Best Tire/Wheel Combo Science experiment

So let's talk scion tc wheel give-away...

Seriously though, I'm willing to take them off your hands and from taking up valuable space in your garage.

 

I was thinking about the Scion wheels but didn't realize the weight difference. Thanks for pointing that out and please continue to post your experience and data with the new wheels.

 

Hmm, black eh? Got any pics of them on your car?

 

I've been lurking for a coupla' months and finally decided to join so I could actually post. I've been reading this thread and the BT stiffening plate thread in particular hoping to find some clue as to a remedy to some of the straight line handling shortcomings of this car.

Other people's observations: People have commented that if there's someone in the passenger seat the handling seems better. Interesting, could be a weight distribution from left to right or perhaps the front verses the rear, which could indicate camber has been increased from the suspension deflection overall in the front, causing a different attitude relative to the road, resulting in better lateral stability.

Characteristics I have observed: The car seems to be the worst at following little imperfections in the road like rain grooves cut in the pavement that allow water to move aside allowing the tire to contact the road more completely.

I noticed that the rear wheels have some naturally occuring negative camber, this doesn't seem to be present in the front wheels.

How about adjusting the front camber somewhat toward the negative. Does anyone know of anyone who has tried this. Is the front camber even easily adjustable on this model?

Additionally, I would love to know what the did to the camber adjustments of those 3 racing Priuses. I sure would love to drive one of those.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bestword @ Apr 12 2006, 07:44 PM) [snapback]238890[/snapback]</div>

I've never noticed it handling better with a passenger. That could be that we're less likely to admit we bought such a poor handling car, I don't know. I guess at one time I was the most vocal about the Prius handling. Not too much has changed for me except to admit that I can't change what I can't change. The roads here in San Diego are about the worst on the Prius and so my car is still all over the road. I had a camber correction made early on when I found the right was different from the right. It made no difference corrected at all. Maximum toe in on the front will help the most, about -0.2 deg (or -0.080")

I even tried the Scion tire and wheels after numerous attempts at trying to improve things with alignments, etc. I found like others that those tires only slow you down and reduce the gas mileage. They do improve the stability somewhat but at too big a price in my opinion. Yeah the Prius just doesn't track in a straight line like even some mediocre cars I've owned and it's much worst than the best. It sort of takes the fun out of getting 50 mpg sometimes. You'll find that if you're one of those people that notice how poorly the Prius handles (some don't or actually say just the opposite if you can believe that) you probably won't be very satisfied after spending money on good tires making small incremental improvements. It's too tall, too narrow, too softly sprung, dampening isn't right, no sway control and oh yeah the electronic PS sucks. So improve on enough of those you might be happier but I'd just put some good tires on it and enjoy the good gas mileage.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FredWB @ Apr 12 2006, 08:32 PM) [snapback]238926[/snapback]</div>

Thanks, I'm still gonna have to think about this one some more. Maybe I'll just have the dealer perform a toe-in correction toward positive. Anyway. I wanted to say, your car looks great in red with those wheels. Really good in red, i almost got the salsa red but they changed it to a more bright red in 2006.