Streched tires and performance driving

[Nicolaus Pro]

I've heard that you will die if you do this, or that it doesn't make a difference. I'd like to know the truth. In Mike's e36 vid, there's several clips of him driving pretty hard. Is this fine to do? What about have some rwd fun? (Drifting)

[StayNegative]

I'd say you have almost nothing to worry about. Unless you have some super insane stretch you will be fine. Just look at 90% of the nice drift cars out there, almost everyone of them are running stretched tires.

[Stephen]

You're fine. The people who panic about stretch have often never stretched a tire. Just watch your inflation

[PHAS3D]

50% of drift cars nowadays run a decent amount of stretch. I have a decent amount on my s13 and I drift it and never have had a problem.

[Oxer]

Almost all the people who say that stretched tires are dangerous, have not looked into it at all.

The bead of a stretched tire is 10 times stronger then the bead of your average tire. the amount of times I have heard people say "you'll roll the tire off the rim" is rediculous. In order to blow the bead, you need to hit a gutter and completely destroy your wheel.

You do run a slightly higher tire pressure, but that is a choice really. When drifting on stretched tires, the heat creates a higher pressure anyway.

As for a supposed "loss of grip", the sidewall being stretched doesnt play that much of a part when it comes to cornering. The stretch increases the stiffness of the sidewalls preventing tire roll, which if your suspension is setup properly, and you are running the correct tires, it wont handle any differently.

Drag racing is a different story, you want a bit of play in the tire to get the grip to the ground, but thats a different story. If you dont know much about drag racing then you dont need to worry about it.

[Nicolaus Pro]

Awesome, thanks guys! What PSI are you running?

[Oxer]

I run 38psi. I have run up to 45 before... All tires have a max pressure of around 55-65 psi, but they should be marked on the side wall. Ive also had them down to 20psi, and still driven on them.

At the end of the day, the psi you run will be relative to the way you drive.

[aar0n.]

Driving hard on stretched tires is fine as long as the tire pressures are kept in check. I can't stand when people try and argue that it's BETTER for performance though bc it really isn't. There are benefits to running some stretch on performance applications but overall, a meatier tire will usually yield better results when compared directly to the same application with a more stretched tire.

I run 35-40psi on my tires

[P78]

are there any guides, how much pressure goes in?

like 205/40/17 on 7.5.. (i know, not really stretched but still)

[Oxer]

I never said its "better"... I just said its not worse in a sence. Different applications require different needs.

[Oxer]

are there any guides, how much pressure goes in?

like 205/40/17 on 7.5.. (i know, not really stretched but still)

Should be in the fineprint on the sidewall.

Thats not a stretch at all anyway lol...

[P78]

it is here for the government, my car won't pass with those tires (MOT, dunno what that's called in US, or AUS)

[Oxer]

Stretched tires aren't "legal" here either... but meh.

[Tuck&Poke]

it is here for the government, my car won't pass with those tires (MOT, dunno what that's called in US, or AUS)

so how the hell are there so many cars in the uk with stretched tires? Swap on stocks for MOT?

[aar0n.]

so how the hell are there so many cars in the uk with stretched tires? Swap on stocks for MOT?

Most likely. Far as I can tell, that MOT is quite a bitch. So glad all I need to get inspected in NY is an OBD2 scan lol