Snow Tires and Exhaust

[bjlasota]

Hi, I'm a recent owner of a 2003 Mustang 3.8 V-6. This is my only car and I live in a snow country, so I'm looking to put some snow tires on for the winter months. A friend recently suggested taking the wheel size down an inch, and puting smaller tires on. Basically the car has 16" rims with 225/55R16 tires. My friend suggested puting a 15" rim on with 215/65-15 tires. I want to know if this would work, and if the 15" rim would fit over my calipers.

I'm also on a tight budget until January but would like the car to sound a little meaner. Would cutting out the stock muffler and throwing in a 40-series delta flowmaster muffler suffice until my budget gets higher? If I were to do that, can that be bolted on, or does it require welding?

Thanks for the help.

[Bear]

When I was a kid, living in Michigan, we bought steel wheels and mounted retread snow tires on these wheels and put them on during snow season (not pretty, but they did the job).

[351wStang]

The muffler could be clamped on.