Give some good performance advice.

[Jerren]

Last night i took my 17's off of my car and put my 14's back on. man that was the greatest adjustment ever. my acceleration and top speed increased dramatically. the ride is smoother. and i'm sure my gas milage will increase. every thing just felt so much better with those big heavy rims off.

big rims are good for looks but they hurt your performace. so if you plan on making your car faster, don't get the big rims.

thats my .10 now i was wondering if any body had any other advice on what to do to increase performace. Just tell us about any thing that you felt changed your car a great deal.

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Jerren the 17's you were running were taller than OEM, which made your effective final drive ratio taller, which by itself would hurt acceleration. Plus I'll bet that those rims are quite a bit heavier than your stock rims and tires, which would hurt performance as well. You should not feel much performance difference if you had rims and tires that weighed the same or less then your 14" combo and were running the correct 205/40 size. As far as the ride quality goes, I can't offer you much of a way to get around that since 17" tires that will fit under a 3rd gen will all have a awfull short sidewall.

[Jerren]

hmm, well i like the little rims and tires. but you are right mine were 205/45/17. if they were 205/40/17 would i still be able to tell the big difference. it seems like having more "meat" on the tires made the ride feel better. but i really don't know since i'm not that techie....

[Jerren]

oh nm you answered that in your post. i guess i didn't read that right.

[87DXHatch]

This was something I was going to post on...

So getting 17's is going to give you a hit in the performance department? Does anyone know how expensive light 17's would be?

This makes me rethink my decision to get some 17's later this summer. But I guess a good looking car is better than a wannabe performance car (tip of the day, I don't think I will be crushing many people in a 98 HP DX...)

[89AccordDXHB]

Originally posted by 87DXHatch
I don't think I will be crushing many people in a 98 HP DX...

Don't be so pesimistic. I use to feel that way about my DX. Before I had all this scheduled maintenance done the car was sluggish. Then, I had a bunch of regular maintenance stuff done including a new timing belt and now I have the guts to push the DX futher. On the boards, I read about the 3000-4000 RPM power band and now I live by it. Every (safe) chance I get, I punch my car into 3000-4000 RPM range and the car just hauls! I may not crush cars by will but I really WHIZZZ by a bunch of unsuspecting auto on the freeway. I use to give way to a lot of cars but now they change lanes behind me. My car is stock so far.

I know this thread was about 17" rims. I have 15s with 195/60R15 Dunlops. If 17s hurt performance I wouldn't trade in my 15s.

http://164.67.121.124/manacsa/accord/89accorddxhb_3wl.jpg

[Jerren]

this post isn't just about 17's. its about any good performance advice that you may have to share.

[bass]

I'm sure you know about i/h/e but if want something different and free try taking out your rear and passenger seats. If you have any stereo equipment if the trunk, take it out too. Weight reduction will make a huge difference at the track. This is more for racing too, but my theory for better times is to adjust the clutch so that it engages near the top. Then you don't have to push the pedal all the way to the floor when you shift, saving you a small, but important, amount of time.