tire confusion .......help!

[vigorpat]

Hello I hope you guys can help me ........I have a set of wheels I bought off of craigslist ($150 FTW!) for my e36. They are 16x7 et17 and my problem is that I am not sure what size tire to go with. I am leaning towards a 205/45/16 tire ...will that be too small a sidewall ?

[nellydragracer]

Depends what you wanna do with 'em and if you want to keep the roll out the same.

[vigorpat]

I'm going to drop the car on coils and I want a little stretch and poke.

[nellydragracer]

In that case a 205 width tyre will be too wide if you want to go for some poke, a 185/55 might be a good option, anything less will look dumb on an e36. Have a look on tyrestretch.com an see what takes your fancy.

[vigorpat]

So the 55 series tire wont be to tall? My stock BMW style 30 wheels are on 225/50/16 tires and those tires would probably rub if I mounted them on these wheels.

[nellydragracer]

So the 55 series tire wont be to tall? My stock BMW style 30 wheels are on 225/50/16 tires and those tires would probably rub if I mounted them on these wheels.

No, not at all. The second measurement after the width is called the aspect ratio and is a percentage of the width, so a 185/55 has a sidewall that measures 55% of 185mm, which is roughly 100mm, whereas a 225/50 will be about 112mm, a big difference.