My 2012 GT auto came with 19" wheels - 245s all around. I have been looking at getting wider tires - primarily for more aggressive look.

I know I will also need new rims as these are 8.5 and have seen packages at a couple of sites. Some of these are staggered - 255 front + 275 rear for example.

I know a disadvantage is that I cannot rotate them but are there any other disadvantages or advantages - performance, etc. to having staggered tires? This is a DD with just normal driving.

Thanks for any help or opinions.

 

I have seen no downside to a staggered setup. Sure, you can't rotate front to back- big deal. I ran a 255 front, 285 rear on my '08 for several years with no troubles.

Frank

 

Any advantages?

 

You can get understeer from having more grip in the back. Our cars are already prone to understeer so be careful.

 

The solution would be to firm up the front be putting a different anti-roll bar in. Or just deal with it. I have Nittos 305/45/18 DRs in the back and BFG 255/40/18 in the front. Full suspension minus roll bars and I will get pretty severe understeer in tight corners when I am driving aggressive.

 

Staggered setup is the way to go man if you want great traction and you want your mustang to look even better (Not dissing those with 275s all around, that looks good too). Not being able to rotate your tires is not that big of a deal in my opinion.

 

Maybe a tiny one at the dragstrip (due to the front wheel&tire package weighing a little less) . . . if you're consistent enough to be able to notice it. I suspect that only a few drivers are really that good, and they'd be staggered all the way to skinnies up front anyway.

If you're putting out really big power, you do tend to need more rear tire to cover for any sloppiness with the throttle pedal on corner exit. Call it "having just a little cushion", and I'm talking about 500 HP and up. 450 and down should not need any tire size stagger for street, autocross, or road course.

I suppose that appearance carries with it a non-performance "advantage", but that's too much an individual preference for me to even guess at here.


As mentioned, and this is for a NA car, a staggered tire or wheel & tire setup will result in somewhat heavier understeer than stock. But most folks would have to be driving a good bit more enthusiastically than average traffic to notice. Even then, the feeling of heavier understeer is more apt be noticed as stronger straight line stability (that makes many folks feel more comfortable, because the car feels less like it might spit them off the road) than as being less willing to take corners.


Norm

 

I have to agree with Norm here. For street driving only, 255 square set up should be pretty good and the advantage to that is you know already. Driving performance advantage to your tire size with OEM suspension is you will tend to have more understeer in hard cornering which is easier to control or less catastrophic accident is most likely to occur than oversteer scenario. Road trackers tend to favor oversteer because this would make negotiating corners faster.

But lately in my group of road trackers we all switch to square set up (non-staggered) because it gives us more neutral handling in fast corners. But of course there are quiet a few other suspension settings in play to take advantage of it.

I would say stay with your current tires sizes and save your money.

 

Thanks to all for the great feedback. Think I will keep the same size all around based on my driving needs.

Will have to check again, but I thought I read on one of the sites (AM or TRack) that you shouldn't put wider than 255s in the front on our stock cars for some reason. I know that is what comes with the 19" - Brembo Pkg wheels. Any reason they would say/recommend this?

 

Larger tires on front may rub.