slammed or hellaflush good for FE?

[UFO]

Originally Posted by Sven7

I'll give you that mounting them isn't the safest thing to do. But driving on them is not dangerous. I haven't heard of even one instance of a stretched tire breaking a bead or whatever. People do this all the time and have been for decades (bosozoku).

You may be correct on that.

Originally Posted by Sven7

I will bet you there are more tire failures from under-inflation and other user errors than stretching.

Totally agree, but I'll take your bet one further and suggest running a stretched tire under-inflated is worse than an under-inflated standard sanctioned mounting.

[Sven7]

True, but we ecomodders (and most car enthusiasts) tend to keep our tires inflated

[Gone2]

One, I grew up in the farm world and reset more than my fair share of tires with a little kerosene/gasoline/ethanol. Don't use too much and it is a very reliable way to re-seat a bead. Two, I have had more tires roll off the wheel from using the standard stock wheel where the tread face was wider than the rim, and that is an incredibly dangerous situation dependent upon the speed, than from a "stretched" tire. The cause of most blowouts with these tires is, as stated, under-inflation or over stretching. Three the majority of tires that are appropriately stretched handle better as it reduces the tendency for tire roll. Tires are very well constructed and when properly inflated and driven appropriately, rarely have safety issues. The problems come into play with all these shade tree expert mechanics who do things incorrectly. Please don't blow me up with hate messages, I am not referring to any set group, just the people who don't do appropriate maintenance on their vehicles and wonder why things go wrong.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by ProDarwin

You do realize that on many of the slammed cars, the tires don't actually contact the fenders or the suspension, right? (ignore the joke VW with 20 deg of negative camber. The only rub is usually at full lock on the inner splash shields or fender liners.

Even if its no rubbing there is still plenty wrong with most of these cars.

I agree with racerc2000 and it looks stupid.

[oil pan 4]

Doing some google searching on why one would stretch a tire, because it seems idiotic and illogical to me.

Here are some of the points I found:
"cheaper to buy smaller tires than the right size for the rim"
"to fit a rim that will not fit [in the wheel well] with a bigger tire and remain lowered"
"it's required to drift the car"
"if stretching really was a performance improvement why is it that no does it in F1, Grand Am, Le Mans, etc"?
"Leaves the edge of the rim unprotected from curb or pot hole damage"


Stretched Tires Failure - VW Forum :: Volkswagen Forum
"I was driving down the rd and had a front wheel separate from the bead of the wheel and screwed my wheel up badly"
Sounds hella economical....

Interstitial Ad - Modern Tire Dealer
#13 "I've been running stretched tires for years...about 5 now and never had a real issue. My only issue is that i can usually not tell when a tire is under inflated. I've ruined 3 tires by driving on them flat"

There is no issue, other than that little issue of ruining 3 tires. Whats the word? IDIOT!
How many tires have I ruined due to under inflation in nearly 2 decades of driving? Zero.

#3 pretty much sums it up "[stretching] is not sanctioned or recommended by competent authorities in the tire industry"

#14 "ive owned 18 sets of rims always had tire stretch and not once had a tire fail"

18 sets!?!? as in 72 tires?!?!?!?!!!! Looks like they never lasted long enough to fail.
The impression I am getting is these guys are looking for tires that will last weeks or months, I want several years out of 5 tires (im old fashioned I always buy my sets in fives).

hella flush G35 - Page 8 - Nissan 370Z Forum
pics!

[UFO]

When you spend so much money on new "rims" every month, you can't afford good rubber....

[Gone2]

Those are some interesting points to mull over. The rapid wear does make sense, but remember that the majority of people who perform these modifications are doing either for drift style racing or the look of a drift car. I had a set of stretched tires on my truck, albeit not low pro tires, and had no issue telling if they were under inflated. I also got 45,000 miles out of the set. The truck had an incredibly tight limited slip and ate through tires like crazy anyway. Also take a careful look at a Le Mans modern race car. They keep a little more meat on the wheels, but still have the rim either even with the edge of the tire or slightly stretched. Again think about the fact that these, like all other modifications, can be done right or wrong. I agree that 18 sets of tires is excessive and am trying to figure out why they would get ate up so fast. Some people are ignorant enough to blame their bad driving habits on tire manufacturers. Also bear in mind that the super low pro tires, 30 series (sidewall height) and less, are not load rated or rated for speed at turns. These tires are produced for style, not performance. Performance tires are 35 series or higher.

[ProDarwin]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

"if stretching really was a performance improvement why is it that no does it in F1, Grand Am, Le Mans, etc"?

It is and it isn't. There is a point where stretch helps, and a point where you've gone too far. The reason behind you not seeing it in those race series is all about the rules. The wheel width may be mandated, but the tire not. Or both may be a "spec".

The hot setup for many small autox cars is a 225 stretched on a 9" wheel. This is what we ran on the STR Miata I was co-driving last year. The tires generate less heat and flex less (and this resulted in us having to run some silly low pressures at some rain events - like 20psi front, 18 rear) Note that it looks nowhere near as stretched as the red car shown earlier, but it is a stretched tire.

GRM did a test recently with 255s vs 245s of the same tire on the same 9" wheel and the 245s were faster.

I'm a total hater of the "Stance" crowd tire and camber choices, but to lump it all together and assume that everyone is rubbing and that all stretch is risky and offers no benefits is simply unfair.

[Gone2]

Thanks for the information, again goes back to how a car is set up.

[Cd]

I think most people would agree that a slammed car certainly looks better