by sergei » Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:46 pm
If you care only about looks, and don't care about performance or safety do not read this post.
do you want good grip?
do you want comfortable ride?
do you want higher tolerance to potholes?
do you want less stress on suspension and wheel bearings?
Get 16" wheels with 205-225/55-45 tyres.
do you want wank factor?
get 18" with stupidly low profile, less grip, less suspension life, less bearing life, higher chance of bending the wheels.
We are talking about NZ roads here, if you are sticking only to motorway that is fine, but once you get on rural or less looked after road combined with lowering springs (which alone do not help at all with handling) you will be having a really bad ride.
I used to have 205/40/16 for about 1 year, I had oval wheels, badly cracked side wall, dead shocks, dead wheel bearings at the end of it. All I did was travel around NZ.
Remember higher sidewall is not equal to less grip, low vehicle is not equal to better handling (suspension travel is very important on un-even surfaces, mismatch sprigs to shocks can lead to really bad handling). If you put lowering spring on 10 year old car with original shocks it will handle a lot worse (although you might think it will handle better, it is the same as feeling "extra" power from fart cannon). You cannot just mess with stuff like this, you change the wheels, you change the total spring rate of the suspension, then you lower which will worsen the situation. If you pay attention how race cars are lowered you will understand why putting softer springs can lead to worse handling (proper lowered vehicle is lowered without altering spring rates). The suspension is very complicated thing and you cannot just mess with it and hope for better.
Of course you could compromise, say just get 17" and something like 45+ side wall on 205+ tyre and be done with it. 18" are stupidly big for Caldina and can lead to clearance issue with wider tyres.