My friend bought some tires at a cheap flat fix in the big city. The tires were bigger in size but the rims were the same size. He notices on his GPS that he was going 5 miles faster than his odometer. He then soon found out that bigger tires produce more speeds. Only thing was that he got a mechanic with a scan tool to calibrate the car tires.
1) Is it recommend to install bigger tires on a car without changing the suspension? (Although just a little bigger and not exaggerated)
2) Can wider tires on a car give better handling? All 4 or just the rear?(I know sports cars have rear wide tires to prevent skidding and flip-overs)
3) Rather than raising a car is it a good idea to drop a car a few inches to lower the level of gravity for better handling, stability, and breaking the wind?
@jonaeski, surely you realize that if you change the tire diameter, the speed the vehicle will travel at a given rpm at the transmission output (which is what speedometers measure) is going to change. That's just physics 101. On a car where there is no calibration for the tire size you just have to live with the difference between indicated speed and actual speed and keep that in mind as far as speed limits. It's not a big difference if just going up one tire size.
For your second question you'd need to test the vehicle in a wind tunnel. One of my vehicles is a '99 Cherokee and that is going to have the aerodynamics of a brick no matter what you do to it.
Taller tires: Adds ground clearance, softens the ride, may be smoother over bumps. But the added weight will cause slower acceleration, worse MPG, and longer braking.
Wider tires: More grip on dry pavement. Wet pavement is mixed (more grip but more prone to hydroplaning). More friction means lower MPG. See added weight above. (The wider rear tires on muscle cars is generally to increase grip on the driven wheels; less wheel spin on launch.)
Lowered suspension: better cornering, rougher ride. And I agree with jpparisio that it can ruin performance. (Just my opinion: people mostly lower their cars for stance/appearance rather than true track performance.)
When you say bigger what do.you mean? Are you speaking about going from a 50 to.60 series tire? Wider tires can allow a vehicle to handle better. Unless the vehicle come with a staggered setup stock, I would keep the same the width the same on all 4 tires. Don't bother lowering your vehicle. If not done correctly you will throw the geometry off.
Bigger as in taller. (A size or two taller)
1) If the new cars have to be calibrated when changes tires sizes...do the old cars need to be when there was no OBD?
2) Does lowering a car give it more aerodynamic than raising a car even if the car is square and not designed like a sportscar?