You can put that width tire on the rim, but according to the manufacturer of the tire that's just too big for a 8" rim.
It is very important with low profile tires that the tire width and the rim width are in agreement for the best wear and performance.

just my $.02

 

How aggressively do you drive it on the 275's? In my (somewhat limited) experience, going that wide on a narrow rim leads to handling problems (i.e. less grip than the 245's). If Mountain Pirate and g35rcr could post photos of their car with their choice of tires, I'd appreciate it. I don't want to change the appearance too much.

Also, are we all positive that the stock is 8 inches wide?

Thanks all,
Mike

 

The stock 4.5-6mt 18" rim is 8" wide (I measured it with the tire off) same size rims front and back.

I'll get a couple pics of my coupe with the new balonies on it tonight..I think it looks much more agressive than with the stock pilot sports...and now has quite a bit less understeer than factory. My goal in this tire purchase was to explore the limits of handling with the stock rims and street tires.
IMHO the sizes I have on the car now should have been the size from the factory.

And I do drive rather briskly..all mountian roads.

 

+1 - Anyone running anything wider on the stock 8" rims is just plain silly, not to mention fool hardy. It's not recommended by any tire manufacturer. There is considerable tire buldge, and it's just plain not safe. If anything does happen, and you survive, you have no warranty, because you did not heed the manufacturer's recommendations. I'm also suprised a tire shop would mount wide tires on a narrow rim, they have liability here.

Any way - My Point - Not a Good Idea.

BTW, I agree the car looks and handles great with the 245/275 combo, but you need wheels wide enough to handle them. JMO though!

Lou

 

Would you say the BFG-KDW2's are MORE noisy or LESS noisy than the stock Pilot Sports? I would prefer a quiet tire.

What do you think of Dunlop Sport Max? Dunlop has always been a personal favorite, but they're only available in 245/45, not 255/45. They're also on sale now for an incredible $129 each. Suppose I put 245/45 Dunlop Sport max on the rear now... If I later put 245/40 (some other brand) on the front, is that a bad combination? I would not want oversteer. I really don't like the skinny look of the stock 225/45 in the front, and 235/45 isn't available.

 

I know nothing more than what tire rack tells me on the Dunlops. ( I did like them on my motorcycle)

The BFG's are quiter than the stock pilot sports..as for your other tire size question I'm not sure without doing some research on the tire rack site...If you have VDC on your car then I would suggest not changing the tire diameter from stock no more than 3% tops, smaller or larger.
Keep in mind that the profile size is a function of the tire width. i.e /40 are 40% tread width.

 

How many miles do you have on th BFG's? That's quite a tread pattern!

 

[QUOTE=r6chiro]I am running the 275/40/18 ZR Nitto 555 extremes on rear
If I could do over, I would go down one size to 265 for a bit less sidewall sway.


Looking at your pics I would be uncomfortable with that much bulge in the sidewall...It's obvious that the tires are too wide for the rims...That kind of sway would make for a squirllier transition in the twisties..I know this from experiance as I have had a road race setup camaro for 20+ years and have tried all kinds of fat tire combos on 8" rims...


And as for my driving habits. Brisk may be an understatement..I do know how the car slides at speed..Believe me the combo I have now is so close to neutral it's unbelievable!.

again just my $.02

 

r6chiro, I agree, it looks great, and what you say sounds great, but I fear (for my life) mounting that tire when the manufacturer calls for a 9 inch rim. I drive like a lunatic on twisty country/mountain roads and don't want any suprises.

 

About 1200 miles on the BFG's...90+% in the twisties, as where I live there are no straight roads...San Bernardino mountians , Rim of the world!

 

Where do you guys find the info that says you cannot put a 275 on our rims. I wanna take it to a Discount tire and show them cuz they say a 275 works fine within spec. And they showed me on the computer when I brought it up today.

I am sure nothing is gonna happen after what I put the car thru this weekend. It would be nice to show him official info that says your warranty will be voided etc. if you go to a 275. R U all just getting the info from b/s sources or is there something I can show them and get them to replace my tires.

 

This official enough for you!

http://dunloptires.com/dunlop/displa...ea=Performance

All the manufacturer's have the same width range. Discount Tire is my tire source, and I can't imagine them saying that.

Lou

 

Tirerack has specs that come from the manufacturer (at least thats what they say). It looks legit. I don't think anything would motivate them to be stricter than the manufacturer - they'd only lose sales doing that.

Honestly, if I drove on a set of 275/40s and really put them to a brutal test and didn't have any problems, I'd be ok with keeping them. Thing is, after past experiences, I am not willing to have them shipped to me, mounted, etc, then if I find out I can't live with them, have to undo everything, incur all the costs, have the rims get all scraped up in the process of all this mounting/unmounting.

Plus I wonder if tire rack will even honor their money back guarantee if you selected tires that are inappropriate according to specs. I wouldn't expect them to.

I doubt the manufacturer could really tell if the tire is not on an approved rim size.

 

Mine are Nitto 555 extremes not Dunlops and in the computer Discount Tire associates use, it lists the tires I have as within spec so I need something better. I did a search on the site here and Lou you are the only one preaching against them in all the posts. I'm not against you, I just need a better lit source to covince them. I don't think it matters at all for a daily driver or even a mild racer, but I want to drop down in size because I can tell it handles with more tire give/sway at high speed cornering and need concrete info to take them to get them to change mine out. They also told me most of the Porsche rally racers they supply in a local club do the same thing and go 3 sizes up for a better contact area and better bite. I don't agree with it but I'm no expert.

 

If you're gonna be doing alot of mountain driving then i wouldnt suggest going wider than what the tire manufacturer recommends, like a couple of you were saying there is quite a bit more flex in the sidewall because of the bulging, That 275 is going to perform worse than a 245 because it isnt flexing, doesnt matter how much more contact patch you have. If you're drag racing then throw some 285-35-18's on the stockers and you can run em at the track all day because that's all about grip. Discount will tell you anything to get you to buy tires, i know, i used to work there and i now work at firestone.
-GP-