Stretched Rubber

[MY5TERE 1]

I think it looks neat. I wounder if i could widen my 12" steelies and stretch my studed snows like that.

[MiltonHavoc]

bumping this thread up because its 2013 and now all the "haters" in this thread have been proven wrong.
SO......
anyone trying this to accommodate wider rims in the small festiva arches?

[Twistiva]

I think stuff like that should stay on VWVortex... I think it looks retarded, personally...

Two's in!

(Translation: "Yep!")

BTW.....2006 (the year this was originally posted) or not, I still don't like this look....

But.....have at it, Milton! :-)

[Gomez]

HA HA, I remember doing this to customer cars (read Daytons/McLeans) in the early mid 90's. Kinda cool/different but not for me though.

[Advancedynamix]

bumping this thread up because its 2013 and now all the "haters" in this thread have been proven wrong.
SO......
anyone trying this to accommodate wider rims in the small festiva arches?

I run 7" wide wheels with 165mm tires. Not a horrible stretch, but it is stretch nonetheless. Car is very stable, very safe and rides beautiful. One notable fact though is that my wheels are forged and rated at 1580lbs a wheel. I wouldn't drive the way I do stretched on cheap wheels. Just my Ohtwo.



Another notable fact, all new BMW's with the sport or M package come with significant tire stretch. Ferrari has stretched tires on their cars for the last 2 decades. It's not something that everyone likes the looks of, but there are things happening on our public roads that are far far more unsafe than most tuner trends that get the brunt of the safety debates. If you live in a place where you have to drive on dirt, snow, or sand a lot then don't stretch because the cars ability to adhere to soft terrain is severely limited, but if you have perfect roads and lots of sunshine then stretch away. If you need duct tape or an industrial inflator to seat your bead then you've probably gone too far. lol.

[sketchman]

I think it looks good up till the rim is prolapsing out the tire, and the tire looks like it's barely hanging on. Also think it looks stupid when they use tires with a protection lip on them and it looks like they need some caulking to fill the gigantic crack it makes. But to each his own.

[rmoltis]

i got some stretched tires.
they are only stretched a little bit though just to help prevent the strut perch rub
from when they were on my last aspire lowered with the kyb struts.
so ill probably stick with this size it also helps reduce/prevent rubbing on the wheel wells ive noticed.






also they dont flex as much from left to right under hard cornering.
makes the suspension and driveability much more predictable and stable.


my tires used to rub mostly from hard cornering when i used to have fairly square tires.








i had to pull out the fenders like 2" to prevent the old square tires from rubbing on the lowered car.
and i had to roll them. then i flared the edges and fiberglassed and bondo them to smooth them over thats why the grey primers dont match in places it was a work in progress.





so when i picked up my new one i didnt want to have to put as much effort into the wheel wells.
so stretched tires it was.

[MiltonHavoc]

I like a small to mild stretch for fitment and stance on some cars. On the other hand some of the z32 guys are running 12" wide rims and did it just by playing the numbers game. So there are ways to do it on either side of the fence. My major thing was all the "unsafe" cries. Now let me be clear on that: like advanced has said "plenty of teams/manufactures have been doing it for eons", now is it in the sense of extreme that we see these days...not likely. But it has been done.

I'm looking at no bigger than 14" but a lot of the ones I come across have 6.5 -9" width. Now I know the 9" is a moot point. But 6.5 to 7 would be nice and then I could amend ride quality with sidewall.

[Advancedynamix]

Where are these 14x9 wheels you speak of Milton?

This is the most dangerous situation that my stretch has gotten me into. Don't Dune on stretch!

[Advancedynamix]

I've put this M3 through it's paces on the track a few times with the tires stretched pretty obnoxiously. (18x10 front with 225, 18x12rear with 235). This car was a blast on the track and the tires handled very well. A good friend of mine owns the car and he semi dailies it. The VW behind it is on air, and has mega stretch as well. We stance things out here out of boredom.

[bondo]

Brah Thats the look! looks mean!

[blkfordsedan]

Not a big fan of the stretched look. I suppose if its mild, it looks OK. It just reminds me of all the old '80s MonteCarlos and Cutlasses that I used to see the "Gangsta" wannabes driving. They were all lowered with 13" wire wheels and white wall tires stretched so far they looked like they were inside out. Then they would install tiny mud flaps and point them out at a 45* angle. Pull their pants down, hat on backwards and recline the seats back so far they looked like a 3rd grader driving. Guess I'm just old, but give me a set of Cragar S/S or slotted mags with fat, bulging raised white letter tires any day. They can even make an AMC Matador look good.

[MiltonHavoc]

@Advancedynamics: go to club4age.com and check out the wheel classifieds. Just stay away from my advan a3a's lol.

That m3 (beautiful by the way) is about the max stretch I would do on my Festiva.

[rmoltis]

All you need is just enough stretch to keep your tires from moving sideways.
Any more than that really isn't necessary.
You'll just be losing tread width.
And along with it some of that precious traction we all want.

[frankenfester]

I threw 165/55r14 on my 14×6" estrellas. Tire guys wanted to do 175/70 and 185/55 or 185/65. Those other sizes don't fit stock suspension without mods and they are "loose" feeling in corners.
The165/55 isn't too bad stretched, But they're stretched enough to avoid rubbing any parts under the car as well as give me better highway speed changes and easier cornering.
I definitely think the "stance" look is Just for that. Standing. Moving in one of those cars is some s+*t for ride quality, and unless It's extremely thought out, it adds No performance aspects to the car. I really don't understand it But I don't see how -45° of camber is gonna for anything But wear the tires unevenly.
Go proper size and spec for the vehicle with a correct amount of camber or go home. There's nothing wrong with a more stock kind of set up. "Stance" doesn't get you laid

-James