RWD Tire Question!

[andrewfoley49]

#693

Hey everyone I got a question about tire size for my 2007 Dodge Charger R/T (CAM-C 49)

First off my car came from the factory with 245/45R20 (O.E. Size)

I don’t want to ruin my nice wheels and tires so I got another set of wheels.

The wheels came off of a Chrysler 300 (same car) but have 215/65R17. 2 tires great while the other 2 were no good.

I came across 2 215/55R17 tires at work and are a little smaller versus the 215/65R17.

Should I?

A. Run the 215/55R17 in the front and the 215/65R17 in the rear?

B. Run the 215/65R17 in the front and the 215/55R17 in the rear?

C. Don’t run mix-matched tires and stick with 215/55R17 OR 215/65R17?

Thank you for your help. I look forward to seeing everyone this weekend.

[Shannon Nicholson]

#698

Hi Andrew,

First off, you won’t ruin your 20″ wheels in an autocross event, but you will wear your tires at an accelerated rate. One event won’t make much difference; but if you do a whole season, the wear will be noticeable over daily driving, though it vastly depends on the type of tire you’re running (extreme summer performance, max summer performance, all season, etc.) as to how much.

Now, to answer your question, I would stick with the same size on all four corners (choice C). But if you need to run mixed sizes, I would go with taller in the back, shorter in the front (choice A). Those sizes mean roughly a 28″ tall tire in the back and 26.3″ in the front. I’d never do that on my AWD (or any AWD for that matter), but your RWD should be okay.

BTW, those are pretty narrow tires for 340+ HP, so you’ll probably be slipping and sliding out there. 😉

Cheers!

[andrewfoley49]

#699

I’m not too thrilled with running different size tires in the first place but free wheels and tires is something I can’t complain about. It’s either 2 great and 2 bad tires, 4 great tires but 2 and 2 are different sizes, or eat up my nice street tires. lol.

[ErichB]

#703

I’d agree with Shannon. Run the smaller ones up front if you must.

One thing to note: your ABS/Traction Control may go nuts or shut down due to the tire size difference. If it’s looking for 4 equally sized tires, and the fronts are that much shorter, the system may throw error codes.

[Shannon Nicholson]

#704

One thing to note: your ABS/Traction Control may go nuts or shut down due to the tire size difference. If it’s looking for 4 equally sized tires, and the fronts are that much shorter, the system may throw error codes.

Good point, Erich.

[andrewfoley49]

#705

I kind of figured that would happen with the ABS/ESP. I was planning on disabling/turning off those before my run. My major concern is handling. I don’t know if anyone else has done something similar to this on their cars. Deal with bad tires or deal with bad handling with good tires.

[Chris Polhamus]

#720

If they’re so bad that cord is showing or there is blistering, they won’t pass tech.  If they’re just worn to the wear bars, or just a bit past, you’ll probably be ok for the event but I wouldn’t expect much use out of them beyond that.  Franklin pavement is ok, but its destroyed a fair number of questionable tires.

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