Zim zimmer

Mechanics, engineers, pretendgineers I have a question for you all.

At a friends yard we have a nice big skid pan that we all skid our cars around on; I have a 323i with coilovers, a 3.38 welder and a stripped out rear, in the wet, it's great, can hang the arse out without any problem, in the dry it's a bit more of a challenge and to skid in second requires a hell of a lot of clutch kicking.

Question I have for you all is, if I got shot of my 235/45/17's in favour of a 15 inch wheel with and thinner tyre, would he be easier to get loose the rear in the dry?

Would there be any serious ramifications from doing this, not necessarily, less grip in the wet, increase tyre wear, yadda, yadda, yadda, I'm talking any gearbox issues with such a change in wheel?

Many thanks all

Unless you are keeping a similar rolling radius then the Speedo would be wrong to start with. You would also find if you drop to a lot smaller wheel you could find, like with a gt, you have to rev it quite high on the motorway. It would wear a smaller radius tyre quicker as it turns more to achieve the same mileage but the tyres are cheaper so wouldn't matter ;) and yes it should break traction easier. When I ran 13" std rims on my 5 you could spin it up in 3rd but with 16" wheels you couldn't light the tyres up at all.

Thanks JP,

If i decrease the alloy but increase the tyre size i shouldnt have a problem with speedo should i?

http://tire-size-conversion.com/tyre-size-calculator/

Cheers guys thats awesome,

Have found me a nice cheap set of 15's so im going to have them ;)

If you want to drift it properly then you need to start setting it up to remove some grip from the rear.
You said it's on coilovers - drop the front a little or raise the rear.
More toe out on the front.
Less toe in on the rear.

But do one at a time so you can tell what's made a difference and if you like how it feels.

Yeah that's my ultimat goal.

Unfortunately the rear isn't adjustable as it's a spring and damper, front are down as much is reasonably practical. It scrubs on fast bumps already.

I had the geometry set up by a specialist outside of Cardiff. To the negative camber and toe in out of the rear and then aligned the 4 wheels.

Sort of a smaller wheel & chassis bracing I don't know what else I can do