How big is too big

[exp20thcen]

I currently want to use better tires on my Saturn 95' SC2, however all I find, even under new tires, is just proformance tires (under 17570R14). I know that if I increase my tires size that better tires are available. My question is "can I increase the size of my tires, in radius, without having to get a new suspension". Better yet do I need to at all? I don't really know to much about cars. I was wanting to go up to 16-inch. Any info would be helpfull, thank-you.

[saturnxsc2]

alright... you cant make the total radius of the wheel and the tire combined more than the size of the combined radius of the tire and wheel you have now. if you want 16 inch wheels, you can get thinner, "low profile" tires to go along with the wheels, but the total size cannot exceed the total size of the wheel and tire you have now. to bring the total size up to 16 inches you would need ALOT of reconfiguring and IMO is not worth the trouble it is. your speedometer would be off, the suspension would feel out of whack, etc.

a set of 17" rims with the low pro tires always looks hot on the SC's. i have a black '95 SC2 as well and plan on getting some white rims for it eventually when the cash is available.

[TommyH]

In all honnesty you have a vast amount of options open to you. There are more options open than you apparently realise. I'm not insulting you, it took me quite a few years to get this figured out. First I woud suggest going to the website: www.tirerack.com. They have already figured out everything for you, including having personally tested every single tire they sell. The site is very user friendly and the helpline is the best that I have ever delt with - bar none. In less than 30 seconds on the site I found 15 different types of "Passenger All-Season Tires" in your size. These are your good plain basic tires and just the tip of the iceberge of what they have to offer for your car. TireRack also has a vast selection of wheels available in both your stock size and plus sizes. You can "plus size" your wheels (get bigger wheels) with out changing the overall diameter of your tire and wheel combo (thus changing your speedometer's settings). TireRack has all of this figured out for you as well. The widest tire that you can increase to with out rubbing on suspention components (bad) or having to reconfigure your stock suspention (can be expensive) is 205mm (that's the first number in your wheels size). Typically, the largest diameter wheel that anyone can increase to, with out doing major damage or modifications, is 2" larger diameter than the stock wheel that the car came with. My '97 SC2 came with 15" wheels, so I could resonably increase to a 17" wheel. Since your '95 came with 14" wheels you could increase to 16" wheels with out much of a problem. If you have any questions please just ask. Just to let you know I do NOT work for TireRack; I'm just an enamorated customer.