D Car — November 2003

Let’s review the tires and wheels on the D Car Civic built by our editorial staff. When the D Car Civic first arrived at the office, it had standard 14-inch wheels with 185/65 tires. We first changed those to 17-inch Konig Bratant wheels with 205/40ZR17 Yokohama AVID tires. Going from 14 to 17 inches made the car look much more imposing, and we were very pleased with the result.

In the sport-compact scene, one technique for making ultra-low-profile tires look even lower is to stretch them. Each tire has a specified standard wheel width, but the idea is to mount it on a somewhat wider wheel. For example, a 205-size tire has a standard wheel width of 6.5 inches, while the approved range—meaning the widths it can safely be used with—is about 5.5 to 7.5 inches. Stretching means forcing it onto a wheel 8.5 inches or wider. In terms of fitment, a wheel only about 3–4 inches narrower than the tire width…

…would be considered the standard-size rim. Even within the approved range, the wheel may be more than 1 inch narrower than the tire. Tire stretching is definitely not recommended from a safety standpoint. If pressure is a little low and the tire and wheel take a hard impact, the tire may come off the wheel. So you should never fit a tire to a wheel wider than its approved range. At most, stay within the tire’s full width range, though even that is unquestionably dangerous. For safety, stay within the approved wheel-width range…