- The last few decades
have had the same effect on our vehicles
that quarantine has had on me.
(clanging metal sound)
You know what I'm saying?
We got a little bit thicker,
but you know what, that's all right.
Seriously though, if you were to compare
some older cars to the newer cars on the market today,
you would notice a significant difference
in overall size, and just lack of a better term,
girth of our cars today.
Take our very own E30 for instance,
a four-door, three series BMW from the early nineties,
nice and small, little cute fuse,
like a go-cart when you're driving it,
and compare that to a new three series BMW today,
and it's quite the difference.
This has also been the result of cars today
typically coming from the factory
with a little bit more horsepower.
(car engine roaring)
And some larger wheels and tires.
And as us car enthusiast naturally do,
we tend to ditch that stock wheel entire setup
as soon as possible to help fill up
those wheel wells a little bit more,
usually meaning that we're going up not only in diameter,
but also width.
Switching to a larger wheel and tire is nothing new.
However, with the combination of cars getting wider,
and the popularity of widebodying said cars,
we've seen some absolutely insane
wheel specs rolling around.
Which has led us to the question,
are wider wheels and tires better?
And how wide is too wide?
What is going on everybody, Gels from Fitment Industries,
and we're going to be covering just that
on today's episode of Myth or Fact.
(technology buzzing and whirring)
(car engine roaring)
Real quick, before we get into it,
don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already.
It helps us out a ton.
And if you haven't turned on your notifications yet
to get notified whenever we upload,
what are you waiting for, man?
I mean, do you really want to miss out on content like this?
- So why does front wheel drive get so much hate?
(car horn blaring)
- [Man] This lights long too.
(car horn blaring)
Oh my god.
- Like up here.
- [Crew] Hold on, looking at him right now.
- Can you guys hear this? (laughing)
- My face feels crusty.
- Other than that,
don't forget to check out the giveaway
we have going on right now
with our very own wheel brand Artists of Wheels.
We also paired up
with Fortune Auto Suspension and Continental tires.
It's a pretty big deal and we are making a donation
at the end of this giveaway to reach out worldwide.
You can check out all of that,
as well as wheels, tires, and suspension,
all over @fitmentindustries.com.
Anyway. (clapping) (poof sound effect)
It seems like we've just accepted this mentality
of the bigger or wider, the better.
More wheel is going to equal more tire,
more tires going to equal more grip.
(car engine roaring)
I want, you know, the widest setup possible,
but, you know, is that all true?
And is going with a wide setup worth it in the end?
Well, let's just dive right into it.
- [Announcer] Not bad three. (board springing)
(splashing) Boom.
- Just like most things,
there are going to be advantages and disadvantages
to pretty much everything.
Let's go over, you know, like the fun part first.
The advantages of going with a wider wheel entire setup
is that yes, we will be providing your car with more grip
and more traction, which can improve your overall
handing and quartering performance.
You are creating more of a contact patch with the ground
which is going to cause friction as well as grip,
since friction technically equals grip.
Typically with a wider tire,
you will get a stiffer sidewall as well,
depending of course, on the brand
and type of tire that you are going with.
Advantage number two,
is that because of the extra friction and grip
you will be able to put down more of your vehicles power
to use, increasing your overall acceleration.
However, this is going to be only beneficial
for those vehicles and applications that have
the amount of horsepower that is necessary to do so.
And then we will touch on that in just a second.
That's kind of a big point.
Advantage number three of going with a wider tire.
As much as the extra grip can increase your acceleration,
it can also help with slowing your car down.
Remember, grip is the same as friction
and the more friction,
a wider tire can help decrease your braking distance
Advantage number four.
It's probably gonna look f*cking amazing.
There's just something about a wide wheel and tire
that us as car enthusiasts tend to just
lose our damn minds over.
When we see a 14 inch wide wheel
on the back of a wide body 370 Z,
you can't help but think,
"That's a g**damn, like truck wheel.
That's a 20x14 wheel."
And that tire is just about as wide as I am.
And I think that it all stems from the fact
that when we were growing up, you know,
when you're a little car enthusiasts
just running around, going to the car shows,
and the drag strips, and stuff like that.
We were watching all the generations above us
with the big muscle cars, the drag cars,
the big tire usually meant more power.
That car was putting down some pretty impressive numbers
and it was cool.
You know, it was aggressive.
So now when we see a mini tire set up,
we automatically tend to think that that car means business
with that type of setup.
I mean, you look at tires like the Michelin Sport Cup 2,
the Federal 595RS-RR,
the Toyo Proxes R888.
With their aggressive tread patterns,
they just looked so damn good,
especially when the first letter of that tire size
starts with a three.
(machine roaring)
So you can get better performance with them,
you're more connected to the road, and they look bad-ass.
What is the issue?
Are there any disadvantages when going with
a wider setup?
(hands clapping and rubbing together)
(breathing)
Yes.
Remember when we were just talking about the fact
that a wider tire can provide more grip
and improve your acceleration?
Yeah.
But you also remember when I said
it only matters when they're on a vehicle
that has enough horsepower to need that wider tire?
(car engines roaring)
Yeah...
Yeah, yeah.
The fact of the matter is,
yes, a wider tire will provide you with more grip,
but if you don't have the horsepower
to require that amount of grip,
you're not going to be doing yourselves any favor.
In fact, you're probably going
to decrease your acceleration, if anything.
For our everyday cars, like my own FRS for instance,
I don't really need anything larger than one step up
from the factory size to achieve more performance.
For cars that fall in this category,
the performance you see gained
from switching to a larger tire is not exponential,
or even linear for that matter.
Meaning that the performance gain that you see
from stepping up one size is not going to be doubled
by going up another size.
As you can imagine, going with a wider wheel and tire
is going to bring additional qualities with them as well.
One thing specifically is the weight.
They are going to weigh more, especially tires.
More rotational mass means that is going to
require more horsepower to make up for that.
Obviously, if you're jumping from,
let's say, like 300 to like five or maybe 600 horsepower.
Yeah, maybe, you know, go with something a little more wide.
The fact of the matter is, unsprung weight is a killer
to the acceleration performance of your vehicle.
And unless you have the horsepower
to back up going with such a wide setup,
you're not going to see a bump
in your acceleration or performance.
They also decrease your fuel efficiency,
but I mean. (mouth noise)
(laughing) Come on.
Jalopnik actually did a great test
when it comes down to showing firsthand
how much of an impact a wider wheel and tire setup
make on a car in multiple factors and conditions,
like acceleration, breaking, wet and dry conditions,
and of course, you know, how large the tire was.
I'd recommend checking it out,
but basically what they found
is that it is very dependent on the vehicle
and what you're looking to obtain out of that vehicle.
It can vary so much from car to car,
but in the fact of the matter is,
if you're looking for a little increase
in handling and performance out of your car
that is making stock or near stock horsepower,
maybe you got some simple bolt-ons or something like that,
going up one size in your tire will help,
and it's usually recommended.
However, if you just dumped an LS into your Miata,
you might want to go a little bit further.
So we'd love to know your thoughts
down in the comments below.
Have you had any experience of going
with maybe too wide of a tire
or maybe just not a tire that wasn't wide enough?
And let us know what you'd like us to see covered next.
I'm Gels from Fitment Industries.
Don't forget to check out wheels, tires, suspension,
and the giveaway we got going on right now.
It's kind of a big deal.
fitmentindustries.com,
as always you can check the links
down in the description below.
We'll see you guys later.
Peace.