Wheel sizing vs. power question

wstar

All of the above is true, but all other things (wheel/tire mfg, weight distribution/total, etc) being equal, if you kept the same sidewall height and dropped back to an 18" wheel, the car would perform even better.

The only performance reason to intentionally upsize wheels is to fit bigger brake rotors. You can run lighter wheels and shorter sidewalls in any diameter, and the smaller you get the outside diameter the better it is for acceleration (the gearing effect mentioned at length two posts up).

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samb03

Using the same sidewall ratio on 18's as you would a 19 would reduce the overall gearing ration. It would help it accelerate. If depends on the grip level of the tires if you over gear your car you can overload your tires and just melt them. I seriously down that it would be the issue on case the gearing change wouldn't be that great. It would throw off your speedometer, and raise the RPMs to go any given speed.