i've heard people say that wider tires, larger rims, sway bars (anti roll?), etc greatly improve handling and whatnot, but do they come with a price? how do they, if at all, affect acceleration, mpg, etc? thanks
by induction1, July 3, 2004
i've heard people say that wider tires, larger rims, sway bars (anti roll?), etc greatly improve handling and whatnot, but do they come with a price? how do they, if at all, affect acceleration, mpg, etc? thanks
Just do a search through the forums and you will see what you will trade off for handling. On one hand you may get better cornering, braking, less body roll - but will trade less fuel economy (if wider wheels - more drag), poorer acceleration (larger wheel size - higher moment of inertia, harder to roll), and generally degraded ride. Careful of the modifications - sometimes going with a stronger, lowering springs, stiffer anti-roll bars, wide wheels (plus 2 or higher) - you may get very undesirable or opposite results. Handling could actually get worse or car will be difficult to control. Wide wheels tend to tramline more (follow road surface irregularities more), and will have a tendancy to aquaplane (hence, very aggressive tread design for water evacuation).
Improving handling is a complicated endeavour. Fundamentally the suspension design on the Corolla is designed to be 1) cheap 2) space efficient.
Remember this car is designed to be a economical all purpose vehicle. The handling capabilites of tisi car are geared towards improved handling for emergency lane change manuvers.
where whall we start:
1) the car's cneter of gravity is too high.... it needs ot be lowered
2) the car has a moderate amount of understeer...adjust tire pressures or increase front track width (wheel offset)
3) There is too much front brake bias whic hcauses excessive dives on entry to a turn.
4) the tires sidewalls are too soft...a 16" tire is probably idea. any lower and you'll bee too stiff and handle poorly over bumps.
5) The car is too softly sprung....but too heavily dampened.....stiffer spring, less deamening o nthe struts.
6) Tire width is adequate... a 205 might give a slight improvement.
thsi is really jsut a guess...but it goves you an idea.
Jsut replacing he tire and wheels will help a little but the ride will suffer and handling will rpobably decrease over bumps.
Thanks for the analysis.......I'm actually thinking about upgrading my 2001 Corolla CE wheels to 16 inch.....probably 205/45/16 tires.....any suggestions on where's the cheapest place (Internet ordering, or shops in Los Angeles area) to get such wheels+tires package?
Thanks!
- uchok00 
Max
www.tirerack.com
