Do i get 16's or 17's?

[Loubyvr6 0]

This has proberly been asked many times and i did look in the search bar but couldnt realy find the answers i want,

To start with i was adiment i wanted 16's for the raddo, but after looking at wheel choices the only ones i like, i can only get in a 17 :mad2:

Handeling is a very important factor for me, (corners are the best part of driving lol) the way it handels is one of the things i love most about the corrado.

what i want to know is has anyone found that 17's have affected their handeling? and do they fit under the arches ok without having to get the arches rolled?

 

thanks for any advice

[Jay2 0]

Just swapped from 16" to 17" rims, C lowered about 40mm and no problems fitting them under the arches. Even seems to have sorted out the rubbing issues on the inside of the wheelarch when on full lock?! :confused4:

 

But yes, you do feel the difference around corners, don't have the same confidence that I had with the 16". :(

[big ben 10]

17's fit no problem, but handling is defo worse... so by the sounds of it you should keep looking for a set of 16's imo!!

[VR6 0]

Simple breakdown (some points in my opinion):

 

15

- Standard but can look a bit small and not fill the arches properly unless the car is lowered a bit (not compulsory though!)

- Good handling

- No rubbing issues unless it's slammed and you're going 9" wide or something stupid

 

16

- Look better with a gentle drop - fill the arches a lot better than 15s

- Handling not affected too badly but should feel better than 17s

- Again no fitment problems unless you're talking about big suspension drops and/or 8/8.5" + wide

 

17

- Arguably give the best looks

- Can weigh quite a bit more than standard rims (unless you're Kev and have wheels custom built! :))

- Can lead to tram-lining and more of a crashy ride - generally people say that 17s give a worse ride but it's not to be taken for granted

- More likely to lead to fitment problems but not if you avoid slammed suspension and/or very wide wheels

 

18

- Can physically fit

- Generally look too big in my opinion

- Read everything from 17 above and add a bit more emphasis :)

 

Personally I'd be torn between 16 and 17. Depends if you have adjustable coilovers as well so you can play with the ride height and damping as well though.

 

Basically there are a million variations and opinions!

[Leonard 0]

Its the tramlining with the 17's that I hate the most

[Jim 2]

Think VR6's post pretty much sums it up :)

[StuartFZR400 0]

.

Louby - its what VR6 says, and some...

 

17's fit fine but look silly unless you drop the car. A drop of 40mm works fine, as long as the wheels are suitable - that is that the offset is correct. Push the wheel in too close to the car and it will rub on the inner arch; buy the correct offset. See Wheel discussion threads etc; and also see Wiki, and Tyre Bible in the wiki to fully understand.

 

IMO 16's are best. The reason 17's feel crashy is because they have less tyre wall - they need to be 40 percent profile, not 45 (of a 16). That loss of tyre wall is a loss of tyre flexibility. Loose your ability to soak up bumps and you get 'crashyness' and you'll typically skip like a stone on bumpy corners - those being a given on our UK roads - and thus loose grip.

 

You can still get stupidly wide 16's too. People make them fit, by getting certain offsets and spacers and rolling arches; IMO doesnt work well. Stick to 7j - we know it works with the correct offset.

 

The 16 will also offer less slip-angle error compared to a 15; it'll work.

[til2143 0]

16" wheels are the perfect size on a corrado in my opinion

[big ben 10]

think you get the picture :lol: :lol:

[Loubyvr6 0]

thanks all for the advice :D , im now going to stick with my original choice and keep searching for some 16's, i think it will be worth the wait, i like the look of 17's but im realy not prepared to jepardise handeling just cause they look good.

will be putting coilovers on her too, any that you peeps recomend?

[big ben 10]

thanks all for the advice :D , im now going to stick with my original choice and keep searching for some 16's, i think it will be worth the wait, i like the look of 17's but im realy not prepared to jepardise handeling just cause they look good.

will be putting coilovers on her too, any that you peeps recomend?

 

i will answer before everyone else tells you the same thing...

 

EVERBODY says DONT get cheapo coilovers, get a suspension and spring setup on a budget... koni and H&R etc...

and EVERYBODY seems to say buy KW variant 1 coilovers, which are £675 at the moment at venom motorsport

 

im actually getting these myself, quite a lot of money for suspension but will last a lot longer, better ride and handling, so worth saving the pennys for... People also recommend replacing the bushes and mounts while your there, again this is what i shall be doing...

 

Hope this helps...

[KADVR6 0]

if you get some light weight 17" alloys you will hardly notice the tramlining, but with heavy 17" alloys you will most def feel it.

[big ben 10]

if you get some light weight 17" alloys you will hardly notice the tramlining, but with heavy 17" alloys you will most def feel it.

 

good comment actually, does anyone know what sort of weights we are calling heavy and light?? what weight are the orginals??

 

Sorry for going a lil off topic but could be helpful to you...

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Yep spot on. Glad Karl mentioned that as I was about to launch into a full on Haywire lecture :lol:

 

Personally, I've found the best 17" combo to be 7J, 7.5-8Kg (or less ideally) and Continental sport contacts. The acceleration, turn-in, handling and ride quality were every bit as good as 15s (imo) but it does also depend on your suspension and bushes being in a non-shagged state.

 

Sure, you know you're on 17s when driving it compared to 15s, but if you use the right parts, then you only notice the benefits and not the downsides (of lesser stuff) :D

 

The original 15" Speedlines are 7.6kg, but the interesting thing is the total weight (with 205/50/15 tyre) is over 1kg more than my 7x17 with tyre! So with 17s you can actually run less rolling weight than the original 15s.

[Jim Bowen 1]

15"'s in the correct offset with VW recommended tyres :camp:

 

i thought tramlining was caused by having wider, lower profile tyres?

[StuartFZR400 0]

i thought tramlining was caused by having wider, lower profile tyres?

Yeh, Id've thought tyre profile, pressure/stiffness would be to blame.

 

full on Haywire lecture .

 

So, anyone explain why its the wheel weight?

 

At a guess, I can see direct wheel weight affect the deadload on the tyre a small fraction; but add a couple kg to the car and that'll get transfered to the tyre too; but only a portion, as the suspension will take most of it. So, with this heavy wheel, Im guessing the tyre squidges out a bit, taking some of the flex away? ... Thats all I can think of; but I do look forward to the real reason.

 

Id've thought it was a stiff tyre (low profile or over inflated) and a wide tyre that was most affected. Worse still would be if the camber or toe was fairly radical, and therefore running you on slivers of tyre, and thus like a Tram, following contours.

 

Im sure a lighter wheel will make naff all difference to slip angle; the car weight is a bigger factor on cornering.

 

You could always try borrowing some 17's and see if you like the feel. You'd have to be using decent like-for-like rubber too. If you do, then try different pressures - lower was better IMO.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Tramlining is mainly caused by a lack of 'give' in either the tyre's tread or it's side wall, so yeah, the wider you go, the worse the problem can get and also the stiffer the sidewall, the worse it can get. Well worn 15" tyres can tramline far worse than new 17s, so it's not cut and dry that 17s are always worse.

 

Knackered wishbone bushes will have the same affect, as will worn track rod end.

 

Wheel weight is noticable in 3 main areas:-

 

Acceleration - flywheel effect, more weight (concentrated further out) to spin up

 

Turn-in - More weight and width to turn in, makes the steering feel lazier and less agile.

 

Handling over bumps - More unsprung weight for the suspension to deal with, makes the car feel heavier and clumsy.

[Jim 2]

How do the Toyo R888's behave in terms of tramlining Kev? I'm trying to remeber whether they've got very firm or very soft sidewalls.. the answer to which would probably answer my question about if they are bad for tramlining! :)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Very firm, but tall (if going 205/50/15) sidewalls :D

 

To be honest, when I drove Pat McCrotch's, it was far from a handful and I didn't notice any tramlining out of the ordinary, it was just proper point and squirt fun. A lot of it will depend on your local roads I reckon and also bear in mind with the VR6, those big old 888s are only mounted on 6.5J rims, so there's a fair bit of give in them. Stick them on 7.5 or 8Js and I reckon it's a different story.

[BigTartanJudge 0]

17's for show, 16's for go :wink:

[Anton Sobriquet 0]

FWIW I got my car with BBS 16s from a Mk3 Golf and Koni TAs with H&R -40mm springs on. Not my personal preference at all but it was certainly 'comfy' and fairly handlable. The car was a good deal, too, about 3 years ago!

 

I changed (was it last year or the one before?) to 17x7.5 BBS LM replicas from the forum GB tallpaul ran with Continental Sport Contact 2s on. The ride was a bit crashy around town by comparison with the 16s for sure but felt much, much better on a decent surface at speed with lots of feedback. I had no tramlining at all. Looked cooler, too.

 

I recently changed from the Koni/H&R setup (which are now for sale BTW) to a set of KW V3s (plus new wishbones & TT bushes) and the transformation was quite incredible. No more crashiness at all, and still no tramlining. Feels absolutely brilliant. Spot on, in fact.

[coullstar 0]

Having had 13 wheels changes this year Id say your suspension set up has a lot to do with how the car rides. The main thing is weight and width. Weight to a minimum (no matter what size) and width below 8j.

 

For the best of all worlds I would say 7.5 or possibly 8x16 is perfect.

 

Im back to standard again and I love how there is a little bit of give when cornering hard as it seems to allow a more progressive loss. Dont want the thing suddenly letting go with no warning which could happen with the likes of the Toyo888's.

[StuartFZR400 0]

Dont want the thing suddenly letting go with no warning which could happen with the likes of the Toyo888's.

 

Might be down to suspension again. I felt on 40mm and 17's on Toyos it was solid, and when it did want to slide, all 4 went at the same time. Back onto standard suspension and the frikkin back stepped out on two occasions, until I finally got new tyres on the rear. I cant possibly imagine loosing the rear when it was on 17's and lower and even naffall tread (say 2mm).