I know the young guys will disagree with me but I really do think that the manufacturers have gone OTT just to make their cars look sporty and appeal to the impressionable.
The driving experience of my 370Z is spoilt by it's wheel size, this impacts in lots of ways:
Road Noise - really really loud. On some surfaces it's deafening and the tyres 'hum' as if they are rubbing on bodywork. This is the same on original Bridgestones or the Toyos on now.
Tramlining - really bad even the wife feels it as a passenger.
Kerbing - it's so easy to catch the rims. I never park with the passenger side against the kerb - extreme I know but necessary.
Cost - I'm told a set of wheels from Nissan is £5000!!!! How can that be justified? Tyres - rear £350 each at best!
Breakdown - no room for a spare and different sizes front and back anyway. If I 'hole' a tyre I'm in the hands of a breakdown service. If it happened at night 100 mls from home I'd probably be in a hotel, ridiculous.
Scrubbing - front tyres are too wide to rotate scrub-free on full-lock. Yes tracking is fine. The car 'lurches' when reversing out of my drive.
Grip - on anything but a dry surface beware. If it's snowy or muddy forget it, it's embarrassing. Without a stability programme these cars would be dangerous.
TBH I reckon the non-GT version would probably drive better - narrower, higher profile smaller dia.
The reason for this rant - went to Race Retro at the weekend and got stuck and it was 2 hours before I got into the show! Towed out by a huge tractor! Traction control, LSD and new tyres did nothing - no grip whatsoever! I can't emphasize that enough, NO grip - I couldn't even 'rock' the car. Next time I ignore the parking attendant and park on tarmac.
I read so many posts on here asking what the maximum size wheel and tyre is for a 240Z. My 240Z gripped and handled great on 195/55/15 trackday tyres, so it's not performance folks are after. Ok some really powerful hybrid cars (or my 370) might need wider to get the power down in the dry but boy are there drawbacks!
The driving experience of my 370Z is spoilt by it's wheel size, this impacts in lots of ways:
Road Noise - really really loud. On some surfaces it's deafening and the tyres 'hum' as if they are rubbing on bodywork. This is the same on original Bridgestones or the Toyos on now.
Tramlining - really bad even the wife feels it as a passenger.
Kerbing - it's so easy to catch the rims. I never park with the passenger side against the kerb - extreme I know but necessary.
Cost - I'm told a set of wheels from Nissan is £5000!!!! How can that be justified? Tyres - rear £350 each at best!
Breakdown - no room for a spare and different sizes front and back anyway. If I 'hole' a tyre I'm in the hands of a breakdown service. If it happened at night 100 mls from home I'd probably be in a hotel, ridiculous.
Scrubbing - front tyres are too wide to rotate scrub-free on full-lock. Yes tracking is fine. The car 'lurches' when reversing out of my drive.
Grip - on anything but a dry surface beware. If it's snowy or muddy forget it, it's embarrassing. Without a stability programme these cars would be dangerous.
TBH I reckon the non-GT version would probably drive better - narrower, higher profile smaller dia.
The reason for this rant - went to Race Retro at the weekend and got stuck and it was 2 hours before I got into the show! Towed out by a huge tractor! Traction control, LSD and new tyres did nothing - no grip whatsoever! I can't emphasize that enough, NO grip - I couldn't even 'rock' the car. Next time I ignore the parking attendant and park on tarmac.
I read so many posts on here asking what the maximum size wheel and tyre is for a 240Z. My 240Z gripped and handled great on 195/55/15 trackday tyres, so it's not performance folks are after. Ok some really powerful hybrid cars (or my 370) might need wider to get the power down in the dry but boy are there drawbacks!
! Their daily wages are now being paid by punters who swan around in motors which have 20"+ tyres ( R Rovers, BM's etc)
