215/40 Vs 205/40?

[devonutopia]

Just wondering what the practicalites of putting 215/40 R17 tyres on my furby, instead of 205/40s? I think it will be a trade off between extra grip of that 10mm width, and the downturn in economy of having that extra drag co-efficient... I've got 7.5J wide rims BTW, and when I had the 205s fitted I couldn't get my hand easily in the gap between tyre & strut...? My initial feelings are to stick with what I've got, but I was just curious what 215/40s would do?

:cheers:

[Real Skoda]

Sligthly higher sidewalls on the 215s than the 205s, more sidewall flex round bends.

In your usual fashion, go with what's cheapest

I'd take the 205s.

[devonutopia]

You think I'm cheap? :p

Fair enough - I was only curious after seeing someone talk about 215/40s in another thread.

[Witchfinder]

Remember if you change your tyre size you run the risk of inducing errors in your speedometer. Check the calculator on the Wheel and Tyre Bible to check what error margin you will have.

[devonutopia]

Yep - I'm proudly wearing my " been there, done that " T-shirt.

I've had some fairly marked differences in speedo readouts / gearing / mpg figures since changing to 205/40s - I think they're marginally bigger than the original 185/60s. These differences kind of jumped out at me on my first journey with the new wheels - after all you get used to doing xxx mph and xxxx rpm, and suddenly I was doing the same speed at 150 or 200RPM less. :shocked: One benefit has been the miles done will have dropped (not literally, just what the car says I've done) - which has put off my service for a little time.