Front vs rear wheel sizes for best handling
Do whatever you like. The question was asked if a front-to-rear tire height stagger makes a difference. It DOES. It changes the rear roll center of the car, that's a fact. Will anyone here notice that on the street or doing weekend warrior autoX's, Optima street car challenges or even SCCA CAM events? I don't know. But I'm not going to say it doesn't make a difference.
Agreed 100% on this.
There is something else I'd like to point out when it comes to tires front vs rear, not only in height but width as well. The width affects the over track width, as well as the width of the rims/offset/backspace etc. These cars in their stock form, come with what, a 3 inch difference between the front track width vs rear track width.
Now, before I get rolling, let me first define track width, lots of people get this confused. Track width is measured as center to center of the tread between the pair of tires, front left to front right, rear left to rear right. Tread width is measured outside to outside of the tread. Tire width is measured outside to outside of the sidewalls.
According to the 74 chassis manual, A bodies were 59.2 inches on stock tires in the front and 55.6 inches in the back, or 3.6 inches different. so you need to keep this in mind when selecting the rim/tire size. I dont want to get to in depth and confuse anyone but lets just say its a balance between tread with ratio and track width ratio and how you chose your rim size. Because you can change your track width with different rims and tires and close that gap or worse, make that gap wider.
Another thing to keep in mind for ultimate handling, you have to match the tire properly to the rim. For maximum handling, most suspension/pro-touring guys will tell you you want your rim to match the tread width, or perhaps even be an inch wider. However, often times, what do you see, guys with hour glass shaped tires because they're running a tire that is pushing the recommended max width limits of the rim. Tread width difference between front and rear is also important.
Course this wont matter as much on a hobby car or street car but if you're looking for tenths of a second, it becomes a major issue
