Wheels.?!?

[1stgen]

Yup...So why do people put bigger wheels in the rear rather than in the front? Preference?

[ScotianMR2]

RWD it allows you to put more power to the ground, more surface area = more traction. Front tires would not be beneficial to have wider.

[David]

That just about sums it up. The wider the wheel, the bigger the contact patch. Which is why I find it funny when people do that to their FWD honda.

[1stgen]

I understand the wider wheels...what i mean is like..16's in the front and 18's in the back...

[kbrew8991]

the front fender, wheel gap, etc is smaller than the rear - keeps it in proportion in some people's opinion / tastes

[1stgen]

I just know on pre runner trucks we used to build we would do the opposite.. allows the front tire more contact time or something..like a 17 up front and a 15 in the rear.. same or similar diamter but different rotational mass or contact time or something.. Brain is a full of goo today stoopid swine flu..

[EL PAALO]

Looks & tire choices.

choices for wide rear tires anything smaller than 17 for the back are rather pathetic.

The body shape/lines lends itself to a larger rear diameter wheel.
Multipiece wheels with a lip look smaller the deeper the lip is - optical illusion. If you run a 17x7 +35 up front with a 25mm lip depth it will appear to be a larger diameter than a 17x9 +35 out back with a 65mm lip depth. Running a larger diameter rear allows the large lip depth difference and makes the wheels look "even."

[poopeeroo]

Originally Posted by EL PAALO

Looks & tire choices.

yup tire choices! you can put wider tires in the front like 225s if you go with 16s. but 16s in the rear are to small in my opinion

here is my double staggered setup

16x8 225/45R16
17x9 245/40R17

[1stgen]

Other than looks. and the benefit of having a tire choice of a fatter tire in the rear. is there a performance value of have a front tire that is overall smaller in diameter. To extremes I am just thinking about like a tractor..you know big arse tires in the rear and small useless tires in the front..I would just think that having a overall bigger diameter in the front would help with understeer...or mabye the smaller tires help with oversteer?

[David]

Well on MR2s, you can't have too big of a front tire, or it won't clear the springs. :/

[EL PAALO]

Originally Posted by 1stgen

Other than looks. and the benefit of having a tire choice of a fatter tire in the rear. is there a performance value of have a front tire that is overall smaller in diameter. To extremes I am just thinking about like a tractor..you know big arse tires in the rear and small useless tires in the front..I would just think that having a overall bigger diameter in the front would help with understeer...or mabye the smaller tires help with oversteer?

The car was setup from the factory with a slightly smaller overall diameter up front.
The double stagger only increases that slightly. Still going with roughly the same OD regardless of wheel diameter. If you have a 16 front you can use a 205/45 16 or if you have a 17 front you can use a 205/40 17 ...... same OD.