15" or 16" ???

[Nikke Tse]

hello~

i've got a clio 172 ph2, i'm thinking of getting a new set of wheels for it, and i have some questions i wanna ask~
some owners told me that using 15" wheels would be better for the car instead of 16", is that true??
what are the main differences?? (15" and 16")

thanks!!

 

[domjolly]

15's for go
16's for show

15" tyres are also much cheaper.

 

[Fletcher]

I would go for 15" wheels.

 

[Cupman29]

15's for track use and 16's for road use for me.

 

[AdlerUK]

I've got 15" on mine. It's not 172 but still...
I was recently fixing my alloy and a guy who works at the garage says he's brother bought 16" for his 172 and is now trying to get rid of them as apparently the ride gets ruined by quite a lot...

 

[Fletcher]

I've got 15" on mine. It's not 172 but still...
I was recently fixing my alloy and a guy who works at the garage says he's brother bought 16" for his 172 and is now trying to get rid of them as apparently the ride gets ruined by quite a lot...

That's nonsense IMO. I have found the ride to be the same for 15" and 16" wheels.

 

[Cupman29]

The ride on a ph2 was designed on 16's so that can't be right.

I've had 16's on my cup for 9 years and never thought the ride was bad.

 

[sidey]

I recently switched from 182 wheels to 15" pro race 1.2s and the drop in weight makes a significant difference, the car feels much more nimble and doesn't tramlinine when accelerating hard.

 

[deer_dodger]

I've got 15s on my 182 Cup and changed my previous Mini Cooper S Works to 15s from 17s too. Both with 195/50x15 tyres.

The saving in unsprung weight can be considerable depending on what 15s you go for, and for every 1kg of unsprung weight you save, is equal to 4kg of sprung weight!

The handling of both cars felt lighter and more responsive after going to 15s and in both cases felt a bit more plush whilst not losing any directness in steering.

Good 195/50x15 tyres are less than half the price of 205/45x16 standard fit Michelins and even Michelin Pilot Exaltos in 195/50x15 are only £70!

Plus, I'm a big fan of smaller wheels on small cars, too be honest 16s on the Clio didn't look bad, but I always thought Minis looked a bit cartoony on 17s.

Usually if you look at the race version of a car it will show you he best size wheels for that car. Minis raced on 15s with Toyo 888s as a control tyre. Not too sure about phase 2 Clio race cars though.

I'm currently running Clio Williams Speddlines in black, although I want to get them powder coated white. They are 15x7 with a 60.1mm centre bore and an offset of et37 (or thereabouts) which gives me an extra 16mm of track front and rear.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bozothenutter]

Usually if you look at the race version of a car it will show you he best size wheels for that car.

More dependant op regulations mate, or we would all be running 13" with really balloony tyres lie in F1

 

[Nikke Tse]

so this means...it's better to be on 15" even when the stock ones are 16" ??
15" are faster than 16"??

 

[bozothenutter]

I just went for 16"on my 182 just picked the lightes ones I could find, the car will be used 95% on the road anyway.
OZ alleggerita 6.3kg

 

[JackJack]

15s FTW!

 

[sidey]

so this means...it's better to be on 15" even when the stock ones are 16" ??
15" are faster than 16"??

A smaller rolling radius will accelerate quicker, a larger one will have a higher top speed. In practise most people run 45 section tyres on 16" wheels or 50 section on 15"s giving a very similar overall radius so therefore the real differences will be in the weight.
A superlight 16" may feel much like some heavier 15" wheels but then the 15" version of said superlight wheel must be lighter still!