Forget about looks for a second and think about performance.

If I wanted to get the best gas mileage possible and best acceleration times as well (I know...this seems like an oxymoron), what would be the best tire/rim combination?

 

Leave them stock or get a light weight 16

 

Get the smallest and lightest wheel you can fit around your brakes.

 

As said above, as light as possible. Unfortunately performance tires are usually heavy unless they are shaved. The "17 rims on my WRX are very light at around 14 lbs.

The wheels on my I35 weigh like 55lb with tires. WRX wheel and tire is more like 35.

So my answer would be a set of these and some pzero corsa tires

http://www.koseijp.co.jp/engfl/n_p5_k1.htm
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....el=PZero+Corsa

 

we have a wheel/tire section for a reason....

 

I just posted my question there. i'll let your recommendation pays off.

 

Best acceleration and gas mileage?
1. Get a REALLY skinny rear wheels/tires with high pressure
2. For the front wheels, I think lightweight is the only thing that would benefit this without tradeoff in either.
3. Manual Transmission but that doesnt have to do with wheels tires

 

Hmm...that setup might be good for drifting, too.

 

Please tell me how you are going to drift a front wheel drive car... Say you were joking!

 

I was visualizing what REALLY skinny tires (as mentioned above) might be, and all I could imagine was a Max going full-bore around a turn with two temporary spare tires on the rear.

Sure you can drift a FWD car...just not the rear end.

 

thats called crashing

 

Anyone ever see the original 4th gen maxima commercial.. they drifted that thing. Use ebrake, since ur rears are small, they don't have much traction, shouldnt be hard.

 

heres one:
http://videos.streetfire.net/search/...4F8DB6E3BF.htm

 

Nohing like having your rear wheels locked in place to make for great traction. Looked like the last time I drove on snow!!!

 

See the video above.

 

Tire diameter will also have an effect on a vehicle's final drive ratio. As tire diameter changes, so will engine rpm at a given speed. We can demonstrate this with the simplified formula: rpm = (mph x final gear ratio x 336*) / tire diameter (*see "Formulas for Success" sidebar). For example, given 65 mph, a tire diameter of 30 inches, and a final gear ratio of 4.10, the engine speed will be approximately 2,984 rpm--(65 mph x 4.10 final gear ratio x 336) / 30-inch diameter tire. If we reduce the tire diameter to 25 inches, the engine speed increases to 3,581 rpm. By installing shorter tires, the vehicle will accelerate as though it has a 4.73 (higher numerically) gear without the expense of gear swapping.

From http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/te...148_0208_gear/

 

here's better
http://videos.streetfire.net/Player....56436&kw=6&p=2

 

Damn I just found this one in the maxima forums. Who says maxima's cant drift?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=J--JLhGYL5g

 

OK...can we get back on topic here, please?

From what I've read, the smaller the tire, the larger the final gear ratio, and the higher the RPM's for a given speed. A large final gear ratio would be good for acceleration, but poor for gas mileage.

Conversely, larger tires would yield a lower final ratio, fewer RPMs per MPH, and thereforee better gas mileage.

Am I correct?

 

yes... but ur greedy, u want both... however, larger tires will also give you a higher top speed

 

Yeah...sort of wanting to have a main squeeze whose not only drop-dead gorgeous, great in the kitchen and other rooms, but who is also smart and well-educated.

Yeah, the Dr. is greedy! Meet my other love in my other love...

 

I'm leaning to getting a set of 17" wheels/tires, so I have another question:

I found a tire diameter calculator on the Net (actually I found a few), that let's you compare up to 5 tire sets at a time.

From what I calculated the 225/45/17 are the closest match-- the stock 205/60/15 are 24.7" in diameter, while the 225/45/17 are 25" in diameter.

Now, I read somewhere that getting tires/wheels that had more than 5% difference in diameter was bad for the car's brkes, and possibly unsafe.

Have you (or anyone else) heard about this?

Also, what would be the largest 17" tire I could put on my 98 I30 assuming that I gedt the speedo recalibrated to match the change in gear ratios?

 

no stock is 205/65R15 the closest match is 215/55/R17 and no you dont have to recalibrate anything

 

You're right on the stock size, but way off on the 17" size. A 215/55/17 tire has a diameter of 26.31" compared to a diameter of 25.49" for the 205/65/15 stock size -- or a 3.12% difference. With those tires, you'd be doing 58mph when your speedo says 60mph. The closest match would be 235/45/17, which has a diameter of 25.32", or a 0.67% difference versus stock.

 

noodz plz....

 

N00dz or

 

Sry its 215/50R17, if speedo read 65 it is 64.92. id say thats pretty damn close I use discounttire's calc
http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTireMath.dos

 

haha but u are even worse off on speed, how does a larger diameter tire result in a lower real speed?

 

It doesn't. I meant to say that your speedo would read 58.1 mph when you are actually going 60mph.

My boss often drops in on me unexpectedly, and I have to rush through my posts.

BTW, here's my calculator:

http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp

 

Right. 215/50/17 is the closest.

 

If you plug in 215 60 R15 (i30t) itll be less than 215 50 R17. So I conclude you don't have to be that close and can go with the 235's if you want mroe rubber.

 

235's would work only if it is a 45 Series tire.