Staggering

[padgett]

Just out of curiosity, if you have staggered wheels and tires (popular now) and a FWD car, should the wide meats go on the front or rear ? YWTK

[Barney Eaton]

Depends if you are going for looks or performance.

With wide tires on the front of a FWD vehicle, it should give better grip (don't know what it does to the handling)

BUT the car looks like it is owned by a "Dork"

[D-a-n-i-e-l]

I have not staggered my wheels but I do run 245 and it is a lot of improvement in the handling.

I think they look great also.

[Booreatta]

I tried wider tires on the front and they scraped the inner fenders

[padgett]

Well tried 225/50/17 and 245/45/17  on both ends and either has more space on the front top spring perch than the 225x60x16s I like. Had a set of 17 Minilite-like wheels & tires left over from another car I gave away and thought it mightmake the 'vert more salable (will keep the 88 coupe forever) just like retractables better now.. Had no luck trying to sell for under $6k with snowflakes so thought I would try something different. Don't really care for staggered wheel/tires but seems popular today particularly with directional tires so cannot rotate noway, nohow. (probably a plot by the tire companies) and not going to put stock 15x6 wheels back on (someone else can, I have a set, but not me).

[Barney Eaton]

Padgett.......I think some of that "staggering" (on new production cars) is for both handling and grip.

If you recall back when the Corvair was being built,  the owners manual recommended running less air in the front (usually 10 psi difference) that was not for traction but for handling.

It was also before they spent a lot of time on tuning the suspension.   
Today the suspension is tweeked to compensate for front or rear weight bias and it is not necessary to run different tire pressures.....or have different size tires on MOST cars.

[padgett]

Oh I agree except in the rain particularly when braking and the rear end is unloaded. People are familiar with handling where the tires grip is overloaded and "goes up in smoke". They do not realize that maximum grip is a plateau and the back side where the tire is not loaded enough for its contact patch is just as bad.

 

Corvair had a 40/60 weight distribution and was particularly tail happy on the radials of the time (Michelin X) and "wide ovals" were just coming into productions. I used to seriously autocross a '65 Corsa Spyder on 9.50x15 Blue Streaks back when rules were open. Did the same with the opposite in a '78 v8 Sunbird (twice Florida State Champion). My B/P 'vette with about 400 hp had 10.45x15 front and 12.65x15 rear on dry tracks. In the wet I ran GR70x15 BFG T/As on all four (and did better when wet than dry)

 

Staggering makes some sense on a modern race car or DOT street tires with a UTQG near 100 when rules require and on a dry track. OTOH on a street Coupe with a 3.6 V6 & automagic, 50-50 weight distribution, and UTQG tires of 400 or better, staggering makes little sense other than cosmetic and for more profit to the tire companies. Even more so when front and rear wheels differ by only 1/2 inch (my current DD). AFAIAC staggering with fat meats on the rear only can be safe in the wet with a very good traction control and then will be slow.

And that is my opinion (but backed by A Lot of experience)

 

BTW the main reason for dropping the front tire pressure on a Corvair was so when it left the road it would be going frontwards and not backwards.

Edited March 4, 2019 by padgett (see edit history)