Racehead

Can I expect any worthwhile gains in traction on a road course by switching from my stock 275/40-17's to 285/40's ? I don't want to have to upgrade my wheels because
1) I like the looks of my stock wheels and
2) I want to use my money for better brakes ! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

I'm not worried about drag strip performance since I'm not really into that. I'm just wondering if a 285 is too big for my stock wheels to work properly or not ?

Thanks

<small>[ October 27, 2002, 08:14 PM: Message edited by: Racehead ]</small>

trackbird

iTrader: (4)

I would be concerned with the contact patch and "footprint" of the tire on a 9" rim. I just pulled the specs on one of the Michelin performance tires and they show a 275/40-17 and give a recommended rim width of 9-11" (which we are on the low side of already). For the 285/40-17 they recommend a rim width of 9.5-11". If you get too wide of a tire stuffed on to little rim (width) you can "bow" the tread surface and in some cases actually find yourself running mostly on the center of the tires. You may want to check out the tire tech articles on www.tirerack.com. Try this link:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...n/morecomp.htm

They recommend running the widest rim size recommended for each tire for competitive driving events. I hope this helps. I run autocrosses and am planning to run some open track days this spring (the car is almost done). Good luck.

Kevin

RTCamaroSS

I have a set of 285's on my car, with stock 99 SS wheels... I can honestly say that they look no different on the rims than the 275's, its only 10mm's we're talkin about here. I think if you need to replace your tires, then id go with 285's, my car handles a hell of a lot better now. But i cant attribute that all to the size of the tire, i went from 275 F1's to 285 Potenza RE730's, and i am very.. very happy.