what is the widest tire i can put on 17 x 9 in the back on a 2000 ss

 

what's your reason for wanting a really wide tire?

are you looking for a wide dr or slick or for road/ autox? or just for daily driving?

remember that a wider tire doesn't mean better traction. the formula for friction (traction) has no variable for surface area.

a slick that has 8" of tread will have better traction than a street tire with 11" of tread

this is somewhat generalized...there are other determining factors but in general...

 

Personally, I would stick with the 275/40's. But, if you're gonna go bigger, I wouldn't go with anything bigger than a 285.

 

so i could bolt on some really sticky bicycle tires to my car and launch just as well??? i think not

the bigger the contact patch (surface area) on the road the more available traction....that being said an 11 inch wide street tire may have a bigger contact patch but the 8 inch wide slick is made from a stickier compound and will stick better giving a better launch. Of course, an 11 inch wide slick will give even more traction and an even better launch.

 

i knew some wise *** was gonna make a comment like that.

like i said...in general, and there ARE other factors in tire traction that have an affect.

what i was saying is that the compound of the tire has more affect on the traction it delivers than the width.

"Although the Egyptians were struggling with friction over 4000 years ago, the formal written study of friction did not begin until the fifteenth century with the pioneering work of Leonardo da Vinci. About 200 years later in 1699 a Frenchman named Guillaume Amontons rediscovered what da Vinci had observed and formulated what we now call the Classical Laws of friction:

Law #1:

The force of friction is directly proportional to load.

Law #2:

The force of friction is independent of the apparent area of contact."

from askjeeves.com

"Simply stated, these rules say that a heavier brick is harder to slide than a light one and the force necessary to slide it is the same whether the brick is placed on end or on a side"

 

ohh how I love these!

well, take your 315's or whatever super sized tire you think you need, and I'll bring my 245's and I say I will still 60' better and run faster..

The ideal tire is simple.. Run the least tire you can get a good launch with... If others are launching on the same sized tire without any problems, then you need driver skill not more tire..
Its about as stupid as getting no traction, running 13.8 while spinning and getting 2.4 60' times and thinking you need more power to go faster..

I have seen 245's pull 1.8 and better and handle 400+ rwtq.. So until I have a bit more, I wont be going any wider than my 245's.

Some people are all about looks.. sure thats their thing.. but dont mix looks with speed..

 

"The following is the basic formula for determining the friction force:

F=µN

The three basic methods of reducing the overall force necessary to create linear motion are: decreasing µ, the coefficient of friction, through lubrications or polished surfaces, converting the type of friction involved, such as sliding to rolling, and decreasing the N, the normal force."

so speaking strictly from a physics point of view...if you put bicycle tires on a car with tthe same material as a drag slick, if you DID NOT SPIN THE TIRES, which would be the same as converting the type of friction (bolded above) you would get the same friction between the tires and the road...ie traction

 

"The three basic methods of reducing the overall force necessary to create linear motion are: decreasing µ"

reducing the force needed is the same as saying...making it easier to spin the tires...
that being said:
decreasing µ (pronounced mu) would be accomplished by using a harder/less sticky tire

through lubrications or polished surfaces would be like adding water to the road or driving on ice

converting the type of friction involved, this is the harder one. there are two basic forms of friction, static and sliding. static is the form that is present when you are not spinning the tires, and is typically highter than sliding. just like when you are trying to push something, it often takes more effort to get it to move than it does to keep it moving one speed.

once you break your tires free, you have converted to sliding friction, which as a much lower µ or coefficient of friction. that is why when drag racing you want to minimize spin. cause you obviously arn't getting the same friction between the tires and the road when spinning as you are when just accelerating.

Types of Friction

Static Friction
Acts to prevent objects from starting to slide
Forces can vary from zero to an upper limit
Sliding Friction
Acts to stop objects that are already sliding
Forces have fixed magnitudes


Frictional Forces

Increase when you:


push the surfaces more tightly together
roughen the surfaces
Peak static force is greater than sliding force
Surface features can interpenetrate better
Friction force drops when sliding begins

 

that hurt my brain.
and i have a BS in earth science...lol