leolo007

Hey guys, if you remember me I totalled my civic a few nights after the last event at Pungo. Well I decided to do some plastic (metal) surgery and keep the car as a race only car. The rims are damaged so since I have to get new ones, I was wondering what size I should get and what tire size too. Also what brand of tire. Since this will be a race car only I was wanting drag radials or maybe even slicks. But I dont know, what are the rules and slicks wouldnt work so good on a rainy day like last right? I was thinking of getting konig heliums, 15x6.5 does it sound good. please let me know.
Thanks!!
Leo

lightningd

for autox, normally the smaller diameter wheel/tire you go, the better. since you're in SM i'd get Kuhmo Victoracer R-compound tires.

vbspec

15x7 that 1/2 inch can = alot more tire

jmciver

Uh, not necessarily. Any time you change the overall wheel/tire diameter, you change the gearing of the car. The smaller the overall diameter, the more acceleration you will have (which is nice when coming out of a turn or at the start) but the lower top end speed you would have (which would suck on more open and straight course).

For real tight and short courses (like at Pungo) having the extra acceleration is not always bad. But for more open courses like at Little Creek or VMP (VMSC events) you will want to have a little more top end. The trick is to find a good balance between acceleration and top end speed. For you, I would recommend you stick with the stock tire/wheel diameter to start since that is the gearing that the car was designed for. Since you are buying new wheels anyway, try to get the widest rim that will fit since the more rubber you can get on the road the better.

Once you get a little more auto-x experience under your belt, then you should start experimenting with different wheel/tire diameters to affect the gearing as you see fit for your car and your more experienced driving style.

rowe4166

get 20's

lightningd

Ok, i meant, smaller diameter is normally ok unless you drive a bmw which has short gearing to begin with, and has torque, unlike our hondas. bmw's are the only cars i've heard hit the rev limiter in third. my accord doesn't even make it to the top of 2nd. i would go w/ the 15's or maybe even 14's if you can find them wide enough. they would be a good match for the honda tranny gearing.

jmciver

Relax Dave, I was not trying to start a BMW vs Honda debate . I was just merely providing some more knowledge on the subject for the guy. What I said applys to all cars across the board.

And BTW, I do hit the rev limiter in 2nd more often than you think, Jerry even more since he has taller gears than I do ...

leolo007

Hey jmciver, thanks for the resonse. How do you like your bimmer? I was really close to getting one last week, since I totalled my car I thought of getting something sportier and rear wheel drive and fast stock. Didnt do it at first because at first I noticed that '95 (it was a '95) are the only year that it came with a 3.0L instead of the 3.2L. Dont really know the difference but thought 3.2L would be better anyways. So I started looking at '96 and up but then I figured with a totalled car and a reckless driving ticket (havent been to court yet, hopefully the judge will decrease to something nicer) my insurance was going to kill me. So then I thought, make the civic race only car, do not register it and do not insure it, and tow it around in an SUV. Looking at 2000+ Pathfinders.... sweeeet. But those M3's will be in my mind forever.

Dave, I thought about 14s since we have little torque and a high redline they would work nicely but dont know if they make low porfile tires for 14s plus the stock wheel size on an integra (I have an integra engine) is 15, so that should work. Now I need to find out if Konig Heliums come in 7" wide. But you are definetely right about no torque, I know JDM GSR tranny's or even USDM B16a trannys have shorter gear ratios. Will have to look into getting something like that in the future.

Thanks again guys for the info.

Ri i i i i i i ight

Leo

lightningd

relax? you took my statement too aggressively. i was merely stating that bmws have a significantly shorter gear than most cars out there.

oh, and btw, Team Grocery, Yaaaah!
hehehehe

jmciver

Dave, you're killing me !!!

And leolo007, all I can say is that my BMW has been very good to me, even when I didn't always treat her right (i.e. engine overrev back in '96), especially now that the car is heavily modified. As far as HP and TQ numbers, there are no differences on paper between the 3.0L and 3.2L. BMW went to a 3.2L in 1996 to make up for the performance loss that the car suffered when BMW had to put all that OBDII crap on the car.

Some have said that the 3.2L car has better torque, but I think it is due to the taller gear that they put in the car in 1996. I can talk BMW M3s for quite a while, so if you want to know more let me know .......