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Originally Posted by shashankmittal
Anyone using staggered wheels on their X5? What do you think it improves and degrades in terms of performance/durability/handling/cornering/etc? Any insights as to why or why not staggered wheels should be installed in an AWD car?
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Simply put, staggered setup induces understeer -- thus making the steering heavier than the non-staggered setup. If helps when you're fast conering -- a typical driver tends to oversteer in a emergency situation, trying to correct the car too much. Most high performance car purposed induce understeer to allow the steering to correct itself without as much assistance. Your car would tend to go into a straightline in a staggard setup.
It wouldn't necessary incrase the performance perse, big tires in the back with a negative camber obviously helps the cars stance when cornering -- since the rear outer wheel tends to lose traction -- this give the outer tire more inner grip and provide maximum surface contact with the road.
Speed wise, probably no differnece or slower in a straight line, added unsprung weight with bigger wheels and tires = added weight.
with that being said, how many of us have staggered setup becasue it looks cool?
we probably don't reap the benefit of a staggered setup unless we drive aggressively 100% of the time.
The benefit of the non staggered set up is that you can rotate your tires front to back to have even wear on them if they are not unidirectional tires you can go even left to right.