I bought a second handed RX-8, the last owner had 245/40R18 Nitto tires installed.
These tires needs to be replaced, but i'll still struggling.
Should i get 225/45R18 all around? 245/40R18 all around?
Or 225 in the front and 245 in the back?
Mods on the car in this week will be HKS racing suction and legamax exhaust
Thanks

 

DO NOT run a staggered setup on the stock wheels.

If you want to grip the road a little better, get the 245's

If you want a little better fuel economy, get the 225's

 

I have 245/40R18 all around and I can tell you that there is a good difference.

Go with a good tire; I went with Falken FK452 and so far so good.

 

I always ran 245 / 40 on my stock wheels. Great size for this car, hardly throws off the speedometer, and give lots of grip.

 

what about steering response? torque?

 

steering response is very good with 245s. I actually preferred the feel to the 225s. Might have somethign to do with getting rid of those shitty bridgestone tires that came with my car.

torque and rx-8 don't usually go in the same sentence.

 

torque?

 

lol, no they don't haha

 

tire width isn't likely to have much direct affect on torque anyway.

Don't go staggered unless you dislike rotating tires. Don't go staggered with directional tires unless you like REALLY replacing tires prematurely.

 

i wanted to go staggered cuz 245 looks weird on the front but it looks perfect on the back, plus wider track provide more grip

 

stick with same tires all around.

 

The RX8 was designed around balance, so keep all 4 tires the same.

 

245 is too small in the back. 275 all around is where it's at

 

Thought about that as well, staggered tires do sound a little stupid on RX-8s

 

Is it even possible to put 275's all the way around without rolling the fenders?

 

I think not

 

i think so.. but the correct offset is important..

skip the stagger..

beers

 

with the correct camber you could even fit 285's without fender rolling (no drop of course)

 

^but will need to keep replacing tires at 10k or less if the camber is too aggressive

 

I was just pointing out that it can be done w/out rolling the fenders

 

i think teamrx8 runs 295s. i believe he has a drop as well.

 

I think so. You do need an aggressive offset (+45) and 275x35 profile tires however on 18x9.5 rims.

[responding to "will 275's all around work w/o rolling fenders at stock suspension height"]

Go with 245x40 all around on stock 18x8 rims.

 

Another advantage of the 245s is that the extra rubber prevents you from getting curb rash on your stock wheels.
Fuel economy does suffer though, I went from about 350km on 50 litres with the 225s down to 330km so it's about a 6% increase in gas consumption.,

 

An "agressive offset" is not +45 lol; more like +15.

+45 is very modest

 

Of course depends on which 'aggressive' direction; +45 "tucked in" or +15 "stickin' out."

Our stock rims are +50 btw.