Quote:
Originally Posted by Zoich
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. |
Tire width will not affect the trans or drive train at all. What you do not want to do is have different overall diameter tires on the front and back because that can have adverse affects. Your retailers didn't give you accurate info, IMO.
Remember that on staggered set ups, the sidewall height will be different front and rear. In other words my 4.4 with 19 inch wheels utilizes 255/50/19 tires in the front and 285/45/19 tires in the rear. The middle number is the sidewall height. It would appear that the rear tire is lower profile because of its lower number, but due to the rear tire being wider, it has a similar overall diameter.
If you are buying OEM wheels, just use the recommended tire sizes. If you are going aftermarket you need to be sure the retailers know what they are doing. You can always check tirerack.com for sizes as well.