# How about 225/45/17 Falken Azenis on 7.5" wheels all around?



## rumratt (Feb 22, 2003)

I'm thinking of buying a single used 7.5" M68 wheel, and combining it with my spare to run 225/45/17 Falken Azenis on 7.5" wheels all around. I would use this for autox next season, and for daily driving (I don't put THAT many miles on going to work).

Anyone think I'm crazy to pick 225's, just because they're the fabulous Falken's?

Advantages:

- More balanced/less understeer 
- Cheap: these tires are pretty cheap, and I'd need to buy only one used wheel.
- I could rotate them to make them last longer (yeah, I know this is controvercial)

Disadvantages

- I'd be moved out of SCCA stock class, but too bad. I think it's OK for both BMW clubs I run with
- They get greasy so I might need to cool them with water :tsk: 
- I'm could go wider all around (225 or 245 on wider wheels) but then I couldn't get the Azena's. I could try a different tire in wider widths, but this would be more expensive and not necessarily better than 225 Falken's (maybe the BF Goodrich T/A KD's, but they a bit more expensive._


I could also (in theory) run the 225 Falken's on my stock 8.5 rears, but I think the wheel would be sticking furthur than the tire.  Just seems wrong.


Thoughts?


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## rumratt (Feb 22, 2003)

Another option would be to get a different cheap tire (like the ES100's) and run 245 all around. :eeps: 

This would actuall be cheaper than the falken's, and they'd last longer. I guess they might have less grip than the Azeni's? Or more because they're bigger? :dunno: 

From the wear pattern on my conti's it looks like I use only the outer edge of the tire anyway. Maybe the wider tires are useless without a more aggressive alignment? :dunno: :banghead:

WFT do I know... ug. FEEDBACK?


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## elbert (Mar 28, 2002)

Falken says you can run the 225's on wheels up to 8.5 inches wide. 
http://www.falkentire.com/tires_rt215.htm

They also have a 245, but it's 245/45/17.

Don't have any experience with the ES100's. But I don't think those narrow tread blocks will hold up very long under regular autoxing usage, so the Falkens with its broad blocks might actually last longer.

Something to consider: the Falkens have extremely stiff sidewalls, the downside being they are also extremely heavy.


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## rumratt (Feb 22, 2003)

elbert said:


> Falken says you can run the 225's on wheels up to 8.5 inches wide.
> http://www.falkentire.com/tires_rt215.htm


Yeah, I saw that, but I had 2 concerns.

1) I currently have 245 conti's on the back and there is essentially no rim protection. I can't imagine how little protection 225's would offer, (and how retarded it would look  )

2) I'd really like to rotate my tires. The backs wear faster than the fronts, and the wear is occuring in exactly opposite spots (middle vs outsides). I'd think rotating would help a lot.

I wonder if these concerns are total :bs: :dunno:



> Something to consider: the Falkens have extremely stiff sidewalls, the downside being they are also extremely heavy.


Yeah, I know, but autox'ers seem to love them. I guess for autox the lateral grip pays for the loss in acceleration. :dunno:


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## Elwood (Dec 20, 2002)

rumratt said:


> Yeah, I saw that, but I had 2 concerns.
> 
> 1) I currently have 245 conti's on the back and there is essentially no rim protection. I can't imagine how little protection 225's would offer, (and how retarded it would look  )
> 
> ...


 Here's some help,

This is what I get from the guys at the NJ autox:

ES100 suck. Great when new but go in the tank fast.

Falken's rock. Brent was beating my fastest run(w/o cones) last event on his new Falkens, and he's a class below us! I'll be checking his setup at the next event.


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## bren (Jul 1, 2002)

If you get the Falkins make sure you get one of water squirting things. They are GREAT for the first run or two but once they heat up they get extremely greasy....and the weight of the E46 heats them up quickly. If your events are on 90 degree days like ours I would consider some other tire.


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## rumratt (Feb 22, 2003)

bren said:


> If you get the Falkins make sure you get one of water squirting things. They are GREAT for the first run or two but once they heat up they get extremely greasy....and the weight of the E46 heats them up quickly. If your events are on 90 degree days like ours I would consider some other tire.


Thanks for the input. Needing to cool them with water sounds kind of annoying,but I'd do it if they were the best tire by a decent margin. There are at least 3-4 other folks running them, so it can't be too bad given the climate in our area. I'll ask them at the next event whether they have serious problems, or whether a bit of water solves the problem.


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## bren (Jul 1, 2002)

rumratt said:


> There are at least 3-4 other folks running them, so it can't be too bad given the climate in our area.


Yeah the climate could be a huge difference. Our events always seem to be in the high 80's to mid 90's with nothing but bright sun cooking the tires and the asphalt. Even the guys with small Hondas and Miatas have to use water to cool their Azenis around here.

On the plus side the 225 Azenis appear to be much wider than something like the Pilot Sport. I think they would fit fine on an 8.5" wheel.


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## rumratt (Feb 22, 2003)

bren said:


> On the plus side the 225 Azenis appear to be much wider than something like the Pilot Sport. I think they would fit fine on an 8.5" wheel.


Hmm, interesting. Thanks. Maybe I'll give it a shot.

Of course, in an ideal world it would make soooo much more sense to just have 8" wheels all around. :banghead:


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## TeamM3 (Dec 24, 2002)

hey fishface  ,

In racing nobody is worried about protecting their precious wheel lip, it is actually preferred not to overstuff a tire on a rim as the whide wheel provides much better sidewall support which in turn gives much mor response and precision, 225 on an 8.5 is the max recommended wheel width, nothing wrong at all with it, nor is there anything wrong with dropping back to 7.5" if you prefer, as mentioned previously the Azenis tend to run wide for their designated size.

The 245/45-17 is too tall, not recommended. Supposedly Falken plans to being in a bunch of new Azenis sizes and a possible compound/carcass revision around Dec/04


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## elbert (Mar 28, 2002)

TeamZ4 said:


> Supposedly Falken plans to being in a bunch of new Azenis sizes and a possible compound/carcass revision around Dec/04


:clap:


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