If youre trying to get the most out of your tires for cornering, the most noticable handling improvement youll get is by lowering the profile as low as possible. And remember the size is a ratio.
Personally, Id go with something along the lines of 255/40/17.
-P.

 

255/40 is a little too much tire for an 8" wide rim, at least for street driving (8.5" - 10.0" is listed, along with a 9" measuring rim width). Going outside the range of TRA-accepted rim widths assumes some additional risks, and while that may be acceptable for such activities as autocross or time trials, it is not really advisable where the public at large is concerned. Particularly if you're contemplating going out-of-spec on the low side. Technical reasons involving flexing, flex point, heat generation, and the ability of various portions of the sidewalls to locally withstand the combination of temperature and loading.

A 255/50 on an 8" rim is OK, but hardly optimum, unless that is qualified by further discussion indicating that other qualities such as ride quality have approximately equal weight with handling (it's smack-dab in the middle of the 7" - 9" range). The word 'optimum' by itself has a way of suggesting "ideal under all circumstances", which is rarely if ever a valid statement when tires are being discussed.


Norm