Originally Posted by
Brutal Metal
I use a 255/45/17 on my stock 17X8 Cobra's, I tried 275's in the rear and it was a mistake, lateral handling was downright dangerous and there was a bulge on both sides of the rim...
And Hurst some brand 315's have a smaller width & contact patch and will fit on a 17X9 nicely..
A true 315 tire is designed for 10.5 - 12.5 inch wheels. A 275/40 tire will fit a 17x8 wheel better than a 315/35 tire will fit a 17x9. I dont know of any that will fit 'nicely' as you say.
Doing a 275/40 tire on a 17x8 wheel on the front is probably not very advisable. Though they do work nicely on the rear. I've done this with several brands. BFG's tend to run wider than Nitto's. A 275/40 BFG is almost at wide as a 315/35 Nitto. About an inch difference in the center section.
This is a 275/40 tire on a 17x9 wheel. Tires are Khumo Ecsta's.
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This is a 275/40 tire on a 17x8 wheel. Tires are Fuzion ZRi's (Slight bulge, work great on the back, excellent contact patch, but wouldnt recommend this on the front).
The fronts are 245/45 Fuzion ZRi tires.
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This is 245/45 on 17x8 wheels. Tires are Falkens,.. I forget the model. I just remember they were junk.
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These were 275/40 BFG DR's on the same 17x9 wheels that were on the white Cobra.
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This is a 295/35 tire on an 18x11 wheel. Tires were BFG KDW's. (Tire barely fit the rim)
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This is a 315/35 on a 17x10.5 wheel. Tires were Vredestein Sessanta's. (Great rain tire,.. shitty dry traction)
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What this guy is doing is taking a tire meant for a smaller wheel and making it work on a wider wheel. The complete opposite of what we're talking about right now. And personally a little worse IMO. I'd feel safer stuffing a larger tire on a smaller rim than the other way around. We do this all the time for drag racing. I mean 275/60 R15's stuffed on a Mustang 15x8 wheel,.. I have even seen them stuff on 15x7 10 hole wheels. They work great for the track. I wouldnt recommend it for hard cornering. The idea of having a tall soft sidewall to soften the launch for a drag car works great. But for cornering you want a stiffer lower profile tire. In either case you want as much of the tread to be in contact with the pavement as possible. The idea of using a smaller tire on a larger rim makes no sense to me from a performance perspective. The only reason I could see doing it would be for clearance. I can give a perfect example. My 93 GT has coil overs on the front. A 245 wide tire is the most I can use up front on this car with out the tire rubbing the spring of the coil over strut. With a stock suspension a 275/40 tire works perfectly fine up front. So I can understand if thats his reasoning behind it.
Hurst