New wheel time, 18" vs 19" -- tire selection and availability?

[Blown353]

Getting ready to order new wheels for my car to clear the new bigger Wilwood brakes and I'm scratching my head when it comes to wheel sizes.

I've been taking a break from the car scene for the last 4 years or so and while I've started to work on my car again and have been buying parts in the last month I'm not 100% up to speed on current trends. Before dropping $4k or more on wheels I figured I should ask here as I'd rather not get stuck with an "abandoned" wheel size that I can't get tires for a couple of years later.

I'm trying to pick between 18" and 19". I think 19" might look better because the car has large wheelwells but 18" has the best performing tire selections, are big enough to clear the brakes, and would save some weight over 19s.

If I go 18" I would want to run 275/35/18 and 315/30/18. That would leave some really good tire choices like R888, BFG Rival & Rival S, Nitto NT01, Falken RT615K. However, a search on Tire Rack and other places for those particular sizes only turns up those 5 tires that I listed above... which makes me wonder about long term availability since I don't see any "regular" street tires available in those particular sizes.

If I go 19" I would probably run 265/35/19 and 305/30/19. That leaves a few more tire choices but the majority are more on the street oriented site of things; Bridgestone RE050 / S-04 / RE-11, Michelin Pilot Sport SP2 / Super Sport / Sport Cup 2, Yokohama AD08R, Pirelli Trofeo R.

[Blown353]

Thoughts? Looking to order early next week during Forgeline's 20% off sale... would really appreciate some input and recommendations.

At this point I'm still leaning towards 18" and running Rival S or RT615K.

[slimjim]

Why not both? 18"/19" staggered, seems very common, thats the path I followed, but the tire options are reduced if you go real wide on the rear.

[spacepirate]

Agreed, it really depends on how wide you want to go. Tires are limited the larger you get.

[TheJDMan]

Are you more interested in looks or performance? If you are interested in performance, 18" wheels are lighter and offer more performance advantage. Take a look at the top autocross cars and you will find most are running 18" wheels. If you are more interested in looks then the extra weight of 19" wheels is probably not a concern.

[Blown353]

Agreed, it really depends on how wide you want to go. Tires are limited the larger you get.

Also agreed. Once you start getting too wide selections become very slim!

18" make the most sense right now from a tire selection and weight/performance standpoint; big enough to clear the brakes and both the Rival S and RT615K are available in the sizes I want. 19" is unnecessary for my brake combo so will only add weight in the wheel and the tire selection in 19" just isn't there yet when it comes to the top shelf performance tires.

However, I don't want to be stuck with a "dead end" tire size in 5 years if for instance the market is moving towards 19". One thing I like about the 265/35/19 and 305/30/19 combo is that they are both OEM application sizes (Porsche and Mercedes) so I have good feelings when it comes to long term availability of those sizes. I would like to see other tires like the Rival S and RT615K offered in 19" before I purchased 19" wheels... I've found some talk about that potentially happening, but no evidence yet. Even if BFG or Falken started offering more 19" tires the 18" combo would still have the weight and inertia advantage.

Still haven't made up my mind 100% but I'm strongly leaning towards 18".

[andrewb70]

In my opinion 18" wheels aren't going anywhere anytime soon. I've had them since 2002 and they are still going strong.

Andrew