so im getting down to the wear bars on my rears which are 245/40/17. my fronts are 215/45/17 but still have plenty of meat left. will getting 255's in the rear while keeping the fronts at 215 drastically change my handling? i figure the rear end will be more planted..

the rears im looking to pick up are the falken RT-615s. i know some people love them and some people hate them especially when they heat up. are they okay for spirited runs on freeway mergers and canyons?

-a

 

i believe thats gonna give you more push or understeer coming out of corners. i'm planning on going 225/245 when i can, although many go 225/255.

 

215/255 is CR size

 

i would have thought the same thing, but the chassis stiffness, suspension, and tires are all different, so it may be a different deal entirely. for instance, the contact patch of our stock RE050 215s is thinner than most 215s, but im not sure if that's true with the RE070s.

regardless, like you said, the rear will probably be more planted, and you'll probably tend more towards understeer. an alignment may be able to help, but i don't know enough to tell you how to adjust it. the racing/comp or another forum could probably give you better info on that.

and for my next set, i plan to go 225/255. that will reduce stagger and increase oversteer/decrease understeer, as the stock 215s are extra narrow for their size (closer to 205/245 with other tires).

 

Pushing the rear up to 255 will give you more grip in the rear, but as most have already said, this will cause the car to plow a little more. While safer, it's not as fun, haha. Whether or not it's a good idea to run 215/255 depends on your preference. I personally would go wider than 215 in the front for more turning capability.

As for the comment on CR tire sizes, the whole car is re-tuned, so a blanket statement that "because the CR has it, it's a good idea" can't really be made. You would have to replicate the car to get the same results on your non-CR S2000. Additionally, OEM's work directly with tire suppliers, so who knows, the construction of the RE070's on the CR might be different from an OTS RE070.

You'll probably have to experiment a little to get the car to behave the way you want it to. How does it feel now? Do you think the rear comes out too easily? If so, wider rear tires will be helpful.

Oh and another thing, the Falken's are still a great tire, but if you are able to spend a little, there are better street tires out there - RE01R's seem to be pretty popular with the Auto-X crowd at the moment. I personally wanna try out the Dunlop Direzza Star Spec's.