245/40/15 rivals released!

This is good news for me. Need wider wheels though A square setup on the commute attack car will be interesting. Anyone want to buy some work emotions?

Last late summer/fall I was lamenting the lack of a commonly available 15" street tire wider than 205. In the end I went with a new set of 205/50/R15 RE71Rs. Now Maxxis, Hankook and BF Goodrich are all introducing 245 series tires. Great.

There were 225/45/15 tires available (many EPS tires and R-comps were available in this size) before this 245/40/15 size started to take off.

I hope after I shell out all the money for 10" wide te37vs, they dont stop selling wide rubber in 15" sizes. That would suck.

NickD wrote: Last late summer/fall I was lamenting the lack of a commonly available 15" street tire wider than 205. In the end I went with a new set of 205/50/R15 RE71Rs. Now Maxxis, Hankook and BF Goodrich are all introducing 245 series tires. Great.

The Maxxis were around last year. You just didn't know about them because Maxxis are only available through Maxxis.

More big meat for little cars with too much power! Woo!

sesto elemento wrote: I hope after I shell out all the money for 10" wide te37vs, they dont stop selling wide rubber in 15" sizes. That would suck.

Thank the modern cars with smaller diameter tires. Used to be you COULD find tires like 235/45-15, then the trend went to larger diameter rubber and they stopped making toilet paper roll tires.

Ooooh I need these.

I wanted to go 15" on my Corvair, but I can't find that sweet spot for tire size to keep the speedometer close to accurate. There's also a lot of conflicting information on what tire sizes work without rubbing. May end up going 16".

With the move to this size, I have to wonder if 225/45/15 will survive. If you're going for wide, motorsports fitment wheels/tires, why not buy the biggest available?

Keith Tanner wrote:

NickD wrote: Last late summer/fall I was lamenting the lack of a commonly available 15" street tire wider than 205. In the end I went with a new set of 205/50/R15 RE71Rs. Now Maxxis, Hankook and BF Goodrich are all introducing 245 series tires. Great.

The Maxxis were around last year. You just didn't know about them because Maxxis are only available through Maxxis. More big meat for little cars with too much power! Woo!

I knew about the maxxis 245s before they were introduced but the consensus is that 225 rivals would be faster than the 245 maxxis so w I went with bfs.

Snrub wrote: With the move to this size, I have to wonder if 225/45/15 will survive. If you're going for wide, motorsports fitment wheels/tires, why not buy the biggest available?

225/45-15 will stick around because a number if "Stock" and "Touring" classes restrict allowabe wheel widths to 6 or 7 inches.

NickD wrote: Last late summer/fall I was lamenting the lack of a commonly available 15" street tire wider than 205. In the end I went with a new set of 205/50/R15 RE71Rs. Now Maxxis, Hankook and BF Goodrich are all introducing 245 series tires. Great.

You can sell the RE71 and not be out much money at all if you want to move to one of the others. However i would expect only the BFGs to be any faster for autocross. Maybe.

WildScotsRacing wrote:

Snrub wrote: With the move to this size, I have to wonder if 225/45/15 will survive. If you're going for wide, motorsports fitment wheels/tires, why not buy the biggest available?

225/45-15 will stick around because a number if "Stock" and "Touring" classes restrict allowabe wheel widths to 6 or 7 inches.

I was just thinking about the same issue - good to hear that 225s will stick around. It would be nice to go to 15x9s with 245/40/15s on my Corolla, but I want to stick to a square setup and 15x9s are a very questionable fit on the rear (and still a rather questionable fit on the front) so I'll probably have to settle for 15x8s with 225/45/15s. I can run 205/50/15 or even 195/50/15 as a fallback size on 15x8s at least, with 15x9s it's either 245 or 225 wide tires which are both oddball sizes for a street tire.

I wonder how these will compare to 225/45/15 Hoosiers in size? I have them on 15x9s for my autocross setup and they fit under the Manic Miata with surprisingly little rubbing. I'd love to ditch my undersized 15x7 street setup and go with these in 245/40/15 on another set of 15x9s.

RedGT wrote:

NickD wrote: Last late summer/fall I was lamenting the lack of a commonly available 15" street tire wider than 205. In the end I went with a new set of 205/50/R15 RE71Rs. Now Maxxis, Hankook and BF Goodrich are all introducing 245 series tires. Great.

You can sell the RE71 and not be out much money at all if you want to move to one of the others. However i would expect only the BFGs to be any faster for autocross. Maybe.

Yeah, those RE71Rs literally only have the roadtrip to and from that Poconos event and the event itself on them. As soon as I got home I slapped my junk old Dunlops back on. But, I'd have to buy a new set of wheels to take advantage of the width and if I was going to do that then I might as well just get a set of slicks or R-compounds to take advantage of my class

Duke wrote: I wonder how these will compare to 225/45/15 Hoosiers in size? I have them on 15x9s for my autocross setup and they fit under the Manic Miata with surprisingly little rubbing. I'd love to ditch my undersized 15x7 street setup and go with these in 245/40/15 on another set of 15x9s.

In terms of diameter, on paper at least, they're pretty much identical to both 225/45/15 and 195/50/15, just wider.

Of course in the real world, tire manufacturers often take liberties with the exact size specification.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

Yeah, and that's the crux of the biscuit. I'd need to know exactly where the outside shoulder falls relative to the Hohos which are a known fit. They only rub a little under hard braking with a fair amount of lock.

Are they rubbing on the tread or on the sidewall? If it's on the sidewall, forget about fitting 245s. If it's on the tread, that depends on the tire model, but you'd most likely be OK because 225s tend to be on the big side diameter-wise vs. what they theoretically should be.

Rivals tend to be a little big for a given size. They've got a big slab of rubber right at the edge of the tread. The RE71s are more svelte.

We can run 245/40-17 RE71Rs on our V8 ND, we can't run the same size Rival.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

Not honestly sure. It's hard to tell. Very little visible evidence, but I can hear it a little. If I had to guess I'd say it's hitting the fender liner.

/edit/ Thanks for the data point, Keith!

In reply to Duke: time for a little more roll of the fenders it sounds like.

Mine had to be massaged pretty hard to jamb the 275s under the fenders but don't rub at all.

Duke wrote: In reply to GameboyRMH: Not honestly sure. It's hard to tell. Very little visible evidence, but I can hear it a little. If I had to guess I'd say it's hitting the fender liner.

If it's hitting the fender liner you'll see it on the liner. Look at the fender liner... Mine looks like swiss cheese.

So how bad an idea is it to reband a set of steels wide enough to for these? Would that width be 10"?

Should work very nicely on a 15x10. I approve of wide steel wheels.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Me too. Time to get out the Tig.