toffee123

I am planning to follow your approach better ride! (without sacrificing too much handling?) But I may stay with 245 for the front though, think it will be ok?

V300Graham

I was away from the car or rather the car was away from me. I currently work in a different country to where I live, so she gets left behind when I go home for the weekend as she is my work daily driver.

I just checked her today Toffee. I am currently running Fulda 245/45-18 on the front and Continental Sportcontact 5 in 275/50-18 on the back.
The backs initially rubbed like a chain saw on even tiny undulations but the love hammer of heavy persuasion fixed that, along with dumping the rear arch liners. The fronts rub a tiny bit maybe for 5 seconds a month on VERY VERY rough roads due to the offset.

All this I can comfortably live with, and the 50 profile really fills the rear arch, and gives my much desired nose down profile. I have a thing about back wheels being substantially bigger than the fronts, and this fits the bill very nicely.

I was afraid the different rolling radii would cause ABS difficulties, but having driven her bouncing gently on the limiter at 155mph for 17 minutes recently in Germany, I can confirm that the different radii pose no operational difficulty, no fault lights etc. She grips and points better than she ever did, and she caught and passed a 2007 Maserati Quattroporte recently, mid corner bumps completly destroying the Massers composure, while mine lapped it up and asked for more in this configuration. OEM shocks ansd springs too by the way. I foolishly purchased H&R lowering springs recently and removed them after 12 hours as they destroyed the cars excellent innate composure and handling. back to OEM and normality was restored.

Anyone for a cheap set of cack H &R lowering springs give me a PM, ha ha !!!

toffee123

Wow Graham, you are doing what I wanted to do and I admire your courage to try. Your rear tires 275/50-18 are 3.11 Inches bigger in diameter (28.83" vs 25.72") and 40mm extra side walls (138mm vs 98mm). haha guessing your speedometer is way off Glad that the extra rubber is giving you unparalleled ride comfort without sacrificing much in handling. Do you think that I can get away without body work if I go 275/45-18? That is an inch smaller in diameter (28.83" vs 27.74") with less protruding wheels like 18"x9.5" +29mm?

A question about the front, does it rub going over humps with the wheel turned?

Again, thanks for helping out.

V300Graham

The fronts rub on heavy bumps in a straight line only. Its been weeks since I heard it. The 45 profile at the back was rubbing a tiny but off the arch liner until I had to dump them to fit the 50's. Speedo? The sat Navy says the speedo is still over reading by about 6%. I drive to the sat nav speed limit as its faster ! Ability to handle mid corner bumps and reduction of tram lining means she handles better than stock, at least for me.

toffee123

Thanks again Graham. Any noticeable different after you changed from 45 to 50? As I am thinking of 45 to save the work on body.

V300Graham

50’s created a lot of rubbing problems. 45 rubbed the plastic arch liner a bit until it worn through a little bit. Just man up and go for it ! Remember, "Hammer fixes all problems".