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Does Anyone Else Think This Looks Stupid?

nunnnunn Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,078 ******
edited May 2002 in General Discussion
You have seen them. Cars with HUGE diameter wheels and ultra-low profile tires. What good are they? These are cars being driven on streets with potholes and curbs, not Formula 1 racers. They cannot ride well, and the tire offers nearly no protection to the wheel from contact with obstacles. Also, I would think that proper inflation pressure would be critical with such an arrangement.

If I hit a pothole, I would much rather damage a tire than a tire and a wheel.

Even Dodge trucks are available with 20 inch wheels.

And I thought my Chevrolet had big wheels, only 16".



SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
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Comments

  • smokinggunsmokinggun Member Posts: 590 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I agree, it makes sense to have plenty of air and rubber between your vehicle and the roads with the shape they are in. It's hard to understand why they think it looks good.
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  • offerorofferor Member Posts: 8,625 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I had a Supra Twin Turbo with the 17" low-rise Michelins on it and the car drove like it was riding on rails. I loved them. Only trouble was another set of 17 inchers like that was $1200. You are probably talking about a more outlandish arrangement than this, but I can tell you these tires were fabulous, at least on dry pavement. the steering performance was nothing short of astonishing. But in the midwest they needed removal every winter. Now I drive a Grand Prix with 16" which is the biggest diameter tire that is still reasonable in price, as far as I'm concerned.

    -- Life NRA Member
    If dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
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  • Shootist3006Shootist3006 Member Posts: 4,171
    edited November -1
    I've got 16 inch rims on my jeep (but the tires are NOT low-profile) I would put those 20 inchers on but I would need a 6" body lift and mucho $ tires and the CG is bad enough with 16"ers.

    Yeah Nunn, those things are stupid both in looks and performance. I wonder what the ground clearance is on some of those things?

    Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem.Semper Fidelis
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  • LowriderLowrider Member Posts: 6,587
    edited November -1
    Yup. Real stupid. The fellows around here of the Hispanic persuasion go one further and put little wheels and tires ( like 13 inch) on their full-size lowrider cars. Talk about stupid. An Olds Cutlass Supreme or a Chevy Monte Carlo running around with wheels and tires the size of the ones you put on your wheelbarrow? Then some of them put on axle extenders so these idiotic little wheels and tires stick out a foot past the fender wells. I'll bet they handle real fine.

    Lord Lowrider the LoquaciousMember:Secret Select Society of Suave Stylish Smoking Jackets She was only a fisherman's daughter,But when she saw my rod she reeled.
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  • mcneely77mcneely77 Member Posts: 411 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I'll never understand why someone would want to spend $25,000 or more on a new vehicle, then mess up the spedometer, suspension, and gas mileage by putting low profile, and big rims on the thing. Why?

    Do not mistake my kindness for weakness.

    IALEFI, ASLET, NRA, and proud owner of a pair of S&W revolvers.
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  • beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Hey imagine how the cowboy pick up trucks and preppie BMW's look to them. Beach
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  • hackerhacker Member Posts: 162 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    the large diameter low profile tires offer increased performance. the sidewalls flex less during hard cornering and handling is improved. ride is a little harsher but i guess a lot of people are willing trade ride comfort for cornering as these tires are gaining in popularity.

    i never make misteakes.
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  • William81William81 Member Posts: 25,353 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    The vast majority of them look really stupid. I have seen a few show cars that the look added to the car overall.

    What looks really stupid to me are the 500.00 POS vehicles that some moron put a couple of grand into the wheels and tires.
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  • whiteclouderwhiteclouder Member Posts: 10,574 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It's terrible. I saw a 50 chevrolet the other day. It had been lowered to the point where I don't think it could have cleared a pack of cigarettes. And it had fender-skirts that covered the back wheels, and worse yet, the tires had big wide whitewalls. The guy driving it had obviously burned out the muffler because it made a terrible noise and he seemed to enjoy running in second gear just to annoy everybody. And the hub caps. They had these three spoke-like affairs in the middle, bright chrome and flashy, absolutely gaudy. And the car was painted tar black, talk about tasteless as well as impractical.

    Me and a couple of friends got tears in our eyes just lookin' at the stupid thing. Aw, the memories.

    Oh yeah, it had 16 inch wheels, most of them did in those days.

    Clouder..
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  • pigeoncreek1pigeoncreek1 Member Posts: 217 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I was out in Carslile, PA this weekend for a wedding an I ended up in the middle of $500 car with $2000 wheels HELL! There was a huge car show of some sort going on the whole weekend for these cars(whatever you call them)...They all had those big chrome mufflers on them too, makes them sound like a wind up toy! They had traffic backed up for miles, my hotel lot looked like a damn circus...there should be a rule: no loud pipes on anything except vehicles with V-8's and harleys!!!




    Gun control is hitting your target
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  • MercuryMercury Member Posts: 7,830 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I love those seeing those cars.......when I see them, I know who the stupid people are! :)

    Merc

    NO! You may not have my guns! Now go crawl back into your hole!

    ****************************************

    "Tolerating things you may not necessarily like is part of being free" - Larry Flynt
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  • competentonecompetentone Member Posts: 4,696 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sometimes I wonder about you guys...

    The guys do that to their cars because it attacts the sort of girls they're looking for.

    Yea, it's ugly--and you wouldn't like their type of girls either...
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  • robsgunsrobsguns Member Posts: 4,581 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Its not really the ugly that bothers me, I'm a very no nonsense person. I dont like wasting money. I dont see a purpose behind spending the money, when the vehicle will do even less now, mechanically, than it did before. As for handling, thats good, but as for clearance, man, it just doesnt make sense.

    SSgt Ryan E. Roberts, USMC
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  • beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Clouder...beautiful!!!!! It took me a second to see where you were going with it; maybe because I'm a little younger than you. Great post! Beach
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  • PelicanPelican Member Posts: 1,061 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Not only stupid but expensive. My step son has an S10 with the wide wheels and lowered to the ground. He has broken the exhaust manifold twice because of the pipes underneath hitting something. You'd think he'd catch on - nawh.

    The Almighty Himself Entrusted the Future of All Living Creatures to a Wooden Boat.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -"Audemus jura nostra defendere"
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  • cowdoccowdoc Member Posts: 5,847 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    i like them low riders when they pull up on the passenger side of my one ton diesel pickups with the drivers window right in line with the tail pipe at a stop light. esp when they got the music so loud i can hear it inside my pickup.... when the light turns green out comes a cloud of black smoke right in the drivers window.
    hahahaha.
    doc the mean one.:-)
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  • martzkj@msn.commartzkj@msn.com Member Posts: 582 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Ok let me start by saying I grow up with V8. But I have one of these cars you are talking about. I have a Neon ACR, these are factory built for autocross raceing. From the factory they lack the proper wheels to be real competive. I went from factory 185-60X14 to 205-40X16. This give the rubber band on the rim look. As far as messing up the computer or speedo, if you do it right the overall diameter stays about the same and everything works fine. This makes my car handle the corners great. As far as stupid or ugly, It's just the change in time, no different than my 70 Roadrunner with air shocks and huge tires in the rear and tiny tires up front or the lowering blocks my dad said they used to lower the rear and raise the front. If you don't see why the proper use of tires like this has a good purpose your getting to old. Go buy a Cadillac.
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  • PelicanPelican Member Posts: 1,061 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Caddy? Nah! Waste of money.

    The Almighty Himself Entrusted the Future of All Living Creatures to a Wooden Boat.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -"Audemus jura nostra defendere"
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  • sandman2234sandman2234 Member Posts: 894 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Funny we should be talking tires and wheels. I just hauled 1400 of them to Miami out to central North Carolina.(today)
    One of the questions I asked, was cost of the tires and the expected wearability of them.
    "overpriced and constucted of soft rubber" was the answer.
    No wonder they get good cornering out of them, soft rubber usually sticks to payment like glue. But pricing and faster wearing makes the tire companies happy...
    Sandman2234.... from the era of jacked up rear ends and wide tires on the back and bicycle tires on the front..lol

    Have Gun, will travel
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  • wundudneewundudnee Member Posts: 6,105 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    whiteclouder,
    1950 Chevy, skirts, lowered, split manifold with glass packs and lake pipe straights, nosed, decked, 41 Continental tail lights, electric trunk, painted with speckled green paint. It wasn,t everybodys choice of a vehicle, but it was mine. Got caught going up main street running straight pipes. Friendly LEO suggested that maybe I was never going to learn so he sent me to court. The judge asked if this defendant had any record of previous arrest? This was before computer and it looked like a deck of cards in front of that judge. Got two days for noisy mufflers and was paroled to a psychiatrist as a habitual violator. I am now cured. That was my day, I am not about to come down on somebody for their likes and dislikes. They are making the payments, I'm not.


    wundudnee...................junior


    ....................
    AD ASTRA PER ASPERA

    To the stars through difficulties
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  • Radio PanicRadio Panic Member Posts: 8 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    These are the same folks who must have some sweet deal with NIKE whereby they get paid a monthly sum to advertise said company by sticking a huge "swoosh" decal on their rear windows.

    ...I mean, they MUST be getting paid for that, right?
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  • EVILDR235EVILDR235 Member Posts: 4,398 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I live in the Pacific Northwest.Portland-Vancouver area.I see this guy all the time driving a 4x4 jeep lowered to the ground.May have about 6 inches between the body,and the ground.Probley the same guy i see riding his Harley around in the ice,and snow in the winter time.
    Dr.Evil,
    PS,better than talking about toilets.
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  • niklasalniklasal Member Posts: 776 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I gotta agree with that "$500 car and $2000 wheels" comment. I've seen plenty of rust buckets around here with holes in the doors, broken windows, and $2,500 gold plated 100 spoke Dayton rims.

    Tsk tsk tsk.

    My gun is prettier than yours, and it's a Glock!
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  • steven mobbssteven mobbs Member Posts: 234 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    i am a dealer for this STUFF--its strange for someone to drive up in a 500.00 dollar car and spend 3000.00 for wheels and tires--then they pay cash in 10s and 20s one of the modern pharmaceutical reps of course
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  • austin247austin247 Member Posts: 375 ✭
    edited November -1
    To take it one step further, how about the $500 POS car with $2000 wheels and a $2000 stereo system? There are a few around here that looke like they belong in the junkyard, but they drive down the street thumping the bass so loud you can literally see the rust flakes flying off the body with each beat. And, since the entire back seat is taken up with a huge speaker box, they'll cram six or seven people in the front seat and cruise around town so they can look COOL.
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  • ElbestaElbesta Member Posts: 334 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have to say something here, for the ones that think these tires have great traction for racing, why dont they use them for real racing. All they are is something to look cool to impress the guy next to him. It is the same as bying brand name shoes because MJ has his name on them.
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  • pantera7974pantera7974 Member Posts: 938 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    PRAIASE THE LOWERED
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  • Richie RichRichie Rich Member Posts: 439 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    come to az and austin247 hit it right on the head.....you have to see them out here the rims stick out past the car and the axles look like they are going to bend and break. heck I have seen them that they put airbags under neath and drop the whole thing on the ground when parked. dahhhhh....You all are talking $$$ look up some in the 22",23 and I even have seen a brand new escalade with 24" wheels on it they are over a thousand each just for the rims.

    Remember,"your woman may not find you handsome, But atleast she'll find ya handy". I love that show..............
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  • beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    In some cases they look like works of art.....better than sniffing the paint. Beach
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