I was being sarcastic there, which apparently you missed. Yeah, that vehicle may be doing something other than going in a straight line, but what happens when the lateral force you are applying to your vehicle causes you to use the now rounded shoulder of your tire?

Is the MINI the new Jetta for stuff like this? (sigh) Thankfully the classic Mini doesn't seem to get molested to quite a degree. As I have said previously though - it's your car. Do whatever you want.

 

michilin PAX tires have that streched look and that is from the factory, the shape on the PAX tire is functional

http://www.michelinman.com/differenc...paxsystem.html

the hige performance pax system has even more agressive streched look but i cant seem to find it here hmmmm, when michilin came to are school they brought it their and the trasportation design students were commenting on how it looked like a streched tire

a mild strech can be visually pleasing for some a radical strach could be dangerouse and look odd, its all in the eye of the beholder thats why i love are profession

car design is subjective what one man finds beutyfull another will find discusting its all a point of veiw, and free will to like what you like and respect the person for it. but oh well what ya going to do !

 

ROFLMAO



Sorry, can't help myself. This is on a FWD vehicle!??

 

This obviously isnt meant for a track car. Most people have track tires/rims for that exact reason. My point of showing that pic is you can still drive under those lateral forces....and i doubt your street driving subjects the tire to as much force as drifting.

molested how? It was a big thing to do the exact opposite of this (big fat tires) on a classic which wasn't accepted by everyone....and people called it molesting then. Think how radical it was for someone to put a roof design on their classic for the first time....its not like that was a normal thing to do back then. You don't make progress without pushing boundaries. If you want to do the same old thing that everyone else does...thats great, but you wont be able to push the aesthetic or performance qualities of your car.

Pushing the boundaries isnt for everyone. As i said...show me your car, i want to see what one "should look like".

 

it doesnt say which car is pictured....but i assume its a VW, so yes its FWD.

Tire stretch has nothing to do with which wheels are driving the car though....so i dont necessarily get your post?

 

the point of my post was to bring the whole hopeless of the human condition into clearer focus. For if we are indeed the sum of our perceived experience, then some of us ought not to be allowed outside the home. Those Dubbers obviously failed their physics class. Stretched tires with significant distance between the tire's bead and the lip of the rim are a formula for catastrophic failure. Maybe these momma's boys haven't realized that they're outside the protection of the womb. A pothole, a corner taken aggressively, a drop in air pressure, hell a drop in barometric pressure and those dubbers might be having their next car show at St. Peter's Pearly Gate.

 

and that has to do with FWD how?

And if you think they dont know about those things...then you need to go hang out with VW modders more often. Those guys drive more carefully than anyone i know. Their car will never hit a bump or pothole if they run wheels like that. They will og out of their way to avoid those problems and are fully aware of the issues.....they make sure to avoid those issues at all costs...even if it means taking the long way around town, or parking in a different lot because the incline is too steep.

Granted, the stretch on that tire is absolutely rediculous....way too much, but it's probably up to "survive" the driving that they do (not performance by any means....cruising at 35mph TOPS). Hundreds and thousands of Dubbers on the vortex run stretched tires to some degree....no issues yet. It is an issue and i would never take those tires on the track...but thats not what they are meant for anyway.

 

Chris I would love to see the setup.
Are you going to shave and monotone the car 2?
Cant wait to see pics.

I agree with you. You can't tell if you like/not like something until you try it.
You know handling is suffering but you are riding in a "one of kind". I for one wish our cars would be rear drive car. Like that adding the meat to the rear would not be an issue. But ascetically THAT is what the MINI needs to look more like the tough bulldog that it is.

Regardless, I cant wait to see the outcome.

"... cause when theres' nothing else to burn, we must set our selves on fire!."

 

well this thread was actually bumped from a long time ago to just say "i dont like it" by latka ...chris is selling the car

here are some pics of it looking amazing:

 

He sold the car and drives an e30 now...thats what konky said last we talked about all this...

And all you haters please I would like to see your ride...obviously you don't know sh*t and you just come into this thread to tell this guy you think its ugly...and your deep knowledge of cars tells you its stupid......how bout you go get back on that bandwagon and ride off with the honda tuners...

Pretty sure this is one of the reasons he got rid of the car and got off the forums because all you people have no taste and just talk sh*t..

 

Most people, here do not understand enough about wheels and offsets to even attempt to do what Chris did..

People act like he called Tire Rack and they shipped them to his door, he had to understand offset and get the proper overal diameter in order to even get his car to move !

Anyway, I like it too.. May even do something like that some day 7.5 and 8.5.. Who knows, I just like wheels

 

...well Am glad that Mr opinion revived the thread.
It gave the chance to check out an awesome setup. LOVE'DA"SH*T!

Do you guys recal how much of a drop he had?

Dude, that Fkr looks SICK squating like that!

Good Job Chris!, Wherever you are!!

...wanna sell the wheels alone?

 

For those that mod a car for looks, ignore any negative impact on handling and the like, then say "I'm only planning on driving cruise night" etc, I for one, cannot fathom it. Accidents aren't planned, and emergency handling is all that you may have to stave off serious consiquences. I can't really see doing something for looks that will compramise emergency response.



Matt

 

problem solved....this wont affect emergency response in any way. (unless its that one wheel that was posted above...that thing is crazy)

take a look at the pics i just posted of chris's car and you will see that the poke really isnt THAT big.....and would be able to hold up to multiple high force turns....maybe not doing 90 on a turn following the straight-away on a track after countless laps.....but im sure he could run on the dragon like that with no problems.

 

I'm telling you....people should just post pics (or have a gallery) of their car before they make strong comments concerning aesthetics.

I don't value the opinion of most of the people who post without backing up their claims with their own cars.

 

OK fire away:
Gallery photo shots - check,
description of mods in sig - check
aesthetics open for critique - check
value of my opinions concerning the "usefulness" and "safety" of poke - ?

 

I agree that one up above is way crazy...but I still think it looks very cool!!

And as far as usefulness and safety...if they were going for that they would have gotten something useful and safe...

Thats like looking at a show car and saying hey that thing is too low to perform well...its not the purpose...

 

'BUMP' fer a sick MINI....
let me post this mug again!!

 

I agree with your comments, except for the fact that show cars are not driven on the streets, but trailered from convention hall to convention hall, while these vehicles are sharing the roads with us. I completely understand that their owners are caring individuals who look after their babies and drive like proverbial "little old ladies on the way to church". Nevertheless, we live in an imperfect world where sh*t has been known to happen. I for one don't think that making what is clearly an unsafe at speed mod and then using the vehicle on public roads when the public is present is appropriate.
Now I would have no problem if the good folks drove to their gatherings on street rims and tires, trailering their stretched tire equipped rims to the show, and changed there (kind of like how the women of NYC go to work in gym shoes and then change into heels at the workplace). But to invoke potential harm to themselves, their cars and others by driving on these rims is just sheer irresponsibility.

 

I thought I'd chime in. On my previous toy (mk2 VR6) I ran many different wheel and tire setups.

16" rota slipstreams, 205/40/16s

15" BBS RAs, 205/50/15 RA1s

15x8 Schmidt Modernlines with "stretched" 195/45/15 toyos

16x6 and 16x8" Porsche wheels with adapters, 205/40/16 all around

From this experience I will say the wheels with adapters were horrible ... the adapter bolts would come loose ... not fun.

The BBS RAs were the best in terms of handling etc. (of course RA1s) ... but also the most comfortable.

The Rotas were nice, but the low profile tire didn't handle quite as well.

The modernlines rode and handled at least as well as the rotas. Never had a problem with the tires loosing presure, etc. The small overall diameter helped the accleration and the car did look amazing. Keep in mind this was my third car ... and only saw about 5,000 miles a year ... so practicality was not at the top of my list.

All this to say, do what you want. To think someone would get rid of their car because someone on a forum didn't like it is rediculous ... I'm sure that wasn't the owners reason. But if you do decide to "stretch tires," don't go too extreme if you want to be able to still drive the car hard and not worry about it. Something like a 205/50 on a 16x8 or a 205/45 on a 17x8 would look nice. I would love to try a 215/45 on a 16x8.5 ... Again, this is just my opinion.

 

Lol....vinyl everywhere (including some joke about a hemi), a white (or chrome) scoop...even right there is enough to discredit any aesthetic judgement. And that doesnt even mention things like the orange turn indicators up front, and rather 4x4 stance, or yellow fog FILM (instead of actual bulbs) on a blue car. It just seems that your car should look better than chris's is you are gonna say negative things about how it looks.

In terms of judgement of safety...you haven't even proven that they are unsafe. "Show me the numbers" as many people like to say.

 

0uch!!

 

Yea, yea, sticks 'n stones.

Blubelle's dropped about 1.5 inches, any lower and she leaves streaks like a snail. Headlight film is blue ala car, but couldn't go that route for the foggies, too reflective. I run on a daily basis, prefer the film approach as it's a better protector against debris than just doing the bulbs. That said I've got the Bimmian silver bulbs for the turn signals, but my lazy a** just hasn't gotten round to puttin 'em on, though I did change all the interior bulbs to a cool blue xenon.

The Scoop is white, Tonto, as are the wheels, mirrors and top.

As to the vinyl, well I love the stuff, looks especially good on go-go dancers suspended in cages above the dance floor. That was the aesthetic I was going for. All American Boy / blowin' off some steam at the t*tty bar.

As fer "showing the numbers", well a priori knowledge lets us know these things prior to suffering the indignities of experience as a teacher.

The wise man learns from the mistakes of others, the fool not even from his own.

 

The stretch, or "hipari" style of tire mounting started in Japan for drifting. There were two things that went into it:
Getting cheaper high profile tires to "stiffen up" as opposed to having to pay more for low-profile tires and
to reduce grip for low HP cars so they could slide better.

All this came about from drifting. Now the style crowd stretches more than the professional drifters to get a look, not a performance goal, and there is also a trend to reduced stretching, because larger contact patch higher HP cars can drift at higher speeds with better control.

There is also discussion of tire design emphasizing best traction with conventional tire/wheel combinations, and while this does make sense, I didn't read any real good information on it.

There was also discussion that the type of suspension you run can effect how the traction is maintained, and that small camber changes are best for stretched tires (not the rear suspension of the Mini for sure).

So when I think about this, it seems that the reasons to do this is to save money on tires that will be shredded quickly from constant spinning, or to reduce traction. The latter is a bad idea from a safety and handling perspective, unless you're a drifter. And if you're a drifter, you don't drive a Mini!

Matt

 

just saying it how i see it...

And i didnt even notice the blue film...yikes. In terms of the fogs....yellow bulb+clear film would get a good look and good safety.

White scoop...no matter what color the wheels, roof, or mirrors are....isnt aesthetically a good choice. It breaks up the flow way too much and makes things way too busy and front heavy.

And your quote, although a good one, has a flaw. Is it truly the wise man that sits and learns from others? Is that how some of the most famous scientists and artists in our history discovered everything that they did? Ben franklin certainly didnt watch someone else fly a kite during a thunderstorm....he took the initiative and learned for himself.

There are followers in this world who do what others have done because they know it works....and there are those who slowly push the boundaries to see what else lies ahead. (yes, i do agree that some push too far too fast.......but some are able to push just enough and teach people new things)

Yes, stretching to the point that is pictured above (on the vw) will definitely lower traction to the point that it might break free at highway speeds.....but take a close look at chris' mini....that's not much stretch. I bet if you asked him, he would state that he had no issues with traction even at high speeds.

DR Obnxs.....did the article say that the reduced grip was due to a smaller contact patch or because of the sidewall? I would imagine that because he is running 9 inch wide wheels, he would have a bigger contact patch than a 7 inch wheel....or even the 5.5's that come on the cooper(with stock tire measurements atleast), right?