ek4 rims, 195 or 205?

[vinnY]

wondering whether 205/50 tyres would offer more grip if any over 195/50 or 55 tyres?
excluding the price, are there any other advantages of running the 205 over the 195? also what may the disadvantages be?

strictly street use by the way, not tracking it but still want maximum grip

[iced]

205/50 is abit wide for an ek4 rim
ek4 rim is only 6inch wide from memory. same as aus dc2r rim.

go 195/50or55

the difference is not great.
as long as you good tyres no super special cheapest you can get you should grip good.

[JohnL]

205/50 is abit wide for an ek4 rim
ek4 rim is only 6inch wide from memory. same as aus dc2r rim.

go 195/50or55

the difference is not great.
as long as you good tyres no super special cheapest you can get you should grip good.

All else being equal (which it rarely is!) going from a 195 to a 205 may give a slight increase in grip, but in theory the wider the tyre relative to rim width the less responsive the tyre becomes.

In this respect aspect ratio isn't really the issue, i.e. contrary to what most people would expect from a lower aspect ratio tyre, a tyre with a lower aspect ratio may be less responsive than a tyre with a higher aspect ratio when fitted to the same rim.

Maintaining the same (or close) tyre circumference, a wider tyre will have a lower AR, than a narrower tyre, but the sidewall depth will be about the same. All else being equal (again!) this similarity in sidewall depth should mean a similar sidewall stiffness between the two tyres, but the sidewalls on the narrower tyre will be splayed out to the rim, which makes them behave as if they were stiffer.

This will give a slightly harsher ride, but at least slightly improved responsiveness for the narrower tyre over the wider tyre. Only if the wider tyre were fitted to a wider rim would the sidewall of the wider tyre behave more or less the same as the narrower tyre on the narrower rim.

[vinnY]

yoy a johnl reply! i was hoping you'd make an appearance to give an explanation actually :)

harsher ride i can live with, but the load rating for the tyres in question(bs re001) at 195/50 seems to be about 82 while 205/50 seems to be somewhere along the lines of 89. also appears that 195/55 seems to have a load rating of 85
however after reading johnl's it appears i should just spend the extra getting 195/55 instead of getting 205/50
although i really shouldn't be a tightass when it comes to tyres, nearly $50/corner difference in price is quite a bit of a difference when talking about 15" tyres (quoted $125/corner for 195/50 vs $170 195/55)

admittedly i'm currently running 195/50 bs re001's on the front and 205/50 toyo proxes at the rear at the moment

speaking of load ratings, i've heard eg's require 82 on a 14" rim and dc's require 84 on the 15" rim, anyone know what ek's require on 15" rims? or where i can find this info?

[iced]

tyrecard

[JohnL]

yoy a johnl reply! i was hoping you'd make an appearance to give an explanation actually :)

harsher ride i can live with, but the load rating for the tyres in question(bs re001) at 195/50 seems to be about 82 while 205/50 seems to be somewhere along the lines of 89. also appears that 195/55 seems to have a load rating of 85
however after reading johnl's it appears i should just spend the extra getting 195/55 instead of getting 205/50
although i really shouldn't be a tightass when it comes to tyres, nearly $50/corner difference in price is quite a bit of a difference when talking about 15" tyres (quoted $125/corner for 195/50 vs $170 195/55)

admittedly i'm currently running 195/50 bs re001's on the front and 205/50 toyo proxes at the rear at the moment

speaking of load ratings, i've heard eg's require 82 on a 14" rim and dc's require 84 on the 15" rim, anyone know what ek's require on 15" rims? or where i can find this info?

Whatever tyre you fit you need to maintain a close similarity to the standard circumference (for speedo reasons). Part of the problem is that not all sizes even in the same brand / model of tyre will necessarily have the same load ratring, which suggests some difference in case construction beyond merely the size.

This could mean a tyre with a lower load rating might have a softer sidewall (or tread as well) than the higher rated tyre, and this would affect sidewall behaviour between two different sized tyres even if the sidewall depth were the same. I could be wrong, but I doubt any difference (caused by load rating differences) would be as great as the difference you might get between two different sized tyres of the same brand / model that had different speed ratings.

Sorry, no easy answers, I'm stronger on general theory than the specifics of particular tyres.

[kongfu]

195/50/15 is the best.

[mrwillz]

or 55 :)

[Chi]

205 on ek4 wheels is fine,

I ran 205 for a while on my old EK4 wheels even tracked with em.

[JohnL]

205 on ek4 wheels is fine,

I ran 205 for a while on my old EK4 wheels even tracked with em.

'Fine' can be defined as 'acceptable', but this doesn't make it the best option.

[zco]

he never sed it was the best option
as for disadvantages, you will obviously have less clearance on a 205 tyre as its wider.. you will also have thicker profile compared going from 195/55 to 205/55.. acceleration wont be as fast.. but you will barely notice it.. difference is miniscule

[Limbo]

i run 205/55/15 and its lowered, and that's on OEM rims with all the plastic guards in place.
EK4s are suspose to run 195/55/15 and the rim is 6 1/2" wide. THe 205/55 is slightly larger as well as wider. so you will always get better traction with tread

205 (stands for the width in MM i beleive), 55 (stands for the % of the width height) and the 15 is the rim size in inches

Had a tyre place explain it to me one time cos i thought that the 55 was a measurement.
Thus with the 205/55/15 the wheels are slightly larger

running 205/55/15 only slight rub if i full lock downhill, otherwise its fine, that with all the plastic guards in place

[JohnL]

he never sed it was the best option
as for disadvantages, you will obviously have less clearance on a 205 tyre as its wider.. you will also have thicker profile compared going from 195/55 to 205/55.. acceleration wont be as fast.. but you will barely notice it.. difference is miniscule
The "disadvantage" has nothing to to with acceleration or clearance issues, it's to do with handling and response. The sidewall behaviour will be less responsive the narrower the rim is relative to the tread width.

What's the rim width on these wheels? Is it 5.5J? If so then for a performance application a 195 tyre is already too wide for these rims (even if the tyre manufacurer says it's OK to fit them on a 5.5J rim), and 205 is worse. Just because the tyre manufacturer's reccomended narrowest width for a 195 tyre is likely to be 5.5J doesn't mean a 5.5J is going to work well from a handling perspective. Keep in mind that the max reccomended width for a 195 section tyre is likely to be 7J.

For responsive handling a 195 tyre is more suited to a rim around 6J to 7J, and a 205 maybe more like 6.5J to 7J (possibly a 7.5J).

You may not ever have noticed a difference in handling between 195 and 205 section tyres on a 5.5J rim, but any difference may be masked by the particular sidewall stiffnesses between different tyres, or you just might not have been paying attention.

For some people this won't be an issue, they may not drive in a manner that requires optimal response and handling, for others it will be significant. Why spend a small fortune on high quality tyres, only to fit them to rims that impair their performance?? If you don't want to or can't afford to upgrade the rims to better suit a wider tyre, you're better to keep the tyre section narrower, even if this means a higher aspect ratio.

[zco]

thanks for the informed reply. the original poster asked for ANY disadvantages and ofcourse, clearance issues is a disadvantage to lowering the car. the tyre is wider and would have less clearance. how is that not a disadvantage ?the rim is a 6.0" wide rim. the standard tyres are 195. he was just asking for any disadvantages in running a 205 tyre.

[JohnL]

thanks for the informed reply. the original poster asked for ANY disadvantages and ofcourse, clearance issues is a disadvantage to lowering the car. the tyre is wider and would have less clearance. how is that not a disadvantage ?the rim is a 6.0" wide rim. the standard tyres are 195. he was just asking for any disadvantages in running a 205 tyre.

Of course you are correct, it's just that I'd be a bit surprised if clearance were likely to be an issue with 205 section tyres over 195, though I could be wrong.

[Newcivic]

Get 15 * 7 and run 235's

npz