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wheel size for new car


tezza

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Have ordered R300 with the new 15" wheels, which I still have not seen, and wondered what problems I may have with these.

Assuming that the rolling radius is near the same as 13", as they are a lower profile, but wondered whether the ride quality will suffer over bumps due to this? Also if the car was on the limit of grip in a corner would the tyres give less warning before letting go due to less flex in the trye wall?(just guessing here) 13" higher profile more warning and feed back or not even close with my theory?

thanks in advance terry

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Reckon there are loads of factors to consider that you could theorise about till you're blue!!!

 

I'd ring Andy Noble or one of the boys at Caterham who've driven the cars extensively with these wheels + ask them their reasoning for fitting them + driving impressions!!!

 

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Gareth

Thanks for that, but it is a dressed up superlight with different wheels from what is meant to be on R300. Was told by caterham that they would be 8 or 10 spoke can't remember now.

terry

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Low profile tyres are stiffer, which means they pass higher frequencies through to the suspension to manage. In the same way that light car runs on softer springs to set a particular resonant frequency and filtering characteristic in the suspension, a light car should run on softer sidewall tyres. I would agree broadly with your theory.

 

The big argument in favour of 13 inch is the availability of more specialised tyres for track use, although the exception are Yoko A032Rs are available for 14 inch.

 

In List 1A tyres for competition, the 13 inch range is rather unexceptional and some of the 15 inch tyres reclaim the advantage.

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I've had 13/14/15/16 inch wheels before (currently have 13/14/15) and personally, I think 13" looks the best on the car, but that's JMHO. I use 14/15's on the road to stop me destroying sumps and also, my Avon's on my 13" wheels are too flippin expensive to use on the road. Good 1a tyres are enough for me (but I drive like a granny on the road) wink.gif

 

Peter, don't Avon crossply's have very rigid sidewalls? They seem to work well and better than Yoko's with softer sidewalls.

 

Alex Wong

www.alexwong.net

www.slipstream-trackdays.co.uk

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I think we would need to measure them to find out the relative stiffness. It may be that a stiff-sidewall ACB10 is *stiff* in comparison to a radial slick designed to work on a 500kg car.

 

I was more commenting on the generality of tyre and suspension systems being low pass filters. The lower mass necessarily determines that you need lower stiffness to keep the frequency behaviours the same. So, supposing that the same frequency characteristics are desirable, for a light car you should match it with soft sidewalls.

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I've seen many a 16" or 15" for sale ad as another 7'er sees the light... Agree about the 13" for track comment.

 

I had 2 7's with 13" wheels and the last one came with 16" wheels and a spare set of 13".

 

I current have 3 sets of 13". Nuff?!

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