Hey hey hey, come one now let's be fair. They do this in Japan too...

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1364258

As for possible benifits, there must be some. Look at go carts or the front tires of the F1 cars of the late 70's and early 80's. Don't get me wrong, I'd never do this myself, I'm just trying to find SOME justification for this non-sence!

-Chris

 

but why does a VW want to be JDM? that makes no sense...

i think i found the *real* inspiration for this.

 

Go cart and old F-1 car tires are designed to be run that way. Modern car tires are not. Old F-1 car tires had tall side walls with much more flex they were designed that way, these guys are using low profile tires and stretching them which is stupid. They weren't designed to work that way. Makes the side wall very vunerable to road debris and puts weird side loads on the bead area that weren't meant to be there. Also, some of those pictures it looks like the fender will rub on the sidewall which isn't the strongest part of the tire. But, those guys don't care about it working correctly, just if it looks "cool".

This is another example of they think it looks "cool" and has no performance benefit. If anything it hurts performance and looks stupid.

 

I knew someone would bring this up, but Ive said it before and I'll say it again, just because a couple people in Japan decided to do it does NOT mean it is automatically in good tase. I know there are a ton of kids in this country that would also put curb feelers on their car if they heard that somewhere in Japan some wild-eyed Silvia owner put it on his car, well lets not forget that Japan is the same country that gave us the Altezza tail lights(IS300) which I thought were tacky when they came out on the Lexus and even more absurd on ever honda civic that copied it.

Case in point, heres one of those Silvias from from Japan with the stretched wheels, lets look at this for a second. Does anyone really think this looks good with the big goofy bolted on fenders flares? If you didnt know this was in Japan and saw this driving down the street around here it would just be fugly

 

J_ knowing that is in japan and what not...I still think it's fugly. I hate that crap. Looks more like watsonville or gilroy than japan. But hey..whatever floats their boats.


Just don't drive around me like that...if I get nailed with tire chunks when your tire blows out or peices of fiber glass imma be pissed. I already got nailed with flying glass debri and that's bad enough.

 

but... JDM is better cuz it's JDM. if you have to ask, you don't understand.

 

I wasn't implying that everything japanese=good taste. I was just saying that VW guys aren't the onlyones with BAD taste. Speaking of ugly Japanese cosmetics, I'm gonna put some tiny chrome side mirrors on my fenders just behind my head lights, circa 70's JDM style... hells yeah.

-Chris

 

hehe, I know man, its impossible to do anything tacky to your car if you live in Japan, its all good. And oh yeah, everyone there drives 600hp Skylines and 400hp Silvias...
And their all drift masters...

 

ah ha, well then I agree with ya

 

1) Of course, you could buy a 245/25/17 instead of buying a 215/45/17 but which tire is less expensive?

2) My logic is perfect, I didnt say you were using the largest contact patch the wheel could accomodate, I DID say is that you are maximizing the available contact patch of a narrow tire. Stretching the sidewall out and up increases the available contact patch of the tire, this should be obvious as it pulls the edges of the tread to the same level as the center portion, thus allowing the full tread pattern to make contact with the road.

3) Yes I understand that if you use a smaller wheel you dont need to stretch tires but thats not what we are talking about. WRXs can only run what, ~8.5 at the widest? Thats nice but some people like more traction and not all cars are AWD. We cant all run weak width wheels and not many people can afford widebody kits. Therefore tire stretching and negative camber are valid solutions.

So basicly this isnt done just for looks.

As is obvious from my previous posts this isnt something I condone, Im simply stating the facts.

 

1) Narrower wheels are cheaper than wheels that are to wide for the tires.

2) A 215MM wide tire has a tread width of 215MM no more and no less. Installed on a correctly sized wheel and inflated properly you will get the full contact patch the tire was designed to give. Using a wider wheel than nessesary does nothing to increase the contact patch. Your logic is a little suspect.

3) Tire stretching is done for looks and no other reason. As for negative camber, it is used to ensure the tire is flat on the road while cornering only.

 

1) No kidding, but wheels arent a disposable wear and tear item, tires are. Do you buy wheels more often than you buy tires? Didnt think so.

2) Yes you may get the full contact patch the tire was designed to give, but if you look at a tire on a car you can see the entire treaded part of the tire does not contact the ground. And I didnt say using a wider wheel would increase the contact patch of a tire.

3) No and no, its also used to ensure wheel tucking during suspension compression.

 

Man you're missing the big picture here, and you're totally wrong about the stretching = bigger contact patch thing. Froride1 is correct in everything he said. I don't know what kind of car you're looking at or what kind of creepy, rounded-tread tires it happens to have but on a normal car with normal tires the tread on the ground is flat except for the extreme edges. When your corner, I promise you the outside edge is now 100% flat on the ground with the rest of the tire. That's a lot better than having sidewall hitting the pavement!!! That's completely unsafe and will definitely degrade performance. Tire companies design their tread and the tire's footprint for the best possible performance, and they assume it will be mounted on a properly-sized rim. Changing that will not improve performance. Besides, the tread is really, really stiff. It's got layers of steel and tough nylon webbing and whatnot... pulling out the sidewalls is going to make such a small difference in the shape of the tread that you would never, ever be able to detect a difference in contact patch from the driver's seat. Ever.

You say a narrower tire is cheaper, and you're right. Instead of paying the extra money for the 9" wide rim and using a 205 tire on it, how about buying the proper 7" wide rim and using the same 205 tire on it . You're obviously missing the point here. I'm not advocating more tread, I'm advocating less wasted wheel. Then you wouldn't have "tucking" problems either. These people don't have "tucking" problems, they're creating their "tucking" problems by running huge wheels on cars that aren't meant for them. That's what this is about... wanting to have huge, wide wheels that stick out the side and the stretching of the tires is done as a necessity to keep them from rubbing. If you got a proper wheel nobody would EVER do this.

I promise that there would be no significant difference driving a VW with 205 tires on proper rims and 205 tires on stupid-wide rims except the added weight of the wide rims would hinder handling and acceleration and the decreased tire height and vertical sidewall strength would make it more likely that you would bend your retarded-wide rims.

It's a look, and nothing more. And it's stupid.

And I hate to stereotype, but this is more Mexican lowrider than anything else. We all know those lowriders love to hit the track ... this isn't a performance mod!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeremy

 

And yes, the Japanese do some stupid crap as well.

It's funny that the fender flares on those cars were pointed out but nobody mentioned those CRAZY exhaust tips!!! Hahaha that's just nuts!

How about this one?

 

Damn, must have aircraft landing struys to hold that trunk open. That wing is the coolest thing I have seen ever. If it doesn't generate any downforce at least it's weight will hold the rear of the car down.