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They're also the ones with those #*&!#% boom systems. You know, the ones that are blasting sitting in line at McDonalds, so WE have to listen to it too.
Yes, they're also the ones that gold plate their teeth, wear their pants half hanging off their ass, walk with a fake limp and talk with ghetto slang.
Yo dawg, we be rollin thru da hood on mah twunny foez whilez I be showin off mah gol' teef ya know whut I be sayin dawg?
Cars are not getting heavier, they are getting lighter every year. Unless you are thinking of those little import pooboxes of the 70's and early 80's. Then yeah maybe, but the average car is lighter today than they were back then. The whole bigger rim fad is to the point of stupidity now. I could see a slight increase in sizes, but some of the ones you see now are WAY past ridiculous. 24" rims on a mid 70's coupe? 20" rims on a frigging VW bug? Come on, just another way to lighten peoples wallets, and a fad.
So you're saying a bigger rim and narrower tire will stop better than a smaller rim and larger walled tire if both were installed on one of today's cars?
Well, a larger tire diameter means a larger contact patch, so I suppose that might help with braking somewhat. Whether or not that offsets the fact that more of the rotating mass is away from the hub, I don't know. But the point of factory-equipped larger wheels has been mostly to accommodate larger brakes. And yeah, that does make a huge difference in stopping power. You couldn't fit 14" rims on many of today's cars. It's getting to the point where the brake discs are as big as the wheels were 15 years ago.
Maybe i was off base.I brought 17" kumho tires with 50,000 warranty.I brought some 22" tires of the same brand.The prices was pretty much the same.Now if you choose a brand like michelin a 22" set can cost you $1800,verses paying $1100 for a set of 18".I know people will say goodyear or bf goodrich is better than a let say a kumho or hankook.The price different could be, because kumho and hankook are made over seas i think.It cheaper to produce overseas we all know that.As far as being better who knows.I know the kumho held up pretty good for me so far.Now crap tires,people say perelli tires are good,but those tire wear pretty quick.
Brands have vast model choices. What models do you have. For instance you can buy a 225/45/17 Kumho ASX for a measly $91 each, or Kumho's V700 model for $185 in the same size. One's a quality high performance model and one's a mid-pack all-season but they are both the same brand and one is double the cost of the other.
So the point is, you said your 17" set cost you $50 more than your 22" set and therefore the 17's must cost more because you deducted they have more rubber in the sidewall. How do we know if you bought a quality 17" Kumho and a cheap 22" Kumho. Generally speaking, the larger diameter wheel the higher cost of the tire, so comparing the same tire, the set of 22's should have cost more.
Brands have vast model choices. What models do you have. For instance you can buy a 225/45/17 Kumho ASX for a measly $91 each, or Kumho's V700 model for $185 in the same size. One's a quality high performance model and one's a mid-pack all-season but they are both the same brand and one is double the cost of the other.
So the point is, you said your 17" set cost you $50 more than your 22" set and therefore the 17's must cost more because you deducted they have more rubber in the sidewall. How do we know if you bought a quality 17" Kumho and a cheap 22" Kumho. Generally speaking, the larger diameter wheel the higher cost of the tire, so comparing the same tire, the set of 22's should have cost more.
I have Kumho Ecsta ASX 255/50/17 for $135, plus tax and delivery charge.kumho ecsta stx 265/35/22 for $750 three years ago.They both are all season tires and the quality i don't know which one is better.So yes the 22 are a bit more.
Well, a larger tire diameter means a larger contact patch, so I suppose that might help with braking somewhat. Whether or not that offsets the fact that more of the rotating mass is away from the hub, I don't know. But the point of factory-equipped larger wheels has been mostly to accommodate larger brakes. And yeah, that does make a huge difference in stopping power. You couldn't fit 14" rims on many of today's cars. It's getting to the point where the brake discs are as big as the wheels were 15 years ago.
LOl I think I left out a critical piece of info...when i said "a bigger rim and narrower tire", I meant narrower side wall, not tread width.
That's like once someone told me going from a 14 inch rim to a 15 inch rim would throw off my speedo, but I later learned it was the overall tire diameter that changed the speedo. i would think the same would apply to brakes, but if the brake calipers and pads themselves were actually increased in size, I could see the need for bigger rims, but if todays cars are heavier than yesterdays, quite frankly with all the plastic and crap i can't see why.
But some of those guys running around with 22's and such on their 71 Impala, I only hope they're running disc brakes. I'd hate to see one of them try and stop with 4 wheel drums, and even worse no power brake booster.
if todays cars are heavier than yesterdays, quite frankly with all the plastic and crap i can't see why.
It's a combination of increased size (compare today's Civic, Accord, Camry, BMW 5 series, Maxima, VW Rabbit, etc. to their 20-year-old counterparts), increased feature content and more stringent crash protection mandates. And part of the problem is that increasing the weight of some component necessitate increasing the weight of others. Want to add a hundred pounds of weight to the chassis? Well, now you need higher spring rates. So the springs weigh more. And you need stronger suspension components, so they weigh more. And good luck stopping or turning today's heavy cars without power brakes or power steering. So those systems add more weight. Of course, we need bigger brakes to slow this extra mass down, so now the brakes weigh more. And we need bigger, wider wheels to accommodate those brakes and to create a bigger contact patch to keep all that weight on track in the turns. Add a little more weight.
Try this on for size: the first VW Rabbit to hit American shores weighed less than 2,000 pounds. Now they're pushing 3,200. Yeah, they need bigger brakes all right. And bigger wheels.
In the 70s, a Porsche 911 weighed about 2300lbs. Now their "lightweight competition" version weighs 3,100lbs.
Well maybe with the ever rising gas prices, they'll have a flash back of what GM did in 1977.....start downsizing their automobiles in an effort to save on gasoline and emissions. Then perhaps big wheels will disappear, but you know the homies will always think they're cool.
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, and even worse no power brake booster. 
