So anyone have a pic or pics of a red blobeye with the gold 17" rims on ? Really do need to relace my 18" 40 profile tyres with something more compliant to englands road surfaces .

 

Best I can do mate, my old spec c

 

Yeah that'll do nicely , thank you sir . Now to find some .

 

You sure?? My 18s have always given a more compliant ride than any 17s i've had.

I'd try before you buy....

 

Not 100% sure no tbh , The car has lowering springs which stiffen up the ride considerably , also the previous owner fitted the wheels shortly before the sale of . No indication in the service history of any alignment having taken place so it could be down to either or a combination ?
What I am sure of however is my need to run a higher profile tyre on a 17" rim for my own sake , I have no confidence in such a low profile . One large pothole and its probably new alloys anyway .
The car is booked in for a check over soon , maybe another cause will be found ?

 

I don't doubt your experience, but that makes no sense unless you were using lower profile tyres on your 17s and/or your 17s were actually heavier than your 18s.

 

17's feel better for road use all day long, 18's have a lower side profile hence less give to the crap roads

 

[QUOTE=The Pink Ninja;11798647]17's feel better for road use all day long, 18's have a lower side profile hence less give to the crap roads[/QUOTE


Exactly my thoughts , its never going to be a track monster lol the nearest it will get is the car park at castle coombe probably , so in that respect 18" with a low profile are just a tad OTT . Looks good , but function over form for me (says he wth a mock scoop on t'roof ) , but it was the last owner honest .

 

Having gone from 17's with a 45 profile to 18's with a 40 profile I haven't really noticed a discernible difference in ride comfort, and the roads are **** where I live. My 17 s were killed by potholes, hence the change in wheels. No problems with them so far.

 

Hmmm ok , I don't understand the logic behind going to a lower profile if your 17" with a higher one were ruined ?
Having said that a variable of course is wheel construction / composition / strength weight / age and past use . Some wheels are inherently stronger than others , all I can say is you are a better man than I and wish you luck .

 

It wasn't what I was expecting, but it's what I got. Only way to get the really crash ride on 18s was to pump the tyres up to 36psi.

I upgraded both my RB5 and my 2006 sti with same results, a more resilient ride.

 

Yeah stronger wheels, but the profile of the tyre isn't massively smaller as the /40 is a percentage of the width, so going up to 225 width the side wall is 40% of this as opposed to 45% of 215.

The rolling radius isn't quite the same, but the speedo reading is now near enough spot on with the sat nav and used to read about 5mph over with the 17" wheels.

 

Well it would seem I might have been a tad hasty blaming the low profile tyres (whoops) , after a check over Sat morning some play was found in the n/s steering arm . Once replaced I will be in a better position to make a more informed judgement , so for now the change down to 17" is on hold , thanks to Len from S4U .