Why are rims so big now days?

im running 16 x 7 with a 225 55 yokahama avs... the reason most people go 17 is you can get the front past the upper ball joint without grinding the b.j.cup. this lets you go quite a bit wider on the front

Tire choices suck for 15" wheels, unless you are drag racing. 17" wheels will slow a car down in drag racing. They won't hook as well and will eat more HP.

I have 17" wheels now, but would like 15's someday. Mickey Thompson is making some tires that might work for me, but I have a lot of things to buy before new wheels and tires.

My father-in-law told me that a Model T he used to own came from the factory with 21" rims and that at the time smaller rims were in style.It's like they say, what's old is new.

Why? Easy. The OE's keep putting bigger and bigger brakes on production cars.

When I got my car in 1984, he didn't want me to convert it to discs because it stopped fine with drums. Then again, nothing really stopped hard back then.

I changed it in 1996 because I got tired of seeing my life flash before my eyes.

Last week I bought the Mustang Steve conversion to put 13" fronts and 11" rears on the car.

I called my dad to talk to him about something else, and I told him about the new setup I got. He told me I was crazy, and I explained was done living in fear of stock hondas that can come to a dead stop in 140 feet on the freeway with the group of non drivers I see behind the wheel these days.

He thought about it for a second and told me he thought his new Chevy pickup would outbrake his C4 Corvette and I may have a point.

Big brakes may be nice, but if you think about it, if you're really skilled at driving and paying attention, they're not necessary. Been driving 18 wheelers for 30 years now and have yet to hit something that could stop faster than me. It's all about paying attention to what the other guy is doing and driving defensively. I can follow you and tell you what you're going to do before you do it.

D.Hearne said:

Big brakes may be nice, but if you think about it, if you're really skilled at driving and paying attention, they're not necessary. Been driving 18 wheelers for 30 years now and have yet to hit something that could stop faster than me. It's all about paying attention to what the other guy is doing and driving defensively. I can follow you and tell you what you're going to do before you do it.

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You don't live in Los Angeles do you?

I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm saying that being defensive has its limits when you are going with traffic at 75 in the middle of six lanes of traffic and somebody ten car lengths in front of you gets spun out by somebody not paying attention changing lanes, causing spinning car to flip and hitting car to spin into traffic collecting three lanes. And driving a car that is hard pressed to stop in 200 feet from 60mph is nuts considering everything else down here stops in roughly half of that.

I've seen it three times in the five years I've been here, and got lucky I was able to drive around it all three. I'll take all the help I can get. There's only so much heads up driving can do for you. "Defensable space" is a luxuary you don't get here.

To D.Hearne: BINGO! Right on the money. Most professionial drivers understand this. Those that don't, loose their jobs, or more, unfortunately.

CraigMBA said:

You don't live in Los Angeles do you?

I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm saying that being defensive has its limits when you are going with traffic at 75 in the middle of six lanes of traffic and somebody ten car lengths in front of you gets spun out by somebody not paying attention changing lanes, causing spinning car to flip and hitting car to spin into traffic collecting three lanes. And driving a car that is hard pressed to stop in 200 feet from 60mph is nuts considering everything else down here stops in roughly half of that.

I've seen it three times in the five years I've been here, and got lucky I was able to drive around it all three. I'll take all the help I can get. There's only so much heads up driving can do for you. "Defensable space" is a luxuary you don't get here.

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No I don't, but have driven in nearly every other major city in the U.S. and believe me, L.A doesn't have a lock on dumb drivers. I've had lots of instances where I was folowing 2 car lengths behind another vehicle at 70-75 (which is too close also) and had people slide right into that slot, tell me they weren't crazy. I still stand by what I posted, if you hit something ahead of you, you're TOO close. If you're not skilled or comfortable at driving 75 in heavy traffic, you need to be somewhere else. You drive the vehicle according to its capabilities as well as your skill. You "escaped" those three times due to either your skills or just plain dumb luck.

A few years ago, my Kid was driving my 68 Merc Monterey and rear ended a 90's Nissan Centra, he told me that the woman driving the Centra stopped suddenly for no reason and he couldn't stop in time, bottom line was he was following too close and/or wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. The brakes worked fine, just not well enough to keep him from hitting her. If he'd been farther back, it wouldn't have happened.

D.Hearne said:

You "escaped" those three times due to either your skills or just plain dumb luck.

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Equal parts of the above plus one part of being on the ball when it broke out. That might not be fair. I'm not the best driver in the world but I am pretty lucky.

The OP asked why wheels were so big. The answer is on the OE side the brakes are huge and stop way better on new cars compared to ten years ago. Those brakes need the clearance. Wheels got bigger.

In 1993, the Mustang came with 10" discs in front and drums in the back and 15" tires, the Corvette had 13" Front disc and 12" rear discs and 17" tires - way exotic at the time. In 2006 the base line Mustang comes with 12" Front PBR's and 10 1/2" discs with either 16" or 17" tires - not exotic any more, and smaller than the V-8 brake package which is about the same as the Corvette package from 1993. You get point.

If you drive a 40 year old car every day you need to understand and make whatever adjustments are necessary to be safe around other drivers. In my world, that means taking every edge I can get plus being heads up.

I drive a box van as part of my business. What you say about watching out for stupid is spot on, but its a lot easier to look out for stupid when you're 5 feet above everyone else and 20mph slower. If I had a nickel for every woman in a ****box car with at least two small children in car seats who cut across three lanes so she could get in front of me and panic stop to turn into a shopping mall I could buy both of us a nice lunch. All the equipment in the world is no substitution for the nut behind the wheel.

But this is a thread hyjack, we could start another post and talk about it all day.:OT:

D.Hearne said:

No I don't, but have driven in nearly every other major city in the U.S. and believe me, L.A doesn't have a lock on dumb drivers.

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I dissagree 100%. You dont know the ratio of asian drivers to non asian drivers.there is a big difference.

whoops

Lets keep this thread on track please...