I have a 2004 BMW 330i ZHP and has a staggered tire set up. I dont care for this due to you cannot rotate your tires. Is the staggered set-up mainly for appearance reasons? or does it for handling purposes?
Larger rear tires will provide more traction to the rear wheels however there is not a drastic difference in acceleration times between staggered and non staggered due to traction issues. The main reason is for aesthetics, a non staggered setup will run inset from the fender on the rear and look less aggressive. If you are set on non staggered, you can run spacers on the rear setup to make it flush with the fenders.
Majority of members on this board will buy a staggered setup for a more aggressive rear fitment. This could include a wider wheel, tire, stance, and appearance.
The wider rear will performance wise, will offer a wider contact patch and additional grip since the car is RWD.
Continental tire allows for side to side rotation of asymetrical tires (ContiSportContacts). I run ContiSportContact 3s in 235 and 255 widths on Style 68 Ms and rotate every 5 K miles for even wear.
Most would argue the benefits are mostly cosmetic appearance and possible better straight line acceleration. "handling" is generally considered more neutral with a non staggered setup.
I also have an E36 M3 sedan. It came with a staggered setup., 245-40-17 in back and 225-45-17 in front. The rear rims are 8.5 and the fronts 7.5. My most recent set of tires is a square setup. 235-40-17's all around. There is a big difference in handling. the car feels much livelier and steering is better. I rotated the tires once off the rims. Tire wear on the E36 M3 is in the ratio of two rears per front tire. There are cost benefits to running a square setup. I am going to keep my E46 square when I buy new wheels and tires this summer.
None no benefits, if possible go with a square setup, better handling and braking, if both front and rear rims are the same size then you can do the rotate thing
I am new to E46 and have read several threads about "staggered" vs "square".
The consensus seems to be that square is better for handling, (unless mods are made to swaybars etc.)
My question is --> unless we drive to the limits, do we ever feel the understeer in a staggered setup?
I could imagine that the owners who take cars to the track can feel the difference, but unless we drive to the point the tires start losing traction, is there any real difference between staggered and square?
Personally, I have not felt understeer in my car, but practically everyday LOVE walking up to it in a parking lot and seeing those wide tires in rear.
The diameter of the tires will be the same (or close enough to not matter). The first number (245 or 225) is the width of the tire in mm's... the second number (40 or 45) is the ratio of height of the sidewall to width. So (theoretically, anyway) the 245-40 tire will be only about 3mm shorter than the 225-45 (1/8").
So, the deal is that Tire Manufactures make tires of a lot of different sizes but not ALL different sizes. That makes the car manufactures that use these tires, to come up with the optimal combination for their cars. A difference of less than a percent between the overall diameter of the tires front to rear is within the tolerance of the design of the suspension etc. That 1 percent difference is close to very normal due to difference in inflation pressures.
Long story short, they try to come up with the best combination and we should follow them because they are the ones testing these for us before selling us the cars.
Because if you didn't and ran 255-40 on the rear and 225-40 on the front, the rear tires would be 12mm (1/2") taller. With the other set-up (255-40 & 225-45) the sidewalls are much closer to the same height.
So, the deal is that Tire Manufactures make tires of a lot of different sizes but not ALL different sizes. That makes the car manufactures that use these tires, to come up with the optimal combination for their cars. A difference of less than a percent between the overall diameter of the tires front to rear is within the tolerance of the design of the suspension etc. That 1 percent difference is close to very normal due to difference in inflation pressures.
Long story short, they try to come up with the best combination and we should follow them because they are the ones testing these for us before selling us the cars.
is this only for the cars that have rear wheel drive?
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