I'm considering 19" wheels for my 8, and I'm looking for info regarding different sizes. the wheels I'm interested in are 19x8. The Tire rack recommends a 225/40/19. There aren't many choices in that size. A Continental and an expensive Michelin are the only ones I've found.

I want to go wider, so I'm considering 245/35/19 front and rear.
Or 235/35/19 front and 245/35/19 rear. I have no plans of lowering the car. Please give me a little feedback because i'm concerned with rubbing when cornering hard.

 

I have the 19x9.5 with the 45 offset on the rear and the wheels are just about flush with the top of the rear fender. I wouldn't worry about rub, but if you're going with 19" rims, I would change your plans to include lowering the car. I just got my rims last week and the car is begging to be dropped 3/4".

 

Why would you want to stagger the sizes? The stock suspension is tuned for balanced handling with the same size tires front/rear. Unless you change the suspension to compensate, putting wider tires on the rear will introduce more understeer. Is that what you want?

Regards,
Gordon

 

Staggered pattern wheels just make the car look 10 times more aggressive. And the understeer you are talking about is not very noticable daily driving. To ease your concerns, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini etc all sue staggered patterns on their factory vehicles. Even the S2000, G35 Coupe and 350Z come with staggered pattern wheels.

 

Sure - and their suspensions are tuned for those staggered sizes from the factory, and for the europeans you listed, they're required because of their extreme rear weight bias due to their mid- or rear-engines.

Not very noticeable in daily driving? I suppose not, in the daily commute. Hit the twisties and back roads in a spirited run, though, and you don't have to be anywhere near the limits of the car/tires to notice the balance of the car (or lack thereof). Run an autocross or track day, and it will be extremely noticeable. I certainly wouldn't trade off performance just for a "more aggressive" appearance (did someone say 'Rice!"? ). To someone who knows anything, the appearance is less aggressive because they know handling performance has been sacrificed.

Regards,
Gordon

 

I am using my car for daily driving and the commute to and from work, I'm not Mario Andretti. I believe the "positive" difference in appearance will out-weigh the "negative" effect this will have on my handling.

 

Sorry bro, but how does going with a more aggressive appearance by adding a staggered patten wheel combo on a performance car like an RX-8 constitute rice? And why are a majority of Japanese tuners ie: HKS, R-Magic, JIC, Rays Engineering, AutoExe etc.... using staggered pattern set ups on their RX-8's? Now I can see if you have a front wheel drive car and going with a staggered pattern set up can be considered rice. And if you are going with a staggered pattern set up on an RX-8, obviously you would want to upgrade your suspension components. Kinda stupid rolling on a 19x8.5/19x9.5 combo on stock suspension.

 

The staggered wheels with wider rear tires by themselves - will make the car understeer much more. It will throw off the neutral balance of the car. Worse handling than with the stock wheels/tires, for the sole sake of appearance = rice. The RX-8 has a near perfect 50/50 weight distribution. If it was rear heavy, or had a ton of HP, then wider rear tires would make some practical sense.

Why are the tuners doing it? Because the (uninformed) public is demanding it. Marketing response, pure and simple. However, when they upgrade the suspension, they have the opportunity to tune spring rates, anti-roll bar sizes, and shock characteristics to take those into account. You say "obviously you would want to upgrade your suspension components", but quite a few people don't, or just throw on lowering springs without touching shocks or sway bars. Result of that is even worse unbalanced handling. A properly designed (specifically designed for the changed tire balance) shocks and matched springs package would be fine - but so far, I see very few people here putting in the effort to work out what will give a balanced handling package wth all factors (shocks, springs, sways, wheels, tires) considered.

Forget the tuners and drifters, look at what the fast guys on the tracks (road race courses, not drag strips) are using for tires and suspension setups! Properly and carefully considered, it can work. Are wider tires on the back even any better, though? No, not unless you have a lot more power than stock. Even then, so you want sticky 255 or 275 width rear tires - why NOT use the same width on the front?????

Regards,
Gordon

 

Well, I decided to just go with 19x8 wheels all the way around and 245/35/19 tires front and rear. For me it was the cost difference, staggered setups are alot more expensive.

Gordon, your point is a valid one, but like I said, to me, the cosmetic advantage outweighed the "negative" effects on the handling.

I don't have to worry about it now because I'll have the same sizes front and rear. That tire is within 1/10 of and inch of the stock tire's height. It's just a little wider, I think it will be fine.

 

Gord: Preach on! I've been shopping for wheels for my car, and everybody starts out trying to sell me a staggered setup, despite the fact it will destroy the handling balance of the car.

My street wheel/tire setup will also likely be my wet-weather Solo and track school setup, so destroying the balance and introducing more understeer doesn't work for me.

But, I do agree with the original poster, that if he is simply going for a look, and is just commuting and wants the agressive appearance, regardless of the reality, then by all means go with the staggered.

As for the other points, Gord has already been very articulate, so I'll stay out of it.. but asking why the Japanese tuners have staggered setups on their SHOW CARS if it destroys the natural balance...well.. that's kind of self explanatory. They are show/demo cars... designed to look great and draw in customers first.. and when you have that much money to tune the suspension, yeah, you can change the balance. But, how many average owners are going to be able to tune their sway bars and shock damping, spring rates etc. to compensate for xxmm of additional contact patch at the rear?

 

Watch some Option videos. A lot of the RX-8's featured on the track are rolling with staggered pattern set ups. And not just the drifters. So the are not "SHOW CARS" as you say. And yes, I agree with Gordon regarding the understeer issue, but it's kinda ridiculous calling rice on a staggerd pattern set up don't you think?

 

I have watched some, and yes they are running staggered setups, but as said above, they also have suspensions calibrated for their specific stagger. The average person won't, and likely can't, do that. That was the only point I was trying to make.


As for calling it rice? Well.. probably a bit overboard, but it definately show's rice-like tendencies....

Mind you, with the number of people on here buying chrome rims and badges and painting calipers weird colours and such, I'm starting to see the RX-8 community is widely split between people who bought the car based on looks, and those who bought it for handling and such.

 

what if I bought it because of looks and handling

 

You mean a staggered setup? Then if you like the looks, you're ahead in the looks category. You're behind on the handling, though.

Regards,
Gordon

 

Then make sure you upgrade ALL of your suspension components. But if your not going to be driving it aggressively, then a nice spring/shock combo should be fine.