Hoenda

It's 2 a.m and I have just read the entire thread (i desparately need new tires).

Firstly I understood the debate to be that Honda had Bridgestone make a specially WIDE 225/50 S0-2 tire as the OE for the S2000. Therefore when changing to a non-OE S-03 one should opt for a 245/45 instead.

Later in the thread I learn that in fact the front NON-OE tire is also WIDER? and therefore if you go with NON-OE fronts 205/55 they have a larger contact patch and will therefore generate more grip up front and thus compound oversteer IF, you use the non-OE rear size of 225/50.

Have I got this correct?

My local tyre guy insists that the 245/45 16's are too wide for the 7.5's and they tire sitting 'over' the wheel will encourage oversteer. I don't know better so I need an expert opinion.
We tried a 225/50 S-03 on and though it looked marginally narrower being that it had yet to 'bed' in and flatten a little..it didn't 'look' wrong.

In a nutshell, I'm confused as hell and considering buying both the 225's and 245's and trying them out. The reason being is that I just got my S2000 yesterday and wouldn't be able to tell the difference from experience of the tire sizes.


I'm trying to go for the safest, best handling (i.e as was intended by Honda) setup. The most helpful responses would be from those you have gone NON-OE 225's and those with the 'recommended' 245 rears.

Thank all of you kindly in advance. An apologies for saying this, but I need help on a ASAP basis. Thank you.

Jim@tirerack

All of this has been gone over many times. If you use an aftermarket tire I would recommend the 205/55R16 front and 245/45R16 rear. Your local tire guy has no clue to how wide the OE S02 is on the rear and how narrow they are on the front.
If you want the car to handle the same it is the best way to go.

The only time I recommend staying with the OE size is for snow tires. The narrower tires will cut through the snow better.

Jim

Globetro

Jim: How come the tire size chooser on tirerack.com still recommends 225's for the rears for the S2K?

koala

They would just need to change their database for the S2000 to the "proper" sizes and that wouldn't happen.. but then they'd get phone calls from S2000 owners asking why tire rack recommends 245/45/16's

Jim@tirerack

Koal wins the prize. Because the 225/50R16 is the OE size on the rear it is the default size.

Jim

koala

If you search for OEM tires though it does show our S-02's of course.

Speaking of which I just received mine from the Tire Rack today... super fast shipping even up here to Canada.

Thanks!