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[Noize]

I am happy with the power of this car, but I am not very happy with the handling. One huge offender is the run flat tires, but they still have a lot of life left in them, so the upgrade to Kumho XS will have to wait until later.
Speaking of the Kumhos, its a right PITA to find tires that fit this car. The rear wheels are wider, and you have to mix sizes. The car runs 18s. 215/40s on a narrower wheel in the front, and 245/35s on a wider wheel in the rear. Overall height is nearly identical. Width obviously is not.
The front rims will not accomodate more than 225s, so I thought about getting a second set of rear wheels so I could run wider tires in the front and increase grip. Before wasting money buying them, I decided to test fit this theory.

Rears vs. fronts

Wheel bolts are ten thousand times cooler than studs and lug nuts.

Front tire wear is really nice in 5k. I wish my Evos would have worn predictably like this!

Swapped. Checked for contact, did not see any.
At this point, I decided to go for a little drive. I got less than six feet out of the garage and came right back in. There was rubbing.
I had to pull the wheel to see where the contact was. Check this out.

That cute little strip along the outside circumference is black paint from the strut. :stare2: Freaking idiot. Luckily, the damage was minimal since I drove a total of 12 feet. A miniscule spacer would cure, but I have abandoned the idea entirely, because they stick out too far.

Here's the paint rub off on the strut. A little black nail polish from the wife's makeup drawer cleaned that up in no time.
I took lemons and made lemonade out of this situation. I pulled and wheel waxed all four rims, because the OEM brakes dust like mad.


Finishing up.


Right after I took these pics, I also wheel waxed the calipers for good measure.
That's my story. When the runflats wear down, I'm going to get Kumho XS in 225/40 fronts + 245/35 rears, and hope I don't get any TPMS light for the slight difference in size.
At that point, I'll also get a more performance alignment. Together with much better tires, maybe that will help somewhat with the understeer issue.

[HighQ]

The only cheap solution to fix understeer is slightly wider tires and track at the front (spacer). It's a real shame that getting thicker sway-bars in the rear is such an expensive job.

[MastaMind]

I believe Mikeo is running Breyton Race GTS-R wheels 18x8.5 all around, so it can be done with spacers. Perhaps he can chime in with the specifics.

[fourtailpipes]

scroll down. there are numerous threads discussing the use of oem rear wheels in the front. you just need a spacer. i dont imagine your wheel ever even seated properly on the hub before you lowered the car and backed out of the garage. be careful with stuff like this!

[fourtailpipes]

Originally Posted by RollerBearing

The only cheap solution to fix understeer is slightly wider tires and track at the front (spacer). It's a real shame that getting thicker sway-bars in the rear is such an expensive job.

increasing the diameter of the rear swaybar will reduce understeer in many situations, but will also make the shortcomings of the "electronic diff" much more pronounced (larger rear swaybar will increase the potential differences in traction between the rear wheels). reduction of understeer would be better acheived with wider front tires and increased front camber. unfortunately both of those things are tricky on this car.

[Noize]

Originally Posted by fourtailpipes

scroll down. there are numerous threads discussing the use of oem rear wheels in the front. you just need a spacer. i dont imagine your wheel ever even seated properly on the hub before you lowered the car and backed out of the garage. be careful with stuff like this!

Of course it seated properly on the hub! I'm not a complete idiot (although somewhat of one for trying without checking here to see I needed a spacer first). It spun free in the air, the slight contact did not occur until it was on the ground.

[fourtailpipes]

i didn't mean to imply that you're a idiot, but based on my test-fitments, there was about 6-8mm of space between the rim and the strut after using a 10mm spacer (less space between the tire and the strut), which would suggest a significant amount of "negative space" without the spacer. during my test fit, the wheel did not seat properly on the hub without a spacer.

[fmxomar]

ddude like everyone else said spacers are necessary 10mm i think