What is the advantage of increasing the wheel size?

 

increase in wheel size

wider tread lower profile tires more grip/traction
more ground coverage
less body roll

 

I'd have to disagree with the first one...I mean, just look at real life examples. Dragsters all use really small rims compared to the tires, and the tires are anything but low profile. Same with Formula 1 racing. The tires have a really large sidewall that offers a lot of flex, which would help on traction, since the whole tire can flex more instead of just breaking loose. Although I do agree that a WIDER tire will definitely provide more traction.

 

Increasing the rim size is only someone elses preference.

As for the sidewalls...Stiffer, lower sidewalls help more on our tiny little cars handle better but ride rougher. Dragsters do need tall sidewall with more flex so the tires will "wrinkle" to get traction. They also run way less tire pressure. Same with F1. They both have the HP to support it. If you even notice on their front tires, they are a lot smaller. On the other hand if you look at the BTCC they run 19" wheels on 35 Series tires. Slicks of course.

Anyways...wider is better...if you increase rim size you are not limited to a 35/40 series tires. Eveyone else does that so the rollling diameter is equavalent to stock and the less chance of rubbing. F1 and dragsters do not have fender wheels.

So the real benefits are better handling and definately looks better.

 

Thank you for clearing that up

 

Don't forget, this is SCIONlife.com, not NHRA...

 

Generally when you increase the wheel size the width of the wheel increases as well. Wider tires give you better grip for conering etc... Also the just look good!

 

heres the real deal.

Dragsters use a larger sidewill to use the tire wrinkle to their advantage, like posted above. When the tire wrinkles it not only makes the footprint of the tire larger (more grip) it also shrinks the radius of the tire from the axle to the ground. this in effect makes the tire "smaller" and with a smaller tire, it makes for greater acceleration. the dragster also plays off the flex of the tire towards the end of the strip, if you watch, you can see the tire grow muck larger in diameter. with a larger tire, it makes the final ratio from the engine to the tire much larger.

As for F1, the reason they limit the wheel size to 15" so the race teams cant use larger brakes, and with the small wheel it also limits the amount of air that can get it to cool the brakes, making the racing tougher and more competitive. They combat the tremendous sidewall flex by highly strengthening. If you look, its hard to see any sidewall flex, even with all those g's in the turns.

I guess the moral of the story is that pick a tire thats right for you, if you are draging then use a large sidewall tire with lots of flex. if you are into autocrossing or road racing, it really dosent matter, you can achive less sidewall flex both ways. First by using a small tire profile, and second you COULD use a 15in rim and use tires with minimal flex, but (to my knowledge) there arent commercially available tires to match the rigidity of a low profile tire.

i hope that helped a bit.

-ricci

 

Two main reason, "The Look" or "Performance" bigger wheels will, in many cases improve the looks of your vehicle and also come in wider widths allowing for wider tires which increase the contact patch and therefore the dry traction in the following three areas: Acceleration, Braking, and Cornering.

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Yeah, I'm going to say about 99% of the time it is for looks. Now there are additional benefits or handling & stuff, but mainly looks.

 

One of my issues of MotorTrend covers this very issue. It states that wheel/tire size is taken into account during the design of the vehicle and that by tampering you can very much alter performance for the worse.
Larger, heavier wheels can slow accelleration and increase breaking distances.

It said that if you are careful, you can maintain or increase performance slightly, but mostly, large wheels and tires are for sho.

I still want 17's!!!