What's the downside to smaller

I currently have 17" and a heavy foot, which as we know = BIG $ :cry: for new tires. Whats the downside to going back to 16". I am running 275-40-17's. Will there be a real difference in performance, I mean noticeable? I can buy a full set of 16 off fleabay for about what those 2 17's are gonna cost me. Also, for some reason my left front tire rubs when turned in all the way, kinda hoping smaller (width) will alievate this problem. Does this sound reasonable or is there something else possibly causing this??


Thanx in advance

First of all, your front tire shouldn't be rubbing anything, I know mine didn't. The only downside would be that you can't run as big of a tire with stock 16's and there isn't as wide of selection for tires. The upside is that they're lighter, so if you can hook as well with, say nittos on 16's, then you should get faster times, in theory. If you're worried about tire width, get some 15" draglites or something similar since you can get those in almost any width and backspacing for any size tire, then you get the best of both worlds. IMO, you should just stick with the 17s, but that's what I have, so I might be biased.