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[DrRobert]

Will be switching from PSS to Bridgestone RE11 soon for more grip. Right now my car has the stock OEM 18" staggered rims (8" front, 8.5" rear) and I like them. I'm thinking of getting two more of the 8.5" rims for a square setup, and wondering if the 255s will fit up front or should I go with 245s. The wheel offset calculator says that with either 255s or 245s the new tires would be 11 mm wider on the strut side and 1 mm wider on the outside. The 255s would be closer in diameter to the 225s I have up front now than the 245s.

The car is my DD but my DD is an awesome canyon run plus some freeway, and I hope to get it to the track one of these days. The PSSs were fine until I upgraded my turbo, now I need more grip. Am considering a square setup to reduce understeer and for a more balanced ride, and for more control entering turns on my daily canyon run. What do you guys think?

[gds52]

Originally Posted by DrRobert

Will be switching from PSS to Bridgestone RE11 soon for more grip. Right now my car has the stock OEM 18" staggered rims (8" front, 8.5" rear) and I like them. I'm thinking of getting two more of the 8.5" rims for a square setup, and wondering if the 255s will fit up front or should I go with 245s. The wheel offset calculator says that with either 255s or 245s the new tires would be 11 mm wider on the strut side and 1 mm wider on the outside. The 255s would be closer in diameter to the 225s I have up front now than the 245s.

The car is my DD but my DD is an awesome canyon run plus some freeway, and I hope to get it to the track one of these days. The PSSs were fine until I upgraded my turbo, now I need more grip. Am considering a square setup to reduce understeer and for a more balanced ride, and for more control entering turns on my daily canyon run. What do you guys think?

Cannot say about 255 front but following are the best sizes well tested by a lot of ppl
235 front
265 rear
I've heard about 245's on front but not sure about matching rear tires.

[2010MSPORT335i]

Im running the exact same tire up front, you can do it.

[DrRobert]

Originally Posted by idk alex

Im running the exact same tire up front, you can do it.

That's good news - thanks. Do you have the RE11s or just that same size? What model/year is your car? Square or staggered? How is the handling and steering response?

[DrRobert]

Originally Posted by gds52

Cannot say about 255 front but following are the best sizes well tested by a lot of ppl
235 front
265 rear
I've heard about 245's on front but not sure about matching rear tires.

Thanks, thats good to know but I'm thinking of a square setup to reduce understeer and would prefer not to lose any rubber in the rear if possible. I already have a little wheel hop with hard accel, that's why I'm wanting a stickier tire.

[gds52]

Originally Posted by DrRobert

Thanks, thats good to know but I'm thinking of a square setup to reduce understeer and would prefer not to lose any rubber in the rear if possible. I already have a little wheel hop with hard accel, that's why I'm wanting a stickier tire.

I cannot say anything about under steer, I'm not that technical :-).
But keep in mind that sport package BMW comes with staggered setup 225/255, so this means BMW designed this car with somethings in mind.
You may look at upgrading front upper/lower control arms to M3 ones. They are direct replacement and do change the steering feel. I did tht and very happy with the setup.

[DrRobert]

Originally Posted by gds52

I cannot say anything about under steer, I'm not that technical :-).
But keep in mind that sport package BMW comes with staggered setup 225/255, so this means BMW designed this car with somethings in mind.
You may look at upgrading front upper/lower control arms to M3 ones. They are direct replacement and do change the steering feel. I did tht and very happy with the setup.

Yep, I've already done that upgrade and others (see my sig). Staggered setup gives more grip to the drive wheels on RWD cars but also induces some understeer as there is less grip up front for turn in while steering.

The Bridgestone RE-11s are nice, my friend has them on his 335i and I liked the way they felt when I drove it. They are rated as an "extreme performance summer tire", which is one notch above the "max performance summer tire" rating that the PSSs have. The RE-11A is a newer version of the RE-11 that has a stickier tire compound. HERE is a comparison between the RE-11 and RE-11A; the RE-11A clearly came out on top. The RE-11 and RE-11A are quieter and have better wet traction than other tires in this category, which makes it a good choice for a DD in places that get rain but not snow, which is my situation. See THIS comparison for more on that.

The thing is that the RE-11As don't come in as many sizes as the RE-11. The only 18" RE-11A is 245/40R18 93W. That would probably be good as a square setup on 8.5" rims on a 335i, I'm just not sure about going down a size in the rear. The tire would be 1 cm narrower but it is a grippier tire, so I don't know how much it would improve rear grip. I imagine the square setup with these tires would be an overall improvement in handling on canyon runs though, which is also what I'm after. The RE-11s do come in 255/35/18 90W.