will only see oversteer and understeer when tires start to skid. (note traction diffferences also applies to using different brand/type of tire rear to back)

If you drive in a conservative way where you never skid the tires, having the same size doesn't matter. If you drive more aggressively where your at the tire traction limits, the car will be even more tail happy than before, so more "uncontrollable".

What people don't realize is that it is very easy to exceed the traction of tires, even at slow speeds. It is really the rate of change of braking, cornering or accelerating that use up traction, not absolute speed. (So that's why smooth is fast) That's why it is easy to be surprised when the road is wet, or if there is some oil on a dry road, etc. Stuff happens, and when it does the car is going to be behaving poorly with equal sized tires, even if you drive like a granny.