Interesting item on AOL [Tires]

[Joe.Doty@lcnetwork.com (Joe Doty)]

> By "skinny" I assume you mean tires with small sidewalls, not skinny
> widths...
> A "Plus-size" wheel and tire combination (meaning a larger wheel with=20
> appropriately reduced sidewall height on the tire) will generally
offer a=20
> higher level of overall grip, better braking, and better traction
under=20
> power.  It will also offer enormous benefits in transitory responses
and=20
> turn-in by reducing sidewall flex.

Wha...?  According to my experience, about the ONLY benefit you can get
from  larger wheels is turn from reduced sidewall flex.  All the other
factors you listed are very very largely dependent on tires.. =20

Better traction under power??  Have you ever watched a turbocharged FWD
vehicle with 17s at a drag strip?

The 195/60/14 Azenis I run now are an insane improvement compared to the
205/40/16 crap Nittos that I ran for a while.  The traction of the tires
vastly makes up for the inherent sidewall flex.

In short, big wheels !=3D grip.  Everyone likes to bring up touring cars
at this point, but the only reason touring cars run huge diameter wheels
is their huge budget (sticky tires for wheels like that are ridiculously
expensive).  This is from what I can tell.  Most autocross cars run
small diameter, wide wheels.

Joe Doty
IT/Development
joe@lcnetwork.com=20