Tires and Wheels

Greetings all. Besides having a 300M, I also purchased a 2007 TL and
even thoug it's a different car, I'm sure some of you can still
assist.

I have a 2007 Acura TL Type S and want to replace those stock wheels
with something a little nicer. Perhaps in chrome. So far, it has been
hell trying to find out if any wheels fit other than Ron Johns. My
question is that if I do find a nice wheel, will going to a 19" tire &
wheel combo take away gas mileage? What about speed performance like
0-60 or 1/4 mile? Will I need to have my Speedometer recalibrated? I
have 235-45-17 and would like to upgrade to a 235-35-19.

Thanks in advance.

 

You want to keep the same OD.
There are a number of web sites that make this calculation easy.
Here is one: http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp
I get:
Overall Diameter: 25.32 in 643.12 mm
Overall Diameter: 25.47 in 646.93 mm
It's close, your ODO/Speedo would be about 1% lower/slower according to
my calcs.
Getting the lower profile tires may be an expensive problem.

You must like a rough ride!

 

You can use this tire calculator to see effects of tire size changes on
speedometer readings: http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Pluggin the two tires into the calculator, they are within 0.6% of each
other in speedometer/odometer readings (tread OD is all that matters for
that). So when your speedometer shows 60 mph, you would be going 60.4
mph - acceptable error. Fuel mileage will also be changed by that
amount (insignificant increase of 0.6% - which may be offset by
increased weight of the larger wheel - see next paragraph).

Larger wheels will usually be heavier, and the weight will be
distributed more to the outside of its diameter (IOW - rotational moment
of inertia - resistance to increasing and decreasing wheel rpm - will
increase), so you will have a penalty in acceleration and braking. And
your ride will be harsher (shorter/stiffer tire sidewall). So you will
be giving up performance and ride for what you consider better looks and
cornering ability.

Oh - and tire prices go up exponentially with wheel size.

Your only gain will be in appearance (and bleeding edge cornering
ability). Everything else (tire cost, ride quality, acceleration,
braking) will suffer. Is that what you want?

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Thanks Bill. I'm going to stay with the same size. After reading the
comments here, I don't believe there's really any gain other than
appearance.

Thanks again.

Ken

--
"Now Phoebe Snow direct can go
from thirty-third to Buffalo.
From Broadway bright the tubes run right
Into the Road of Anthracite"
Erie - Lackawanna

 

Nah. It was just a thought. I'll stay with the original size.

Thanks for the link and comments. I do appreciate it.

Ken