Big wheels, wide tyres

Larger wheels (within reason) look nicer in most people's opinion. They also increase handling, braking and lateral grip. For this Prius this maxes out at the 18" size.

Bridgestone, Michelin and Perelli are working on fuel efficient tire designs that incorporate the use the use of larger wheels in the 18-19" range but with a very narrow width to accept a 165-185mm tire. This design will effectively correct most of the negatives you mentioned but allow for a better looking wheel and increase fuel efficiency.

 

Take it away from circuit conditions and we see WCR cars generally use whatever works best, but their criteria is pure performance, they have to house huge brake rotors, and they arent concerned about fuel economy or ride quality. They want the thing to point into corners and glide predictably all the way out. The stiffer carcass means the car is more responsive to steering input than springy deep carcass tyres which have flex, tread roll and deformed contact patch under extreme loads. it just situationally sucks to have your $5mill factory race car fall off the road on the nightly news.

It is an unreal premise for passenger car design but it has always been that performance cars have the desired design panache and are there to be adored and emulated. Car manufacturers respond to that by giving people what they want. Yes now is the time to remember all those hot colours, apertures in cars for hood scoops and fake brake ducts.

Then I guess in the practical sense, wheels and tyres are more plentiful in taller rim diameters, at some point your choices become affected by the diameters you choose, either for the better or the worse depending on whether your sizes are going up or coming down.

Speaking for myself, I get a bit baulked at the results we are commonly interested in (economy) with larger better looking wheels, otherwise I would have committed to that course by now, ...even for me the looks become important. But I come from a day were 13x8" wheel sizes were considered large, and Im wondering why the F1 style (which are limited to 13" by the rules) hasnt had the same impact as WCR. The opinion on good looks after all follows trends, what was once usually returns. Given there is a future in electric car racing , is there scope to set the trend and get ahead of the curve.... ?

Just like many others I pursue looks, so after having considered using deep spacers to move the stock wheel equipment out into the wind a little more, I've faltered given spacers are illegal here, and the bearing loads with such a high offset become uncomfortable, consequent joint wear as a result.

And then the wheel selections in 15" are such that I just dont like the look of most of them, so sooner or later I just give up. Truly if I found a 15x7" or 15x8" wheel/LRR tyre combo I could live with, I would probably go with that...

see, love it, but only available in 4x100

 

you may find that the people fitting 22" chrome wheels to their cars are uniformly morons. if i had the $ to buy better wheels for my Prii, i'd get the lightest 16"x 7" i could find and install LRR 215's that are about 1/2" taller than the crappy stock tires.
wider tires most definitely look way better, and the 15" stock wheels just look too small for a modern car.

 

The Prius Plug-In seems a little 'under-tired' with the stock 15" wheels and 195/65/R15 tires (Ecopias, which are crap). What is a reasonable upgrade that only hurts MPG a little, while making the car substantially more sure-footed? I was thinking 205/65/R16, obviously with new 16" wheels.

 

you might want a 205/55R16. if you go too tall it'll make your speedo slow.

 

Beauty is only skin deep (17" wheels)

But ugly is to the bone, (losing 3-8+mpg)

I guess beauty is in the mind of the beholder

 

What about 16" wheels? I doubt I'd lose more than 1-2MPG with them. And yes, I should have written 205/55/R16.

 

Hey guys new to the forum! I am wondering what wheel sizes and tire sizes people are running with a 17". I have a 2005 so I think oem is 185/65/15. I am thinking on running 17x7.5 with a 185/50/17. I really wanna go 8" in width but I am worried about front clearance issues with rubbing the inner wheel wells. Anyways if anyone wants to shed some light, thanks guys!

 

i'm running 205's on the stock wheels, doesn't seem to hurt mpg , but i can't really tell cause my commute is a 20 mile crawl through a parking lot. F*&^%$in DC traffic could make a guy go postal...

 

Best bet, live with the 15" wheels and tires that comes with your Prius. If you dislike the 15" look, I did and couldn't live with it. I purchased a set of used Prius 5, 17" five spoke wheels, and fitted them with 215x45x17 Continental DSW tires. Love those wheels, the look, and they're super easy to clean. With a Prius Plug In, I have tremendous fuel economy and mileage and not worried about losing a few MPG. I went with the Continental DSWs because they're highly rated for all weather conditions and that's more important to me than a LRR tire.

 

Sick awesome guys! Yeah I am actually looking for a fat vip spoke look for my Gen 2 Prius. I was looking for some SC430 stock wheels with the Spoke cover not the flat pizza pan cover but looking at your Prius 5 Wheels that might be an awesome route to do now until I get everything for my car.