alloy/mag wheels and narrow whitewalls - anyone?

baron · Mar 19, 2008

is anyone running narrow whitewalls and alloy/mag wheels?

I plan to ditch to stock wheels and get some nice alloys eventually, but I don't want to lose speed and mess up the speedo with low profile tyres

I'm thinking that narrow whitewalls (that i run at the moment) must do something to make your tyres look lower profile than they actually are, but pictoral evidence would be cool

thanking you

Clem · Mar 19, 2008

The key is to get the appropraite tyres to match the rolling radius, they are only 'low profile' as a 15" tyre as a 14 " tyre is at full profile.

Im fitting 195/70 x 15's on the rear of mine which pretty much match the stock rolling radius of a 185x14, so no gear ratio adjustment is made.

IMO I think whitebanded tyres on alloys would detract from the wheel detail and look overfussy.

Araon · Mar 19, 2008

Try this

http://www.tyresave.co.uk/tyresize.html

baron · Mar 20, 2008

eh?

I'm clearly missing something here

I know i could fit tyres to match the profile of the current tyres (and thus the rolling radius) but what I'm saying is will regular profile tyes with whitewalls look better than just plain tyres?

or is there usually a difference in wheel size that needs to be taken account of?

either way i definately don't want to end up with a narrower rolling radius which slows me down

I'm confused!

HuntingtonBeachSurfBus · Mar 20, 2008

This might confuse you more Baron, i fitted 185/55 to the front and 195/60 to the rear today on stock 14 inch rims. i was previously on white walls which were 195/75 all round. According to Tom Tom sat nav at 70 on the speedo i was doing 65( according to nasa and george bush) :lol:

Today at 70 i was actually doing 56 with the low profiles and at 30 it was only 24, so the tyre choice has made a massive difference and i'm going to have to put some stickers on the speedo to remind me.