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Certainly, when I originally hinted at 17 wheels all-round with same-width tyres, I was told in no uncertain terms that:
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Now following this I started looking into this statement, and more importantly, how this opinion may have originated .
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After all, we are simply disagreeing about essentially an extra couple of square centimeters of rear tyre contact with the road ?
Given that there are almost limitless combinations of tyre size, compounds, road conditions, vehicle speed, etc, it seems the statement is somewhat misleading .
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What has probably happened is that someone has had an
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Now when this is mentioned people have jumped to conclusions and assumed that it MUST be down to the tyres .
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![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
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Someone else loses it on a corner:
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So it is incomprehensible that PERHAPS they were driving a little too fast, did not show the required respect for a mid-engined car, had a binding brake caliper, hit a patch of wet leaves
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Now I appreciate that the stagger will obviously have SOME effect on handling, but there are a LOT of other more significant variables:
Binding brakes, tyre profile, tyre tread depth, tyre wear across the tread, suspension wear, etc .
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And this is just on a standard car !
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If you then consider that any mods will also affect the handling: engine conversions, uprating suspension, adding ARBs, aero enhancements, different size alloys, uprated brakes
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Having driven MR2s for a decade now, I DO agree with one thing: you need to learn to drive a mid-engined car .
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I can understand people warning newcomers about the POSSIBLE danger of mixed tyres, stagger, alloy size, etc.
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Take a typical example:
A guy has always fancied an MR2 Roadster
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Looks on Autotrader, finds a nice MR at the right price, buys it, drives it home.
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Now its very likely the alloys are blistered, so he looks online for a nice new set of rims: 17 package deal from Halfords for
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Buys them, sorted .
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Monday morning, takes car for a blat on some
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SO what caused the crash?
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More than likely, it was because he was trying to drive it like his Golf, and HAD NOT GOT THE HANG OF THE CARS HANDLING!
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Sorry Ive talked this through with several very good engineers and its a fact:
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LACK OF TYRE STAGGER WILL NOT CAUSE YOU TO END UP IN A DITCH!
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Driving like a t**t, speeding in a car you are not familiar with on unfamiliar roads WILL, on the other hand.
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Basically the sensible approach is this: buy the wheels
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Then take it easy, until you know the handling learn the car.
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By all means experiment with different tyres
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Maybe they were worried that people driving MR cars for the first time would be
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This is not to say that it makes it dangerous, though, surely.
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This IS a can of worms: volumes have been written on car handling .
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But the fact remains that there are simply too many variables all contributing to the overall picture, and it is simply misleading to scare newcomers to the Mk3 .
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I dont remember any similar dramas when I first got my Mk1: people run all sorts of different wheels
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Now I wonder why that is.
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![Whistle :whistle:](./images/smilies/eusa_whistle.gif)