bolteon593

also 300.

http://michelinmedia.com/wp-content/...-2818_0070.jpg

mrothmuller

I have seen several tests where they take a car and put several different size wheels
and tires on them, always the same tire, just different widths. There is an optimal size
for each car and wider is not always better. To wide adversely affects cornering and
even will slow down a car 0-60 due to the extra weight. Looks are a whole different
issue, frankly I don't like the look of ultra low profile tires. The ones on my stock C6
are even a bit too low profile for my taste.

The Dizzy Vizzy

I dunno. I can't "see" it like that, perhaps it's because the new rear end seems lower and wider? It's just that they look kind of skinnny?

The Dizzy Vizzy

DREAMERAK

Understood, but looks are subjective, and personal. I find the heated arguements a bit amusing and ultimately pointless. Different people like different styles, I don't think there has been or ever will be a Corvette that everyone likes 100%.

Ed32

I would rather have wide tires especially in the rear. However, what is going to make a huge difference in traction is the electronic differential, which is what the F-458 has, I am not saying is the exact same dif but it is a big improvement compared to the split diff in the current C6.

How much of that will improve G testing results? Not sure but everything helps, especially traction.

The Dizzy Vizzy

Understood, and I agree.

To each their own.

rcallen484

Sometimes your rear tires need to be slightly larger than your front tires:

nevillej

The ability to use the narrower wheels was not just a Michelin effort, from why I understand it was accomplished due to improvements to the suspension of the car along with a 50/50 weight distribution that allowed Michelin to be able to achieve great results with a narrow tire, in other words a true team effort with Chevrolet that benefits future owners.

Wontspeak

Better in the snow

FloydSummerOf68

What size are the wheels?

K-Spaz

I would not place much faith in them being cheap. In my experience soft compound tires were not found on the bargain rack.

If they last 10K miles, that's plenty for me.

All this talk about the car needing super wide tires, yea, wider is better if they are actually touching something. But when it comes to actually driving the car on old worn out streets that are not flat as a pancake, really wide tires are a pita.

A lot of the streets around here have the ruts caused by braking, sometimes even from heavy truck traffic. They're a real hoot with 285's, I can just imagine driving something with 345's! Lol. I for one can see why they'd opt for a narrower tire.

And ya know what, if someone wants different wheels and tires, you can rest assured they'll stick em on.

Caddylac10

The quality of the tire is just as important as the size.

Besides, the C7's chassis is more sophisticated. The chassis much stiffer and the C7 is a tad lower and wider than the standard C6.

Also, I think people might have a hard time excepting that the standard can C7 pull a G because it's expected from cars costing closer to 100K or more, but that's how far the Corvette has come. That's why it's the best pound for pound sports car in the world.

The C7 essentially gives us very close performance all around to the C6 Z06. I'm not referring to the Z07 package, but a regular Z.

NevadaVette

I'll believe the Michelin sales pitch when I see Z06's and ZR1's ditching their wide rear tires at the strip for skinny French shoes made with a genuine, official new secret compound, as seen on TV.

Don't hold your breath, pigeons.

Davy_Baby9

Are you saying tire compound doesn't matter? Might as well buy the cheapest and widest tired because rubber is rubber!

Ruz

I believe in one of the videos it was said that these tires were designed specifically for the C7. If that is the case, I will be absolutely floored if you can replace a set for less than $2k.

gatti-man

Haha awesome.

Hey guys if the c7s tires are so amazing how long do you think it will be before other people buy them? Don't drink the koolaid. It's obviously best case scenario in optimum environment etc. The car could use wider tires but that's more wear and tear on the rear end and requires a beefier suspension and this is a base car. That's why the c7s tires are not wide. Has zero to do with magic rubber or rotating mass.

SBC_and_a_stick

Stickier compound means they can achieve better grip with smaller contact patch. Smaller contact patch means less rolling resistance ==== better mpg.

The performance models of the C7 will have wider tires because...wait for it...they perform better.

If optimal means "good enough to beat the outgoing car while maximizing MPG" than yeah, this width is optimal.

jdhommert

Although width looks cool you don't always need it. Tons of cars go ungodly fast on 275 mickeys. They surely wanted to keep the rotating mass and rolling resistance as low as possible for better power to the ground and mpg, so why not? I'm all for a smaller more efficient package rather than bigger/more powerful/heavier etc.

Regardless, I'll throw some 555RII's on a c7 if or whenever I'll get one....stockish sized 555II's do absolutely incredible for how I used them as a max grip tire on a daily driven car that I tore up the twisty back roads with.

One great thing about living in cornfield country is when they take down the corn, and you are on a great twisty road, you can see if anyone is coming pretty far away. If not I treat the road like it's a road course.

Mew2

10k is not enough for any base coupe...tires are damn expensive T_T

Help us young bucks save some money!