Re: Wider rear tyres

["Michel Drainville" <MDrainville@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is the exact setup I'm running on my E30 (91 318ic). My car with stock
tires (195-70-14) had some oversteer. If I was pushing it too much on a
highway exit, the rear was eventually loosing grip, then slide.  With this
setup, the car feels more neutral. I don't experience understeer under
similar conditions.  Expect your speedometer to be off by a certain
percentage since this setup is 1" overall taller than stock.  For the ABS,
I never had a ABS ligh coming on because of the size of the tires, and, no,
the light isn't burned, and, yes, the ABS still works. I have these tires
and wheels for 3 years now and I'm happy with them. May be you already
know, the 16" will give you a firmer ride, and will tend to follow the road
inperfection (trameling if I recall).

In the past, I had a first generation 300ZX. Stock from Nissan it had
215-60-15 all around. One day I installed 245 at the back. The car started
to have a lot of understeer, at the point that in was not sportier any
more.

So why there is a difference between these two cars?  I believe it's
because the BMW is more neutral to start with (50-50 weight distribution)
compare to my Nissan that had more weight at the front.

One thing to be carefull about is the offset. Specially for the rear. You
don't want the tire to stick out the fenders, neither having them rubbing
on the shocks.

Good luck.

Michel Drainville
91 318ic