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Modifying Guide for car tuning parts available on Street Racers.

Alloy Wheels and Tyres

If you want to make a real difference to the look of your car, a smart new set of alloy wheels will probably be near the top of your list of things to buy, and why not? By choosing carefully the correct wheel for your car the visual difference can be amazing. If you're looking to change size of wheel (which I always do when you move from manufacturer wheels to aftermarket wheels) then you will of course require new tyre to fit your shiny new wheels. It nowadays almost always proves cost effective to go for a 'wheel and tyre deal', changing to a larger diameter wheel shod with a set of ultra-low profiles. Apart from the visual benefits, a correctly specified wheel and tyre combination can make a vast difference to the way your car handles and holds the road.

Current trends certainly seem to have been set by Touring Car Racing series, such as the BTCC. How big a diameter of wheel can I get under the standard wheel arch?

Of course when going up in size, there are other factors to take into consideration. For example, if you have lowered your cars suspension, will bigger wheels and tyres clear the wheel arches and suspension? Thankfully more and more manufacturers are producing wheels and tyres which, although larger in diameter, are comparatively narrow and will allow you to go up in size by two or three inches without clearance problems, even on lowered cars. New generation 7.5¡Á18-inch rims, together with 215/35 section tyres should mean fitment to most medium size cars is no problem.

Alloy Wheel Jargon - Street Racing Talk

Offset
Referred to as ET. This is the distance in millimetres from the centre line of the wheel to the surface of it's mounting face. It's not the most simple aspect of wheel fitment to get your head around but basically the smaller the offset, the further out of your arch the wheels will sit. The higher the offset, the further into the arch the wheel will sit.

Rolling Radius
This is the distance in millimetres from the centre of the wheel to the very edge of the tyre's tread. This is why it is relatively easy to go up two inches in the diameter of the wheel because the rolling radius can be maintained by decreasing the profile of the tyre.

For example: a 16 inch wheel with 215/55R16 can be changed to 18 inch with 215/35R18 without overly effecting the rolling radius.

PCD
This stands for Pitch Circle Diameter and it refers to the bolt pattern of your wheels. Think of it as an invisible circle formed by connecting the centre point of each mounting hole.

So if you have a Citroen Saxo with 4x108 PCD you'll have four mounting holes spaced evenly around a 108mm diameter circle.

What does it all mean?

PCD (Pitch Circle Diameter)
This refers to the bolt pattern of your wheel/car. For example a 4-100mm PCD would be a four stud fitment and the mounting holes would fall on an imaginary circle around the centre of the wheel with a diameter of 100mm.

Offset
This is a measurement which determines where the wheel sits in the wheelarch (left to right not up and down). It is the distance between the centre line and the back face of the mounting surface.

Tyre Size
Take for example a tyre size of 195/45R16. The 195 relates to the tyres width in millimetres. The 45 relates to the height of the tyres sidewall being 45% of the tyres width (195mm). The letter in this case, R is the speed rating of the tyre and the 16 is the wheel diameter to fit the tyre too in inches.

Tyre Speed Ratings
S	111.8mph
T	118.1mph
U	124.3mph
H	130.5mph
V	149.1mph
W	167.8mph
Y	186.4mph
VR	130mph+
ZR	150mph+

A-Z of Ice

Air Filters and Induction Kits

Alloy Wheels and Tyres

Cams

Car Braking System

Car Buying Tips

Chips - ECU (Electronic Control Unit)

General Car Modding

NOS me up

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