Living up in North Wales, driving on country roads, I fancy improving the handling on my Felicia.

Could someone explain to me the choices and pitfalls of getting different wheels/tyres, please?

Would 15" wheels give me a good selection of tyres to choose from?

Where would you suggest getting them from?

Would I have to tell my insurers?

Many thanks,

Robert

From what ve read and what other people say 15's would be the best way to go as 16's are much more expensive to aquire tyres for.

Performance Alloys.com - Alloy Wheels & Tyres From The Experts ! Car Alloy Wheels, Replica Wheels, Cheap Alloy Wheels seems to be a good place to go they have a very large selection and it all seems cheap enough, and they can come fitted with tyres if you really want!

Personally i dont care much about tyres i just take it down to a local garage and ask for a new tyre on whichever wheel needs it - £15 second hand...cant complain

And yes you would need to tell your insurance company about putting alloys on it, unless you can aquire some skoda alloys and then you can claim that you thought the car came with alloys.

and welcome to the forum by the way

you could use 15"s but the ride will be harsh. unless your going the hole hog, i would use 14"s

as for the rest, a 22mm anti roll bar for starters, then you could move on to the HPsporting rally shocks. but again, with them your looking to go the hole hog.

I run 195/50 15s on my fun as apposed to 165/13s with the standard wheels. the ride is ten times better , smoother and corners like it is on rails.tyres are no more expensive at about £28 a corner. the only downside being a bit of tramlining on the motorway slow lane, (only on it as i cross from fast lane to get off at junction) lol

The best way and money spent on improving handling is to fit the best tyres you can afford. Theres no point spending the money elsewhere on lowering springs/shocks, anti roll bars etc if all you are going to do is fit poo tyres.

All the money and effort is put down the drain if you do.

msport has a point, good tires save life's.

i use fakon's in the winter, but like Yokohama's (539's) in the summer

Good tyres do make a difference

My Dad fitted some budget tyres on his Honda Accord (2002) and he said the handling in the wet wasn't inspiring!!

I think hte tyres on mine are budget ones (bar the spare which was a continental)

a year after I got the car (about 15k miles) I put the fronts on the back and the backs on the front.

I stuck one of the back ones as my spare and put the Spare conti on the front.

Just had to stick the spare on this week after my rear got a crew in the wheel. But got a budget wheel for that.

Will prob make a spend on some branded Pirellis or other ones when the other tyres need replacing next year.

Another Question. what are your views on runflats?

Another Question. what are your views on runflats?

get out and change the tire you lazy git!!!!! thats what i think

they arnt good for the ride at all!

don't be so lazy!

you wont know when to get a new tyre as air will come out! only very slowly.

I bought myself a set of Skoda 14" alloys last week, getting 185/55/14 tyres on today. Think i'm going for Hankooks at around £40 a pop, should be interesting to see the handling difference

they look cooleo

Nice!!

I haven't got runflats. I like to check my cars running a it's peak.

Plus the cars handling is going to be unpredictable if it's uneven.

As for lazy! pffff

I rotate my tyres manually

Jack, wheel brace and a good kicking foot

Got my tyres fitted yesterday, went for Hankook Ventus Primes at £46 a time :S . Will get the alloys on the car over the weekend and will hopefully post a few pics up

I would go for 185/60/14s as they are cheeper and more available

Got my alloys fitted today, the difference in cornering is unbelievable, reduces body roll so much and the wheels themselves set the car off nicely

That's very interesting. Exactly how did changing the wheels increase the spring or ARB rates?

That's very interesting. Exactly how did changing the wheels increase the spring or ARB rates?

They don't specifically. What changes is the unsprung weight (the less the better!) and the the tyre footprint (the more the better!).

As for tyre choice, I've got 5 odd 2nd hand tyres and all it took was a couple of weeks to get used to where on the road it might be when I went round a corner

Would a 14" wheel fit in the spare wheel bay?

It might fit if you let it down & jump up & down on it a bit

They don't specifically. What changes is the unsprung weight (the less the better!) and the the tyre footprint (the more the better!).

Neither of which change the roll rate, so don't reduce body roll. Reducing the unsprung weight improves response to short-frequency bumps (like cobbles or spalled top dressing). I agree that an increased footprint increases grip (until the road gets wet as distinct from damp, when aquaplane resistance may be reduced). Actually using that extra grip though increases lateral G loading, which will increase roll for a given suspension setup.

As for reduced unsprung weight, I'd suggest actually weighing the wheel/tyre combinations. The result might surprise you, largely because, although aluminium alloy is less dense than steel, it's also weaker, so you need more of it, and alloys are frequently created by stylists, whereas standard steels are usually designed by structural engineers who's sole job is to produce a strong wheel using minimum material for given parameters.

on the felly there is a lot of tyre roll, so changing to a lowpro tyre can make the car roll mush less.

I'd want convincing that it makes a big difference, like before and after shots of same car and suspension through same corner at same speed. Preferably labeled with tyre size, so we can measure it.

I'd want convincing that it makes a big difference, like before and after shots of same car and suspension through same corner at same speed. Preferably labeled with tyre size, so we can measure it.

Plus the same wind speed & direction, same fuel load, same camera angle & lighting, same driver having had the same breakfast and a bit of string tied to a compass stuck to the back of the car with blu-tac.

:inq:

;)

You increase the wheel diameter by 1 inch, and retain the tyre rolling radius. That means that the tyre wall height drops by 12.7mm. Using 185/60R14s as the "new size", that gives us a 11.4% percent change in tyre wall height from standard.

I've seen basically standard cars use 3 or 4 inches of compression travel and 1 or 2 of rebound on roll in a roundabout, so even assuming that the reduction in tyre wall height all goes into increased wall rigidity, you could be looking at as little as 12.5% reduction in compression movement, and effectively none in rebound, which gives us a 6% reduction in vertical travel.

Now treat track as constant, and we're looking at 0.5" reduction over 50" or so, or about 2%. Still think that low profiles make a big difference to roll (as opposed to grip)?

I've got a little roundabout near me with a strange camber on my exit which if I catch just right lets all four corners skip a bit- Woooo!!!

I think you'd only notice any more roll with a larger footprint under those sorts of circumstances as the lateral momentum is affected - and yes, the ride over rough roads will be harsher, same as with stiffer shocks for different reasons.

Nice reasoning ^^^ Ken.