lol, since im so horrible with cars i feel like i have to preface every post i make with a *disclaimer i dont know anything about cars* but i like this forum and i read everything i can but a lot of the times the numbers are just ........ confusing.*

for example I know what 19/8.5 means, which is size by width, but have no clue what the 225/205 type of stuff means, which is why I need to ask these simple questions.

First I want to get a pair or rims, with the bright yellow car I really like the look of the Black Falken Kablenz on the car, but Im worried that it will affect the handling, I love the way the car handles now so i don't really want to make a major change there, and although I love those rims, I have no idea what kind of tires i should be looking at, I would mostly be driving in the spring/summer/fall in upstate NY and while I would love to take my car to the track once the weather gets better, there is no way in the next 5 years that I will have the technical know how to become a "track" racer.

So yeah to sum it all up, I like the looks but I don't want the rims to affect the handling if i can, is that possible??

Also another question I have is, I See for about 2k you can get a decent suspension, but i have no clue about suspensions, i see a lot of people suggest RB sway bars and stuff, but I don't know what RB is, or where to research it. Would a good suspension make the car funner to drive??? I love it now but I'm not about to say I wouldn't like it to be even funner

I just need a basic "here is the basics" in laymens terms for everything, I'm more of a science guy, and no one in my family is even close to "mechanically inclined" I know about 2 - 3 people that I would call good with cars but I know the rx-8 is an altogether different beast, and only want to turn to them as a last resort, and would really just like to learn about it myself, I just need a basic "crash course" for dummy's on cars lol.

Either way Im not worried about getting everything installed I just want to make sure it all works, and I don't like installing something wrong.




lol, the best way to put this whole car thing, is like i did with surround sound systems, I started off knowing nothing, but when I went to buy my Surround sound system I researched the hell out of it, and got a bunch of info, and installed it on my own, and got high quality stuff, and now I'm middle of the road knowledgeable on it now, thats about the point i'd like to be at with this car.

 

Buy something in the 18X8.5" 40-50 offset range...and put on 245 series tires...and you should be happy with the fit and handling

 

www.tirerack.com

They have guides for everything.

 

tires first
225-45-18
225 is the with of the tire
45 is the height of the sidewall as a percentage of width. (225 * .45)
18 is rim diameter

For performance handling you need to have a wide enough rim to support the tire width. The stock RX-8 uses 8 inch wide rims with a 225 tire width for a rim to tire ratio of 1:1.1 (225 mm = 8.85")
To keep your speedometer correct you need to have the same overall diameter. The simple short cut is to maintain the same sidewall height. Stock is 225mm * 0.45= 101.25 mm.
And as dannobre said, keep your offset in the 40mm to 50mm range.

RB = racing beat (www.racingbeat.com)
My list was their springs and swaybars package, swaybar endlinks, Tokico DSP-14 adjustable shocks (Ebay) and the Tokico adjusters.
There are many companies that sell suspension 'upgrades' and I'm sure that you'll get lots of suggestions. Do some searching on this site in the suspension sub-forum.