Saturday, January 05, 2008 - 01:12 pm, by: Steve Millward(Mallard)
My car had 225/50-16 tyres on when I bought it and I considered moving to 225/60-16 when it was time to replace them purely to go for the best ride quality. In the end I was put off by the marginal risk that 225/60-16 make the total wheel and tyre diameter slightly illegal and opted for 225/55-16 which I believe was an option on the 31s when they were new. (I have the same wheels as you which took me ages to find but I think they are better looking than the Supra wheels.) I know it is a miniscule risk but if you have a crash and it's discovered that the wheels were of an illegal size you could be in a pickle. Why give insurers an excuse?
It made a very, very slight improvement to the ride by going from 50 to 55 profile, but that could be due to having new tyres or by having a different make (from Pirelli P Zero Nero to Bridgestone E30), or just the psychology of having new tyres.
My conclusion would be that you probably won't feel much difference in ride by going to 55 profile tyres from 60. The quality of the ride will be more due to the pressure you run, the brand of tyre you buy and the quality of your bushes and struts than 11.25 millimetres of side wall.
I would advise against going to 225/50-16 as the wheel looks too small in the arches. You would get a shock going from 60 profile to 50 as the wheels will look like they have come from a skateboard. That extra 45mm makes a big difference visually.
If you are sticking to 16" wheels but are considering the Supras, which I also considered and are wider, then there are some good tyre size calculators around that will help you work out overall diameter and tyre wall size (if you haven't found these already). The trick for me was to get the maximum sidewall for the ride quality whilst keeping them legal.
I also looked at increasing the width of tyres on the 16" wheels but I found it hard to find suitable tyres (e.g. 235/50-16)
