That modern look....

BLING BLING BLING BLING you win the website misinformation award of the week.
please hit the Alt-F4 button to get your award.
i know i know "modern technology" stuff makes me moist too. but please dont try to combine bling with performance.
"no way the 15's can handle the turns like a 17 or 18."
what you been smokin?
Nascar 15"
Formula 1 13"
a lot of autocross guys will put smaller wheels on to get better track times. some will downgrade to 15" or smaller if they can from larger wheels to cut the unsprung weight and lower the car. the limiting factor on how small they can go is usually their brakes.
it's cool if you like the look. but dont be telling people wrong stuff about performance.
some of the fastest F1 cars are now running 240mph some working toward 260mph
on THIRTEEN inch wheels
The fastest circuit is Spa and here they can reach this top speed, and maintain it on the striaghts, the fastest corner is also at Spa, this is Le Ardennes and driver's take the corner at 203mph.

Sorry, but almost EVERYTHING but the tire size regarding F1 in those comments is completely misleading. :violent1:

There is one, and only one, reason that F1 still uses 13" rims. They're required to by the F1 rulebook. And the rule on tire size has not changed in over 20 years. That's it. Just rules. It has nothing to do with tire technology at all.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/09/27/should-f1-switch-to-18-inch-wheel-rims/

In fact, should the tire manufacturer supplying F1 change from Pirelli in the future, there's a good chance the tire size will change as well. Michelin has been pushing for an 18" F1 tire for years. Which makes me believe that they already have a tire that will perform at least as well, if not better, than the current 13" offerings. They're just being hamstrung by the rules, and possibly the politics of F1. Not tire technology.

It's also completely misleading to involve any kind of race tires in these conversations to begin with. F1 has all of its tires supplied directly by the tire manufacturer. They are purpose built with their sole function to be F1 tires. Same with NASCAR.

You can't get that on the street. You can't use that on the street. Instead, you need to use street legal tires that are supplied to the public. If you compare 15" street tires to 17/18 street tires, you will see a VAST difference in the selection of appropriate tire sizes, and an even greater difference in the available compounds and tread designs. The result is a BIG difference in performance. If you want to run a 275 wide tire on a 15" rim on the street, you're stuck with BFG T/A's, which are hockey pucks designed almost 40 years ago, or maybe an MT or Cooper Cobra :puke:. I'm not talking about drag radials either. If you want to run a 275 on the FRONT of your car, you need like a 275/50/15. Good luck finding much of anything in that size. If you run race tires on the track, its an entirely different conversation, you have some options in sizes that will actually fit our cars. But, since even most streetcar classes require street legal tires, 17/18" tires, and their superior selection and compound makeup, are the better choice.

Throwing in F1 and NASCAR is just comparing apples and oranges. Those tires have almost as much in common with a donut as they do with a mass produced street legal tire.