One website makes wheel & tire selection foolproof and affordable.
Among gearheads and even the general public, there is no single vehicle modification more popular than a wheel/tire upgrade. The wheels and tires set the vibe of your ride long before you can pop the hood and even before people can hear the crackle of an exhaust note. We judge ourselves and each other to a large extent (at least automotively) by the rolling stock we choose.
Aesthetics notwithstanding, our tire and wheel needs can change as a function of how we use our vehicles and where we live. Beyond that, tires just wear out, and our experiences with them often inform our decision to improve the grip, handling, tread life, and performance of our tires as a sensible alternative to buying a different vehicle.
Since 1979, Tire Rack has provided affordable wheel and tire solutions for an octane-hungry population of enthusiasts as well as legions of ordinary “civilians.” As anyone in the mail-order tire business can tell you, ordering wheels and tires sight unseen has historically resulted in improper fit, compromised performance, and unintended consequences in the appearance department. Returns and complaints are something that no business wants, and in the wheel and tire segment, the execution of customer satisfaction is a live-or-die proposition.
Selecting wheels and tires blindly without an intimate knowledge of a car’s suspension, brakes, and available clearance is risky, so Tire Rack has perfected its on-line ordering tool to make the process easy, foolproof, and we’ll say it here: fun.
And while you may be completely fine with entering your OE tire size directly into the TireRack.com pull-down menu and availing yourself to Tire Rack’s mind-numbing choices and competitive pricing, the real fun doesn’t start until you open your eyes to the huge selection of wheels Tire Rack offers. That’s exactly what we did with a 2011 Dodge Challenger R/T in need of new tires and a fresh look.
Tire Rack has an on-line tool that allows you to enter the year, make, and model of your car, then see every wheel that fits. The proper tire size is selected automatically, and a user can see on the screen exactly what a wheel will look like on his car before making a decision. These days, we take that kind of technology for granted, but it was Tire Rack that perfected it, and over the years has added to its database of vehicles, tires, and wheels.
While Tire Rack’s fitment tool sounds simple enough, a lot of effort has gone into the background to make it all work seamlessly. (Tire Rack even has its own test track and testing program to independently rate tire performance.) Everything has been taken into consideration for a risk-free wheel choice, including caliper and brake rotor clearance, suspension clearance, offset, rolling circumference, and even speedometer calibration. That takes a lot of man hours to measure, research, and code into a website.
On the day we checked, Tire Rack had 132 different wheels available that fit a 2011 Dodge Challenger R/T in diameters ranging from 18 inches to 22 inches. We saw everything from basic 18-inch police “steelies” for $79 each, to 22-inch Savini Di Forza wheels at $550 per hoop. After punching in the make, year, and model, the Tire Rack website displays your vehicle with the selected wheel design. A scroll function lets you rapidly view a bunch of choices on your car until that “a ha!” moment hits.
We narrowed our results to four 20-inch wheel designs, printed them out, and let the car owner mull them over for a few days to gain some perspective. She discovered that she preferred the Sport Muscle V80 in satin black. Measuring 20 x 9.5 with an 18mm offset, the V80 is a clone of the 2015-’16 Hellcat wheel, and comes with a price tag of $199 each. It has an original-equipment look that more satisfactorily fills out the wheel wells, and it would make the car appear at least four model years newer—something to keep in mind for future resale value.
The taller, wider V80 also opened the door for more grip in the form of Continental’s ExtremeContact DWS 06 in a 255/45R20 size. (The factory size was 235/55R18.) This all-season Ultra High Performance tire is in a relatively small group of tires that possess both superior dry grip and acceptable performance in winter weather. The ExtremeContact DWS 06’s UTQG treadwear rating of 560 also promises years of long highway life, and with a price of $185.65 each, was surprisingly affordable too.
We could’ve clicked the order button right then, but the Tire Rack website reminded us that we’d need to either have the existing tire pressure monitoring system installed on the new wheels, or add new ones for $38 each. We opted for a set of new TPMS sensors, which Tire Rack installed for free while mounting and balancing the set. With black metal tire valves and shipping (the wheels come with new nickel-plated lugnuts, a deep drive socket, and center caps), the V80 wheels mounted with Conti ExtremeContact DWS 06 tires brought the order total to $1,893.76.
The set of mounted wheels and tires showed up a few days later and we simply bolted them on. A few things we noticed: the wheels and tires were well protected in their packaging, banded together in pairs and protected by thick cardboard discs. We also observed the stick-on weights inside the barrel section were painted satin black to match the wheels, making them practically invisible. (A nice touch!) Once installed, the balance was perfect (thanks to Tire Rack’s Hunter road-force balancing machine) and the new TPMS sensors worked without fault. During installation, we checked the fit on the front wheels, looking for interference with upper ball joints, brake assembly, tie rod ends, and fender skirts, and found adequate clearance everywhere, even when subjected to full steering lock and suspension deflection.
Out on the road, we noticed a slight increase in road noise and ride harshness over the stock-sized 235/55R18 tires, but this we attribute to the shorter sidewall of the more performance-oriented 255/45R20 size. That was offset by the more aggressive grip and better braking performance of the ExtremeContact DWS 06, and the jaw-dropping looks of the Hellcat-style V80 wheel. This tire/wheel package from Tire Rack has given this Hemi Challenger a new lease on life through improved performance, and a tasteful, revitalized look with a better resale value.
These days, there’s no real reason someone should ever get their new wheel and tire package wrong, yet a trip to any local car show proves that poor aesthetics and unsafe wheel and tire choices are still common. The cure? Before asking a stranger on a message board, take a few minutes to check out Tire Rack’s tire and wheel program. You’ll be glad you did.
Tire Rack is the official tire and wheel supplier to HOT ROD magazine.
Source:
Tire Rack
800-550-4318
www.TireRack.com
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