19" wheels, ruin your handling?

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pd130a4

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I keep reading on various forums that larger wheels, i.e. going from 17" to 19" (which i have just done) will make your handling worse..

I can't get my head around why this would be, ultimately the actual circumferance of the wheel & tyre combined is the same..

So why does it seem to be the general consensus that 19" ruins your handling?
 
There's more metal and hence more wieght. This unsprung rate takes more energy to move up and down over the bumps and hence can't react so easy/quickly.

You'll also find that your suspension is tuned in with the amount of give in your sidewalls of your tyres. If you reduce the sidewall then the shocks and springs are gonna be having to handle more work and again won't perform as well.

Or at least that's how I understand it!
 
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MCGOUGH_A4_ESTATE said:
Remember if it dont scrape it aint low enough!!!!


[/ QUOTE ]

How very profound. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
That'll be a lot of use on everyday roads.


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Then ill put a post up to say what the handling is like!

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I think I can save you the keystrokes: awful, is the word you will be looking for.
 
erm had a clio sport widened 16"ichs lowered 120mm on 17"s strut brace etc etc, and people couldnt belive how smooth the car was and handling was amazing any corner any speed!!

it doesnt matter how you lower your car but if you do and do it properly it will just be lower and better handling!! and will not effect ride quality!
 
and scraping the floor was just a joke, lighten up!!

It needs too be low for shows and stuff! custom coilovers will be what i go for mybes 60-120mm difference, 60mm for every day driving and 120mm for shows!

Dont Knock it until you try it!

And ive tried airbags 12" drop, but not for me ride quality is good but handling is poor!
 
I've actually already had the 19"s on for over a month now m8 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

never been quite right though since the day they were fitted... so got it checked out today and it was revealed that the 2 nearside rims are bent... and one tyre is egged

not good news /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

trying to find out if there's anyone to repair them

Incidentally i still don't know how it happened unless they came that way
 
Ah thats why, i thought cause my car handles real well on 19" wheels, car is slightly higher but wheels fit under arches nice, i know some one who refurbs but i live in newcastle!!
 
[ QUOTE ]
MCGOUGH_A4_ESTATE said:
erm had a clio sport widened 16"ichs lowered 120mm on 17"s strut brace etc etc, and people couldnt belive how smooth the car was and handling was amazing any corner any speed!!


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Amazing compared to what exactly?
I've never driven a Clio, or Clio sized car, with big wheels and lowered much more than about 30mm that wasn't worse than when it left the manufacturer.

Any corner and speed huh?
Maybe you just have basic roads around you...I can assure you with the roads we get up here, superminis with big wheels and excessive liowering reverse off the road into hedges dails...not much evidence of amazing handling being observed around here.


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it doesnt matter how you lower your car but if you do and do it properly it will just be lower and better handling!! and will not effect ride quality!

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Not true...sorry.
You get the suspension angles wrong, and no amount of tinkering will make it handle better...it's fundamental chasis dynamics.

I've also to come accross a vastly lowered car that has standard ride comfort...it can't happen. Simple engineering this time!

Sorry to sound negative...but lowering and adding big wheels compromises things...but we all (me included) do it.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Sam Rigby said:
never been quite right though since the day they were fitted... so got it checked out today and it was revealed that the 2 nearside rims are bent... and one tyre is egged

Incidentally i still don't know how it happened unless they came that way

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Can I hazard a guess that they may be cheap / reasonably priced wheels? (not meaning to be cheeky)

If so, they are less likely to be as strong as the standard wheels, and hence more likely to bend.
You don't have to hit potholes very hard to bend big alloys made of reasonably cheap alloys...hell, if you had an RS4, you wouldn't have to hit potholes hard to bend expensive Audi alloys!

This is a common problem for replica and reasonably priced (or cheap!) wheels...usually not so much a problem for expensive wheels which tend to be forged or cast with high stregth alloys...but at 19" there will always be more problems than with 18s or 17s...that's just a fact of life.
 
[ QUOTE ]
MCGOUGH_A4_ESTATE said:
and scraping the floor was just a joke, lighten up!!


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/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


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It needs too be low for shows and stuff!


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Really?
My cars aren't excessively low...does that mean I shouldn't be entering shows? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif


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custom coilovers will be what i go for mybes 60-120mm difference, 60mm for every day driving and 120mm for shows!

Dont Knock it until you try it!


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Been there, done it....starting about 12 years ago...

Nowadays I prefer a height that allows me to drive the car hard all year round, withour damaging anything...lowered from standard, but not sump busting low!

If you go coilovers rather than air ride, make sure to use plenty of never-sieze on the threads...they always sieze solid. Every set I've ever had has done so...
 
well at £1200 i wouldn't consider them 'cheap'

but i'm sure you can pay alot more for 19" as well

If they can't be fixed up... will just have to cut my losses and put the kraft 17"s back on, perhaps ebay the remaining 2 good wheels /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

thanks for the links
 
Erm thats why i said only if you lower your car properly! meaning all the correct gear, ie decent springs and dampers or coilovers, and camber adjusted to suit. If you take your car to a racing specilist you can have your car set up how you want it!

And yes most superminis up here are reversing in hedges too, thats cause they cant drive, or had a cheap set of springs fitted, or even a decent set just bolted straight on and not set up!

I do race cars Ess /Three, not saying im the master of lowering but i do know a little and always get it done correctly! ive had 16 or so cars lowered and never been off the road yet, and i dont hang around!!
 
what is the largest wheel you guys would suggest going with on an 1993 90????????
 
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