i was wondering if i could get your guys opinion on my wheel situation. i presently have crummy 15x6 wheels. So i need new tires anyways, so i was planning on possible getting a little wider rim also. Where i need your guys help is with the rim choice. I am relatively good at driving my car, but no expert and want to get more seat time. However, last time i went i noticed a lacking point was the grip the wheels had. I ran STS class. My question for you guys is should i go with a 7 or 7.5 inch rim to stay in sts or should i get a 8 inch wide rim? The car is NA and i dont have a lot of money, so i want rims that will last a few years. Any suggestions are welcome.

At this point it seems like you have no need for any wheels wider than 7". What you really need is a good set of tires.

Are you talking about Autox? or actual track time? How much money are you trying to spend? What are your plans for the next few years?

You should look at your near future plans and classing regulations for those plans before spending any money.

But generally for regional autocross stuff, get some good autox tires on some 15x7's.

8" wont do anything for you that 7" won't at this point. Except outclass you.

240marcuSX wrote:At this point it seems like you have no need for any wheels wider than 7". What you really need is a good set of tires.

Are you talking about Autox? or actual track time? How much money are you trying to spend? What are your plans for the next few years?

You should look at your near future plans and classing regulations for those plans before spending any money.

But generally for regional autocross stuff, get some good autox tires on some 15x7's.

8" wont do anything for you that 7" won't at this point. Except outclass you.

Well said. If you're running STS, then I presume you're doing autocross. I'm no expert on Solo II but I think the maximum wheel you can do in STS is 7.5 . And if your plan is to stay in STS for awhile and keeping stock sized brakes, which is also required for STS, then going to a better, slightly wider tire (that's allowed within the rules) might give you a better bang for the limited buck route than upgrading wheels. Although a second set of wheels for event use only is an excellent idea, I'm not so sure the weight savings from a slightly lighter, prettier set of wheels will translate into significantly better times on a short autocross jaunt as compared to better tires.

A 7.5 inch rim with a lower profile tire might help you get better traction. say 215/55 or 50 series..stiffer sidewalls so the tire doesnt tend to roll over as much.....get some decent tires also.

stay on your stock wheel and invest in a better tire....get out of STS (if your cars mods will permit you to).Drop the balogney CAI \gimmicky go fast mods and get R compound tires and outdrive your competition.R comps are worth about 2-3 seconds on a street tire most of the time.I dare anybody to prove any other mod gained them more than a second.Hell....I ran 5 seconds faster than the fastest SR swap in our regions last autox,with a s14 with 230k+on the car with no mod but tires and alignment.The entire car is as it came in 95 ...struts ,bushings ,springs ,wheels ,sway bars,all OEM....2 years running region champ in GS .The car paxxed 2nd to a HS car that was .3 seconds slower in raw time.Bottom line is that the only place you get gains from coilovers and crazy mods is in trackday events .Autox is a drivers game and is tire dominated.

^^^^^^^^^^^^ What he said. Put your engine back to completely stock, except for a cat back, and buy another set of stock rims and put R-Comps on them.

I've also beat a sr swaped 240 with Teins on crappy tires with my stock car on good tires, by over 3 seconds.

Unless you're running coilovers and other suspension, stay in the Stock Class.