moosestang

At the end of the day, the shorter the sidewall, the more sudden the loss of traction and more likely you are to hit the curb, another car, a tree, your mom, what have you. Just like in a straight line, you want some side wall flex in a corner. My 235/55/17's are very predictable and controllable when they loose traction as are my 295/45/17 MT's.

I know someone with 285/35/18's and he hates the ride, hates it. Mine rides like a dream.

ThaiCobra

20's are fine man. The thing is, the fenders on our cars are huge, so 20's fill out the wheel area nicely. I honestly think anything below 18'' looks pretty bad, its just too tiny for such a large car.

The ride difference is barely noticeable. With a couple of handling mods, and the right tires, I think the car can ride pretty smoothly on 20's.

I have 20's on mine, and have good tires, and some Roush shocks, and it is almost as smooth as my Dad's BMW 5 series. I feel confident that with a couple more handling mods, and some cushier after market seats, the ride would be quite cushy.

If your goals are pure performance however, you can get more torque with a smaller wheel. But i am about 70% looks and 30% performance oriented. I have spent probably 5k on appearance mods, and about 1k on performance mods, lel.

vbstang13

I have run 275/35/20 for the last 9 years on my 05 Saleen and I love them. The ride can be a little hard for long runs of 4+ hours but other than that no problems.

CMcNam

Money.

Please do not compare six and seven figure hypercars to a Mustang. These cars are so different that it can't happen. There are lessons that can be taken from the hypercars, certainly. I research them every day to understand more about my car. Koenigsegg offers a carbon fiber wheel as an option for crying out loud. Let's just forget that McLaren uses a carbon fiber tub as the basis for a chassis. I just try to keep in mind that I drive a Mustang. Different cars require different setups.

No.

I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out which wheels to go with. I SETTLED on the Forgestar CF5s in 18x9.5 all the way around because they offer affordability, relatively light weight (there are lighter options, but not in my price range), and also clear my Brembos (not many wheels do). They also look fantastic because to me, a car that uses functional parts looks better than cars that are trying to mimic function (I will admit, not everything on my car is functional but dang it looks good, haha). The reason those hypercars look as good as they do is because they are designed with both in mind for those that can pay for it. Function is as important to them as form, and to get both it costs major money. Don't use them as something to mimic, use hypercars as something to learn from. Form follows function.

Andy13186

Well those were just some of the best handling cars i can think of, and they all come with 19s or 20s with low profile tires. 2013 gt500's and nissan GTR's also come with 20's

Boss 302 laguna seca's also come with 19s with low profile tires

CMcNam

No worries man. I'm just trying to illustrate that those cars are built to a completely different standard. The Boss 302Rs use 18s. Again, different cars using different standards. Just trying to show that just because those really expensive cars use one thing, it doesn't mean it's the best for another chassis.

If I'm way off base here, I don't mind being corrected!

Torch_Vert

Good point here. None of the factory built race cars intended for are running big wheel setups. All 18".

That's the FR500C, FR500S, FR500GT4, BOSS 302S, BOSS 302R

Ford is selling these to race teams. Race teams like to win. Looks are a much lower priority vs maximum function. ANY street car, from any manufacturer has to take into account eye appeal to buyers as HUGE factor and find the balance with performance.

Ford's engineers at least, judging by their pure race car program appear to believe the sweet spot for running gear on the S197 chassis is around 18" (large enough for big brakes with the right wheels selected, enough sidewall for driving at the limit without loss of predictability)

Another good example: Vaughn Gittin Jr's Falken Tire sponsored highly successful competition drift Mustang. I'm not the world's biggest drifting fan, but there is a high degree of precision required and huge demands on the suspension as far as predictability. Running on 18's (http://www.cardomain.com/ride/338206...-ford-mustang/)

Mr.Ski

I wish the wheel manufacturers would catch on.... Not many 18's that I could find would fit over the Brembo's, and none that I liked! 20's it is for me. I had no idea that this would become such a passionate topic. Most people seem very opinionated on way or the other. I still feel that there is room for 18,19,or 20's. Ford didn't go with the 20's on the back of the gt500 for no reason. They could have easily still used a 18.

Nuke

WTF are you, a midget? These S197's are not big by any means, unless you came from rice.

And putting 20's on require you to go to a lower profile tire with the equivalent O.D. of the OE tires so you're not filling ANYTHING out. Get your chit straight.

CMcNam

I never understood that logic either. Unless you're using much bigger tires, the overall diameter is the same. I suppose it's an illusion that bigger wheels "fill" up the wheel well more, when they are actually about the same no matter what size you put on.