so i was wondering something. say i wanted to upgrade to rims, would it be best if running stock car to get rims/tires that equal total diamater of stock steelies/tires? it would seem as if you just went ahead and bought any size rim bigger than stock that the engine will lag on take off due to final gear ratio now being different, is this true or does it not matter? thanks

 

16 inch rims are a good size

 

what about size of tire, how low of a profile would you go to meet stock diamater of originals?

 

I believe that is what Marty meant - 16 beinga rim size for which youcan stil find a low profile tire to match stock overall diameter. Don't know exact profile percentage, though.

And you are right, if you go bigger overall, you will hurt acceleration due to what you called "final gear ratio". Another thing that will hurt your acceleration is the bigger moment of inertia of all rim sizes bigger than stock, btw.

 

tell me what car you have, I'll tell you what size tires

yes, you have to match the original overall diameter.

 

98 civic ex. i was lookin into using si rims if i could find some, then i thought about the size issue.

 

<-- duh!

you will be fine

195/55-15 (stock size for a Si)

 

sounds like a perfect swap for stock P185/65R14 then. thanks a lot.

 

I'm looking into this issue, myself. (I have a 97 CX). It looks like to me that there are more choices in 16-inch wheels and tires, today. If you go to www.tirerack.com and click on the wheels button, you can select among hundreds of different styles. You can even restrict what you are shown by wheel size. By entering the year, make, and model of your car, you can see whet your selection of wheels will look like on your car. I found some forged aluminum Traklite wheels that are extremely light-weight. This is important if ride and acceleration are high on your list. The lighter the wheels, the better the ride, if comparing the same sizes. I found 16-inch wheels that are only 12 lbs each. A 15-inch Traklite 2.0 wheel is only 10 lbs each - that's light!

 

15's or 16's would be just right