# t-jet .170 vs .188 wheels opinions



## mnimud28 (Feb 13, 2010)

Curious on the consensus here, if there is one, between the two different size wheels .170 vs .188

Which ones and why?


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## Boosted-Z71 (Nov 26, 2007)

I am going to assume your talking about the width of the tire here. But the same holds true for different diameters as well. 

To me it all depends on the track your running on, sectional track I like as much tire as I can get to accomodate the bumps and inconsistent rail height. Helps to smooth out the car.

I run smaller & thinnner tires on a good routed track, they are faster, (if you can still get traction) due to the weight differences and you will see the car accelerate faster.

We have a little trick where we cut a groove in the center of Aurora tires with a tire machine and it really helps the handling on stock tires, nothing too drastic just enough to let the road surfac flex just a bit.

Boosted


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## Johnson (Nov 29, 2016)

I think he is referring to the diameter of the hubs like for slip on silicones. I use the .170.


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## Dyno Dom (May 26, 2007)

Any thoughts beyond tire OD such as some rims can potentially offer a handling advantage of tire slippage?


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

I have some in the 167 range
I like them best

They make the tire softer, and i get a bit more grip.
I do want to try some even smaller so that I make get a little bit of slip of the tire on the rim


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

*Effect of Wheel Diameters*

I am a tester for Super Tires and I did much of the testing of the Pro series of T-Jet tires. I do all of my testing under very carefully controlled conditions based on 42 years of doing scientific research, so even tiny differences in performance can be measured and are always repeatable. One of the parameters that I studied was wheel diameter. The Pro Series tires were originally designed to fit standard 0.188 inch diameter wheels, but it was soon learned that using a smaller diameter wheel can improve lap times. If the same tire is used on a smaller diameter wheel the tire will not be stretched as much and its OD will be smaller, but more importantly the tire will be a little softer, so it has more grip. Since the Pro Series tires are made in incremental sizes it is possible to compare tires that are mounted on different diameter wheels, but still have the same OD. In that case the larger un-mounted diameter tires on the smaller diameter wheels always give lower lap times. That being the case the next issue to consider is what mounted OD you need to use. Lower diameter tires will get you higher cornering speeds, that is partially due to a slight increase in magnetic downforce. The other side of the coin is that with smaller diameter tires your straight line speed will be reduced, even if the change in OD is rather small. In order to select the best tire size you would have to do a little testing. You don't want to have the crown gear hit the rails, so that sets the minimum diameter that you might consider. If it was me I would first order a sampler with at least five tire sizes and do some testing with those. Once you find what works best you can order a bunch of those. I use 328R Pro Series Super Tires on 0.170 inch diameter wheels to get a mounted OD of 0.338 inches. There is a chart of the mounted IDs of the different tires on both 0.188 and 0.170 inch wheels on the Super Tires site.
With smaller diameter wheels there is a chance that the tires will slip on the wheels, on road courses I have not found that to be a problem, even with single flange wheels. On an oval the inside tire could come off of the wheel. A little nail polish at the bead area keeps that from happening, or you can use double flanged wheels. 0.165 inch diameter wheels are also available and the Pro Series Super Tires will slip on those for sure. The slip gives you some differential effect, which can possibly lower your lap times on a twisty track with short straights. On a more flowing track your lap times could be higher.


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## Dyno Dom (May 26, 2007)

:thumbsup:Thanks Rich, I believe the info you provided to be very helpful to the OP, as well as many others. :thumbsup:


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## honda27 (Apr 17, 2008)

*wheels*

yes we use the .177 wheels here in our group.


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