BoostRabbitGT
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...still working on this one.
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No and No, for comfort / noise you want the smallest wheel size and thus tyre with the biggest sidewall you can get, and get a 'touring' tyre not a UHP one. A narrower tyre would reduce noise as well and less likely to get tramlined.I'm currently debating whether to make this a "BoostRabbitGT has lots of questions about potential mods for a potential GT" thread or make separate threads for each of my questions.
While I'm still more than a year away from making any commitments to purchase/order a GT, I want to prepare as much as I can beforehand.
My first question is regarding tires and wheels. If I were to customize my GT, I'd like to make it a sleeper grand touring cruiser that can occasionally take spirited driving through twisty bits reasonably well. My questions then are as follows:
1. Do tire and wheel choice play an important role here for handling, or is that more on the suspension bits?
2. If I'm prioritizing comfort/noise over handling, should I be going for a larger diameter and/or a wider width tire? Currently I'm thinking of a square setup with 18" rims would be the way to go. 20" rims felt too harsh (but well-damped compared to a WRX) for me when test driving a GT, and I currently drive a '19 EcoBoost with OEM 19" rims (Black Accent Package), which feel better than the 20s but still ride fairly stiff (yet well-damped somehow).
3. Does anyone make a three spoke wheel nowadays? (Something like the SN95 rims, but modernized and painted white perhaps?)
(I'm new to modding in general, please be patient with me if you can!)No and No, for comfort / noise you want the smallest wheel size and thus tyre with the biggest sidewall you can get, and get a 'touring' tyre not a UHP one. A narrower tyre would reduce noise as well and less likely to get tramlined.
Tyres make up a lot of the compliance in the suspension and as for handling etc F1 stuck with 13" rims for as long as they could. The modern size is just not as good.
F1 used 13" wheels to limit brake performance as much as possible. It was part of the frequent performance limiting features in F1 to limit car speed and make them driveable by humans! The current larger wheels were introduced together with a complete change in the way the cars generate downforce so cannot be viewed in isolation. The 13" wheels are not better, they were worse!No and No, for comfort / noise you want the smallest wheel size and thus tyre with the biggest sidewall you can get, and get a 'touring' tyre not a UHP one. A narrower tyre would reduce noise as well and less likely to get tramlined.
Tyres make up a lot of the compliance in the suspension and as for handling etc F1 stuck with 13" rims for as long as they could. The modern size is just not as good.
F1 tyres still have massive sidewalls compared to modern road cars at 130mm and still bigger than my old subaru's 205/60R15's.F1 used 13" wheels to limit brake performance as much as possible. It was part of the frequent performance limiting features in F1 to limit car speed and make them driveable by humans! The current larger wheels were introduced together with a complete change in the way the cars generate downforce so cannot be viewed in isolation. The 13" wheels are not better, they were worse!
Tyres are an undamped spring and the deeper the sidewall the more spring there is, hence the reason high performance tyres are low profile. Ideally you want all the suspension movement carried out by the suspension not the tyre, which is OK on a track, but on the road it is too rough to be feasible.
Actually the sidewalls are 30 profile (ish) so much lower profile than your Subaru. Yes the sidewalls are a bit taller, but the tyres are 405/32R18, so profile wise they are very low. Your Subaru had 123mm sidewalls on tyres half the width.F1 tyres still have massive sidewalls compared to modern road cars at 130mm and still bigger than my old subaru's 205/60R15's.
F1 cars used to have 170mm sidewalls and run tyre pressures in the teens psi.
It's a "pick two" situation: comfort, handling, cost. If you option MagneRide dampers, you gain better handling and comfort. No tradeoff other than to your wallet. Same for performance tires like Michelin Pilot Sport 4S: they're quiet, comfortable, and have incredible traction.Does this mean then that you can't have quiet comfortable tires without sacrificing handling prowess
Yup, for sure. Without magnetic dampers, the performance package is so much more rigid that it affects ride comfort. The "stock" GT and the Dark Horse represent the two most comfortable setups in my opinion.And my brief test drive with the Performance Pack, it seemed noisier underneath the car than without it (loose dirt and gravel were more audible than desired).
As of today, I think I've finished test driving all the GTs I need to. Everything else I'd be looking at would be purely aesthetic. I think the main takeaways from my test drives are as follows:The "stock" GT and the Dark Horse represent the two most comfortable setups in my opinion.
Okay, I think I just realized that 265 or 275 is referring to the tire width, and 40 is referring to the tire diameter. I had them mixed up the entire time. Yikes......265 or 275/40R18. I could do 265 or 275/40R19 as well...
The 40 is sidewall height as % of width. So a 275/40 has a deeper sidewall (thus bigger OD) than a 265/40.Okay, I think I just realized that 265 or 275 is referring to the tire width, and 40 is referring to the tire diameter. I had them mixed up the entire time. Yikes...
On a related note, when I try to configure tire/wheel setups on Discount Tire/Tire Rack's websites, there are significantly less options available for the non-PP 19" wheels (I get more than plenty for the 18" wheels). Why is that, and should I be looking elsewhere for tire or wheel combination setups?