Higuma

Ok, I would like to upgrade the stock 16" factiory wheels on my UCF21 1996 Celsior.... Rubber is 225/60R-16 (stock size) Bridgestone Regno GR7000 - quiet, ride quality tire in Japan....

In going to either a 17 or 18" wheel I would like to sacrifice as little ride quality "as possible"... so in my research over here in Japan I have found two possible sets of interest = the first is 225/55R - 17 which are about .5% bigger circumfrance than current stock & second a 235/50R-18 which is about 2.5% bigger circ.........

The stock tire size is 675mm and the big 18 is 692mm... so what do you think... I am not looking for that super low sidewall "rollerskate - ultra responsive" ride - In short I want to presearve comfort and noise levels as much as possible...

Cheers,

Higuma

Follow up - I checked out the Japanese web site for the 18" tire - it is listed as a mini-van tire but may be just what I am looking for... It is a Toyo Tranpath MP3 with different compounds on inside and outside edges, superior rain channeling and supposedly / importantly Quiet.....

No significance but it is the new tire being promoted by ex-F1 driver Jean Alesi... Uh Oh that could be trouble.....

Here is a picture of the tread pattern anyways

Brandon@TR

I can tell you the taller sidewall tire will always provide the better ride quality. So if you can upsize without loosing too much in sidewall height you will be doing what you want to do. Also, picking a touring style tire instead of a performance tire will help the ride quality. The best that we have for the this is the Continental CH95 235/50 18 which should fit fine on your Celsior/LS.

CH 95

futuregs

18's with 50 series tire will not look good.

Higuma

Could you elaborate... sidewalls too tall??? fenderwells too full???

Thanks

squarehat

Remember, however, that the current LS/Celsior uses 17" tires with a 55 profile. The stock wheel/tire setup has a huge outside diameter, hence the size of that fitment. I don't have my wheel calculator handy at the moment, but I'm guessing that fitment is pretty close to the stock outside diameter.


Edit: My bad, FutureGS. I just assumed he had the current body Celsior. The 1996 had a smaller wheel/tire setup on 16" rims. I should refrain from these hurried lunchtime posts

Sam Khoury

If you're switching from the stock size of 225/60R16 and want to switch to an 18" wheel, I would get a wheel that accepts 245/45R18. That's only a 0.2% difference in diameter according to this tire size calculator. I think 245s can be used on an 8", 8.5" or 9" wide wheel but I'm not 100% sure.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

If you want to go with wider tires on the back, you can go with 275/40R18. That's only a 0.16% difference in diameter. You can put those on the back wheels if you get wider rear wheels.

Keep in mind that you can only go as wide as your sidewalls will allow. You obviously don't want to rub.

Here's another nice tire size calculator but I wasn't sure if Brandon would appreciate me linking to another tire site.

http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp

J.P.

In the LS forums, the news on the new LS says 18" opt wheels with 245/45 rubber. sounds like 245/45 is the way to go