I recently purchased a 2004 S2000 the current tires on it are front: 225/45/17, rear: 245/40/17. The wheels are stock so my question is should I get the recommend 215/45/17 in the front that Honda calls for or should I just purchase the same size thats currently on? Thanks for the help.

 

225/45/17 up front and 255/40/17 rear

 

Can you please tell me why this would be a good set up, and if I do decide on this wouldn't I need to buy some wheels for the tires to fit?

 

IMO, no good reason to spend more money on bigger, heavier tires for street usage. If you are competing and hundredths of a second matter, yeah, 225 fronts with 255 rears makes sense. Options for stock AP2 wheels as I see 'em:
215/45-17 f, 245/40-17 rear (stock AP2 sizes)
215/45-17 f, 255/40-17 rear (stock AP2 CR sizes)
225/45-17 f, 255/40-17 rear (another alternative)

Not a fan of 225/45-17 f, 245/40-17 r combination. Big fronts/little rears look.

 

Throw the car in to some curves. Do you want more or less grip in the front and rear? Purchase sizes accordingly. The difference you are talking about is minor.

 

Oddly, these days, the 225/255 setup is usually cheaper than the 215/245

 

Gotcha thanks, and as this is not a track car I guess I can go with the stock size.
My one concern now is I'm a little confused how is it that my current stock wheels are able to fit these 225/45 set up that the previous owner did? When I buy the stock size will they fit? I know its a simple question and I'm fairly certain they will I just need to make sure.

 

Even if they are I'm of the belief that the engineers at Honda knew exactly how to size the tires. If I was to change other things that effect performance though I can see how changing the tires to compensate would go with that.

 

They will fit just fine. Wheels have a tire range that they can fit. Your 7.5" wheels could safely run anything from 205 to 245, with sizes in the middle being the most appropriate. Your rear wheels at 8.5" wide could probably do 215 to 265 with the middle of that range being ideal. You can go farther out of that range, but there are some real drawbacks at that point.

FYI, Honda knows how to size tires, but there is not one ideal. They sized the tires for a mix of sportiness, responsive handling, and some understeer safety margin. It is a compromise. It is perfectly fine to adjust the sizes based on your driving style and needs. That being said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with sticking with OEM sizes either.

 

Great thanks so much!

as Zdan said for the changing of the tire size, IMO unless the car is being tracked and every single millisecond counts then for a DD/weekend pleasure vehicle stressing about an already good thing is unnecessary.