Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Bro
Hello,
I was thinking of switching to a square set up on my 2020 1ss.
To enable proper tire rotation.
I will be using the car as a daily driver and have no plans of tracking it.
Tires will be Continental Extreme contact all seasons.
If I understand the process correctly I have narrowed it down to two wheel
sizes, which should both be direct fit with not spacers etc..
Front and Rear: 19x9” ET28 or ET30 with 255/40-19 tires.
These would be slightly less money but I worry about the rear tires
not being wide enough.
or
Front and Rear: 19x10” ET20 with 275/40-19 tires
A little more money and hopefully wont rub up front.
My question is what will I be giving up switching from the staggered setup?
As a daily driver I am assuming the difference may not be that noticeable?
I live in New England if that matters.
Thanks for your input.
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One of the reasons you see so many cars from the factory with staggered tire settings is because it produces some understeer characteristics. This of course results in the car losing some degree of traction on the front tires BEFORE the loss of traction on the rear tires when the car is taken near the limits. For the average or inexperienced driver this is desirable because it is more easily correctable because it helps from keeping the rear end from coming around PRIOR to the front tires losing adhesion.
You get more of a neutral handling car if you are running a square setup. PORSCHE was one of the first car manufacturers to produce this type of set up on their cars. The RESULT was a more NEUTRAL handling car which cornered better but did has ALOT smaller margin for driver error. Basically unless you were acutely aware of the limits of the car, you could easily wind up in a ditch because the front and rear of the car would loss adhesion nearly at the same point. Typically a driver feedback would be the car handled like it was glued to the road until right up to the point in time I lost it. Cars with closer to 50/50 weight distribution produce the same NEUTRAL driving characteristic which in the hands of a more skilled driver is more desirable.
I run 305 30 19 tires on 19 x 10.5 wheels with ET25 backspacing and with this set up you have to be careful of your suspension settings especially on the FRONT of the car or you will have tire poke even at the TOP of tire. To eliminate this, I run -1.5 degrees of negative camber which is effects pulls the top of the tire in so that it doesnt fall outside the fender well. Now you have to be careful with negative camber when you are running this large a tire because too much negative camber and the tire will have clearance issues with the body of the shock. So for example, at somewhere around -2.5 degrees negative camber, I would have some clearance issues with the body of the strut. That is why some people run SPACERS on the front wheels BUT this in my case would cause tire poke to the extent that the TOP of the tire would be outside the fender wheel. I might add I DONT have MAG RIDE shocks and the top of that shock is larger in diameter so I would issues running this 305 set up IF I had MRC. A ZL1 compared to an SS has more room under the front fender wells which obviously helps in running their 305 front and 325 rear tire set up (ZL1 1LE).
So my advice would be to EITHER run a 285 SQUARE set up on 10 inch wide wheels or a 305 square set up on 10.5 inch wheels. With my MICHELIN 4S tires, I expect to at least get 35K miles because I can rotate them and I have an aggressive driving style.