I am very likely buying a Subaru BRZ from someone here soon. It's on generic OEM wheels though, and that's something (probably the only thing) I'll change.
I looked at Tire Rack this morning before I left to see what some options looked like on the car. I noticed more than a few had "back order" and only quantities of 1-2-3 with restock in July and August. Sad panda.
(I could always use suggestions for sizes and offsets though if you're bored.)
Summit Racing has some 17" 5x100 wheels in stock, and usually ships very fast.
i was at Tire Rack last week and a friend needed 1 new tire for a spare and had to choose another brand tire as the one he wanted was out of stock.
He also was looking at a particular size tire for his car and there were only two brands of tires in that size carried by the Rack.
He was lucky as the one brand he preferred was the one they had in stock.
Supply chains for tires, in particular 200 treadwear and R compounds, in addition to wheels, have been messy the past 12 months. It's not a tire rack issue (And I know that it wasn't really being presented as such)
Aside from shortages caused by Covid, which will hopefully be sorted out in time, the change in wheel/tire sizing driven by stylists at the automotive manufacturers which have to go to larger and larger diameter wheels trying to make the model stand out despite the fact that it results in increased unsprung weight and theoretically decreased performance means that even fairly new cars have tire sizes that are no longer available in the higher performance levels even 10-15 years after the car's manufacture date.
And for older collector cars, forget about being able to find decent performance rubber in anything close to an OEM size. I've been waiting for something like a Countach to get into a serious accident and ending up having to battle in court their decision to put much lower rated tires than were originally specified for their car because that is all they could get.
Forget about anything really good in a 15" today.
In reply to wspohn :
A lot of good 200 TW and R comp options are available in 15". 16" is actually more of a problem.
And you can get Countach tires. They do a run every few years. Even the big LM off-roader.
Tire Rack does order seasonally. The 200TW tires come in during the spring and are sold out by fall. Winter tires are similar - once you're deep into winter, supplies are low and there aren't any more coming. They don't want to get holding aging inventory for three seasons.
Oh I didn't even get into tires yet, the wheels were the ones out of stock.
In reply to Jerry :
Personally, I'd be looking for some used RPF1s, probably 8.5 or 9" wide. If spacers don't scare you that opens up the whole world of slightly higher WRX offsets that you can space out appropriately. I think 17x9" and around 40mm offset is supposed to be the ideal.
In reply to Jerry :
The Frisbies use a slightly odd tire size (215/45/17) that doesn't seem to have that great a choice and as you found, is good at being out of stock.
I just ordered a set of 17x8 RPF1s with 225/45/17 Falken RT 660s for mine from TR - everything was in stock and should be here early next week. Would've been even quicker if I hadn't had my heart set on a wheel colour that wasn't in stock in the local-ish warehouse.
wspohn said:...the change in wheel/tire sizing driven by stylists at the automotive manufacturers which have to go to larger and larger diameter wheels trying to make the model stand out despite the fact that it results in increased unsprung weight and theoretically decreased performance means that even fairly new cars have tire sizes that are no longer available in the higher performance levels even 10-15 years after the car's manufacture date.
I definitely share your perspective, I hate how large tires have become. Outside of <=200tw options on 23.5" tall 15" wheel sizes, there's definitely less selection in older sizes. That said, on more performance oriented vehicles, having larger diameter helps them get the power down. I'm seriously impressed with OEMs ability to cope with heavy wheel/tire setups. There are a lot of vehicles out there with say 300ftlbs+.
In reply to wspohn :
It might be driven by stylists, but they're at least partially driven by safety requirements mandating high hood lines for maximum energy absorption area. Also high performance cars need high performance brakes, which just don't fit under tiny wheels. Everything is a trade-off. I do enjoy that tires for my fiesta cost less than half what tires for my Cayman do...but part of the reason the fiesta is purely a street car these days is because the brakes are comically undersized and overheat immediately on track.
While the need for big brakes is definitely the case for some vehicles, The RX-8 had awesome brakes and they fit under 17" wheels, without resorting to a multi piston caliper. Camaro SS brakes were designed/tested to run on track for 24 hours straight and they fit under 18" wheels. I suspect mist wheels are 2+ sizes larger than what is necessary.
I don't know that hoods truely need to be higher for pedestrian crash standards. I think most are high because that's the current styling trend. The Miata has hood hinges that pop up during an impact to work around the issue.
It's the styling trend because everyone is doing it because they basically have to. It's not the only reason, but it's certainly one of them. Also helps with pedestrian safety iirc, again more area for energy absorbtion, versus kneecapping the pedestrian.
I do agree that the sweet spot is 17-18", sometimes 19s. And that's where the performance tires have the vast majority of their sizes.
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