I swapped from my coupe 19s back to my stock 17s this weekend and as with the past 3 or 4 times I've done it before, my car always feels faster. It feels like I got 10 or 20 hp back. While I love my 19s I'm thinking previous discussions about the moment of inertia is definitely true. My car just feels like it takes a little less time to gather itself up and go. In fact my handling overall is much more neutral. I did my coupe suspension swap at the same time I swapped back to my 19s and found the handling to be rather darty and sensitive to pavement undulations and irregularities. I suppose you could say it was more responsive but in my book if it takes more effort and concentration to drive all the time (even in a straight line), it's not necessarily an improvement. But all that went away with my 17s. Has anyone else noticed this with their 19s vs stock wheels? Is the difference less pronounced going back to stock 18s?

When I got my suspension realigned post drop, the tech told me that the staggered setup was not suited for the sedan's suspension setup. He seemed to have lots of knowledge about the car for some reason. He said he even tested the G with different tire widths and found the most entertaining drive to be on 225 tires. He said they didn't offer the most grip but felt most responsive, the most fun. I'm starting to think he's possibly right as the stock sizes seemed imminently more tossable but with lower limits. I wonder how my car would drive with max performance summer tires instead of crappy Turanzas. Maybe that's the magic combo. Anyone try this? Tires sure would be cheaper at 17".

What I don't know is how the coupe wheel's offset affects the handling. Would 4 equal sized 19s give me the same feeling as my 17s? I'd considered running four coupe front wheels to get rid of the staggered sizing. Or would simply getting four equal tires fix it? I guess a lot of you in Socal probably wouldn't know since most of you wouldn't ever go back to your stock wheels.

Please chime in with your experiences.

 

LOL @ this thread.

But yea, even if its the OEM rays, stock 17s will make u feel faster.And my 19s and 20s make me feel slower, but when It comes to lane changes at 100+ i cant see myself doing it with my 17s.

I think ima get rid of them and get me some coupe 18s...

 

science. you can't deny it.

while i love the look of my coupe rays, the car is definitely slower off the line and accelerating. i haven't really cared to compare fuel economy, but i bet it has suffered a little bit as well.

i'm not saying the differences are night-and-day, but it is noticeable.

i went to 225/50 for my 17's and i love it. more grip, but not too much additional drag from extra width.

OP - if you're in vancouver, why'd you already switch back to the 17's? that's sounds to be a bad omen. i'm not planning to for a month or so.

 

Your findings are valid. Though the coupe 19s are relatively light, 19" tires are somewhat heavy and more weight is further from the hub. Additionally, the tires are significantly wider and create more drag. The dartiness comes from the wider tire with stiffer sidewalls. It will tramline far worse. If you think it's bad in SOCAL, come to Kansas City where the temps are in the 40s and summer rubber becomes rock hard, creating even more dartiness. My G on 235/45R18 Pzeros almost feels unsafe when temps dip below 60. Traction sucks, the car is all over the place, and the tires get significantly louder.

The OEM 17s will offer a smoother ride, better acceleration, and lighter steering. As for handling, IMO, the coupe 19s with summer rated rubber will run circles around a G on all season OEM size 17s. My 18" setup is downright insane with the levels of grip it has. When I put my 17s back on, the car has no where the level of grip or confidence in the turns. Don't get me wrong, it still handles really really well, but there is huge difference.

From a looks standpoint, the 19s are the way to go. From a performance standpoint (acceleration, braking, handling), 18s with summer rubber is the way to go. You could make a really killer 17" setup with some 17X8 rims (coupe 6 spokes all around) and summer rubber, but most people would feel the setup is a bit too small.

 

Dave is right. And i feel the same way, but the 19s look nice.

 

I went from the 17" to 18" and I agree with Dave. Handling is much better.

 

im driving with 1 stock 17 painted black and 3 20" cuz i got a flat and while the car looks more sporty with 17"s from the side, god do i hate how skinny they are, i thought the offset of my 20" was bad, the 17" are so anti aggressive, theyre tucked in all the way inside the fander, when you look at it from the front you dont see the tire at all

 

My 19s are fairly darty, I thought maybe it was just the suspension geometry since I did the Z/G springs/shocks at the same time. Back on my 17s with Blizzaks now but it's hard to make a comparison. All that said, I would never again go smaller than 19s unless I were tracking, and then I'd go with 350z track wheels cuz they're light, strong, and still look great.

 

I had an opportunity to weigh my OEM sport 17's and my OEM coupe 19's (REARS) and found that with tires the coupe 19's weighed in at 4 lbs heavier. Both wheels were mounted with OEM Bridgestone rubber.

 

My coupe 19s w/ my sport pilots are LIGHTER than my oem 17s + Blizzaks up front and 1-2 lbs heavier in the rear.

When swapping from my winters to my coupe 19s w/ michelins, I noticed almost NO drop off in performance plus a big gain in handling.

I've discussed the weights / tires in great detail in my tire thread previously

Roughly, compared to the oem 19s/RE050s, I saved 2-3 lbs in the front and 6lbs out rear by swapping to lighter tires. And the the tire weight probably makes the most difference as it's weight it all on the outer diameter.

Not sure what that tech as talking about as the sedan shares the same suspension as the coupe and Z (both of which run staggered setups and handle quite well)

 

Just by heft my 19s with Falkens feel lighter than my OEM 17s with Blizz.

I don't buy the whole 'greater moment' thing with 19s, either; to me the wheel is lighter (mass per volume) than the rubber and there's more wheel and less rubber on the 19s, so...not sure why people are feeling 'slower'. I guess I'd need real world numbers to buy that. I think wind resistance and friction differences are negligible.

 

You can get the weights off of Falken's website. if you are running the 452s in a 255-35-19, those weigh 25.7 lbs each. The rear coupe 19s is about 21 lbs. So you have a total of 46.7lbs. I think the oem 17+blizzak or oem tire is about 43-45lbs or something.

 

My G is about .15 seconds and 1mph slower when running the my 18" combo (3lbs lighter than the OEM 17" combo) at the strip. Most of the difference in acceleration is in the 330' time. Put some coupe 19s on there and it will be even slower. I believe Wannabe made passes with his 19s and then 17s and he was about .3 and 2mph faster with the 17s.

 

I ran a 14.9 with my 19s and a 14.7 with my 17s. But there are other factors. I can spin the 17s a whole helluva lot easier than the 19s as well...

 

I agree, I don't know how one can really differentiate the 18/19" sized tire size to the slower times despite them being lighter than oem. I would think one would have to at least run the same tire in different diameters (with the same width) to get something decently accurate. Too many varibles IMHO.