If do again, how?

7 March 04

Tires & Rims

KE70 originally comes with 175/70R13, which was last matched with Goodyear Eagle GA, H grade, cheap tires, bad performance.

Now the KE70 is running on 195/50R15 with MAXXIS MA-V1, V grade, regular tires, still not performance.

It was thought to be not good enough. However radical driving testing in a Drift Competition found that this is about just right. Acceleration suffered a little as compared to the 175/70R13, may be because the overall weight has increased not only because of the 15" rims but also due to wider tires.

What prompt me to say 195/50R15 is enough is because with a suspension setup of 5.5 kg/mm front and 3.3 kg/mm rear, the car exhibit extremely bad under-steer.  In fact a high rev power push produce "PUSH_IN_UNDER". The car will not tail-out. Unless the clutch is de-pressed maximum, engine revved to 8,000 rpm then suddenly release the clutch.

Perhaps the suspension setup is wrong? This discussion will be continued in the next page.

Regardless - change to 195/50/15 6.5JJ 8mm offset (should be still negative off-set) or 205/50/15 7JJ - watch out for the off-set.

Assuming 15" is used, this limits the rotor and caliper combination. So, plan ahead for whatever brakes you want to use.

So, the issue of braking system and tires and rims matching are extremely important to get it right the 1st time. Else you'll be going through troubles that I've previously faced, shown by the links below: -