How bad is it to run staggered wheels?

[dichiee]

I was searching if anyone here is doing it but what I found is about being rice hehe. I've been in the VW/Audi scene for a while and there's a lot of good looking cars with this setup and I'm wondering how bad will it be performance wise on the MS3? I don't do track, drag or any of those just driving with sometimes quick launching with friends or what not.

something like this?

 

[SwampAss]

I think it's kinda silly on a FWD car. The Audi pictured above is probably AWD.
I don't know if anyone has done it yet with an MS3.

 

[ghetto waggon]

I don't think there is any downfall to it. Sure it might be silly or stupid to those who criticize you, but who gives a s***.

As you said, many of the FWD VW drivers do it, and I am aware of others like the 3.5 altima, etc.

 

[dcomiskey]

It's lame on VWs as well. One of the reasons you DON'T want to do it on a FWD car is that you are inducing MORE understeer in the car. Similar to if you stiffen up the front end. FWD come from the factory designed to understeer. Smaller wheels in the front as opposed to the back offer an unbalance of grip. Does it look cool? I guess. But handling-wise, it's not a wise thing to do. And it makes it that much more difficult to rotate tires, if you really want to nit pick.

 

[fourthmeal]

A lot of cars doing this (in Japan at least) will compensate for the change in handling inherent in a staggered setup by increasing the rear tires' pressure to maximum, or maybe a bit above. This works to increase rotation and reduce understeer, but it has a lot of drawbacks (notably, the tire no longer absorbs bumps properly, bending wheels quite easily.)

 

[crashkelly]

not a big fan...you will get ragged on a lot for it...It looks nice but it affects handling and is essentially as silly as putting big drags on the rear wheels even though your car is FWD...and yes I have totally seen dummies with Drag radials on the the rears of the fwd cars...

 

[Ronic87]

I was in the VW scene also and ran staggered wheels on my golf. I had 18x8.5 and 18x10 and honestly it really didnt affect my handling that much at all. Yeah the rotating tires thing is kindve annoying but i got passed it and if your not doing auto-x or constant drag racing and you just want looks i would do it.

 

[mountjonas]

I think it's kinda silly on a FWD car. The Audi pictured above is probably AWD.
I don't know if anyone has done it yet with an MS3.

unless he's running the same width, just different offsets, wouldn't that be supremely bad for awd?

 

[Sveivo]

I was in the VW scene also and ran staggered wheels on my golf. I had 18x8.5 and 18x10 and honestly it really didnt affect my handling that much at all. Yeah the rotating tires thing is kindve annoying but i got passed it and if your not doing auto-x or constant drag racing and you just want looks i would do it.

So how did you rotate the tires? You didn't, right?

 

[chuyler1]

I'd rather be able to rotate the tires. Sorry bud. Unless you at least have a body kit to warrant this, I'd say it will look silly.

 

[silversurfer3]

heres my friend ms3 with staggered wheels http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123673787

 

[Sveivo]

heres my friend ms3 with staggered wheels http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123673787

You can't really tell from the pics (dunno)

 

[Rotus8]

If the diameters are different front to back, it will probably confuse your traction control and ABS.

 

[Bufalo]

Staggered wheels on a front-drive car is retarded. Doesn't look good, doesn't help anything, just seems like a complete waste of time, hassle, and money. Rear-drive cars generally have different body proportions that will make staggered wheels look correct, a front-drive compact hatchback does NOT have a body that would make it look good at all...

 

[Ronic87]

No i didnt rotate my tires ever and i didnt really mind it, i only ran the wheels for like 4 months out of the year anyway. But i understand people who dont like the idea of staggered on a FWD, its just personal opinion and taste. Some like it, some dont, it was like this on VWvortex forums too. I never minded it though, i loved the look and if you do too then i would say do it. Because like i said i really didnt feel much of a performance in handling difference. You could also get that staggered look by just get the same width wheels with different offsets in the rear.

 

[Young Roids]

It's lame on VWs as well. One of the reasons you DON'T want to do it on a FWD car is that you are inducing MORE understeer in the car. Similar to if you stiffen up the front end. FWD come from the factory designed to understeer. Smaller wheels in the front as opposed to the back offer an unbalance of grip. Does it look cool? I guess. But handling-wise, it's not a wise thing to do. And it makes it that much more difficult to rotate tires, if you really want to nit pick.

Yea you really want to have deepdish fronts and have skinny rears with a fwd car. Now that would be kinda cool looking for your ms3 have some 265s in front with stock 215s in the rear and people wouldn't think you are stupid for having large rears on a fwd.

 

[boosted3]

What is it about Audi's that make them so nice looking?
That has to be the nicest hatch I've ever seen.


It's like the whole care was designed around those wheels/wheel-wells.

 

[Sveivo]

What is it about Audi's that make them so nice looking?
That has to be the nicest hatch I've ever seen.


It's like the whole care was designed around those wheels/wheel-wells.

It's a body kit, isn't it?

 

[Ronic87]

Yeah its a reiger body kit and the car is dumped on some coils. But it still looks sick. People have to stop caring so much about handling in a FWD car though, because no matter what its still a FWD which isnt ideal for any type of handling anyway. So why not just make the car look badass with some big dish in the back.

 

[justhavnfun]

never mind the tires. the rest of the car looks ragged! and what the hell did he hit on the front bumper?! whats with the junk yard hood?! leave the carbon fiber hood look to video games.