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Originally Posted by Ron Earp In my opinion not necessarily....
If you can get enough footprint and "stickiness" with a 15" tire, and I think you can, then the 17" tire/wheel has some negative aspects, again IMHO:
*The 17" wheel combo has a higher unsprung weight in most cases.
*The 17" wheel combo, with most of them, has the effect of numerically lowering the gear ratio in comparison to a 15" wheel tire combo. Some might want that, but I don't want that since I built a higher revving engine to cope with the numerically high gearing.
It depends on what you are doing, but if you can do it with a 15" wheel then that is what I'd use. I can run up to 15" wheels on my Jensen Healey race car. But, I use 13" wheels and cram a 225/50-13 Hoosier tire on it which is MUCH lighter than the 15" wheel and tire, has a huge foot print, and keeps my little Lotus 4 pot on boil.
And then, there is the "it doesn't look right" on 17" wheels" argument that some certainly consider valid.
Ron |
Ron, agree with you that a 15 incher can be acceptable, even for track work, despite the higher side wall provided the width and suspension is tuned accordingly. The 17s ride pretty hard on the street in my experience and don't add a ton of grip in spite of the lower side wall and less deformation under lateral g's.
Obviously, the bummer with the 15 inchers is the lack of rear tire selection, particuarly with any kind of an appropriate speed rating (V or more) for a GT40....
And, I'm in the camp of the "doesn't look right with 17's"....