[DML] Re: after market wheels [longish]

[William T Wilson <fluffy@xxxx>]

On Thu, 22 Jul 1999, Brian Galbiati wrote:

> keep in mind that when you change the wheel size you are also throwing
> off your speedometer reading as well.

This is not necessarily the case. The speedometer reading (and the
handling; don't forget that) will only be adversely affected if the tire
diameter changes. If you put on a larger wheel, you simply put on a lower
profile tire to compensate. For example the DeLorean stock front wheel
has 195/60R14 size tires, which have a diameter of 590mm (if my math is
right!) You could, for example, get 205/50R15 tires which have a diameter
of 586mm - a difference in size of less than 1%, even though the wheel is
1" larger.

(Background info: Tires are measured www/ppRdd where "www" is the width in
millimeters; "pp" is the profile, or ratio of sidewall height to tire
width; and "dd" is the diameter of the wheel. Using this information you 
can compute a proper size tire for almost any wheel.)