34a To 36dd

[zakelwe]

After fitting the rev counter I have now uprated the wheels and tyres to allow me to at least go around corners more quickly, even if I cannot do anything speedy in a straight line. Lots of choices of course to chose from, to be honest though looks is less important than ultimate stick. So that boiled down to 16x7 rather than 15x6.5 or 16x6.5.

Number of spokes? Well the fewer the spokes the better, cleaning wise. For looks the more spokes you have normally the more elegant and classy it will look, the fewer the more manly and macho. The original Platinum wheels look neither, they are rather cutesy and effeminate. So I went 6 spoke for ease of cleaning and ended up as macho macho man, to quote Homer Simpson. Our Homebase is right next to Halfords, no doubt I'll be mobbed by 17 year old Corsa driving girls flashing their 34A's as I try and load 75 litres of compost and 300m of duct tape into the back of it. B)

Here are the wheels. The company supplying them sent Wolfrace centre caps, which did not fit, when they should have been BSA, but I like the half assed look to be honest. Sort of me all over, everything done about 90% right. :D

http://www.zen141854.zen.co.uk/aygo7.jpg

As for the tyres. You can go from 195/45 up to 215/35's on these wheels but I chose 205/40 which up the gearing a bit and weigh more than the standard but will give a lot of grip. Happy medium. I chose Yokohama Parada tyres as I had good experience with a set of old Yokohama A520's in the past and these are supposed to be very similar. They stick like poo to the blanket in the dry, average in the wet, terrible in snow, poor treadware and noisy. You can probably tell the stick like poo gave it the nod over the downsides.

http://www.zen141854.zen.co.uk/aygo5.jpg

Should be good on the b roads.

Regards

Andy

[PaulT]

I like those wheels, but what is your offset? Surely they must rub on the arches?

Paul.

[Loftylad]

They look SUPERB! B)

No issues with rubbing ?

[zakelwe]

Thanks :)

On the subjest of rubbing, I did some town driving after buying these rather than eye popping b roads and the only time they rubbed was when with two people were in the front and I did a speedy 90 degree turn into a parking lot at full lock and it rubbed slightly. Whether that was due to it being the height or the width I am not sure. The 205/40's have a slightly higher rolling circumference so it might be that rather than the ultimate width. The original springs are pretty soft and therefore are probably the culprit. No doubt they compressed with this "flick" and the sudden weight transfer and gave up for about 1 second. Any other driving and they are perfectly ok.

On the other hand if you fit the lowered springs which are 30 mm lower they will be more resilient but then you have a lot less tyre to play with. Interesting decisions have to be thought about regarding body roll v ultimate tyre width when it comes to the Aygo I think. Personally I think more body roll and wider tyres are the way to go rather than stiffer suspension and more narrow tyres, but that is purely a personal choice.

For anyone thinking of a tyre, wheel and spring upgrade on your Aygo you really do have to think about what you really want because with this sort of car for a massive gain in one area you will have to make a comprimises in a lot of other areas.

The Aygo is massively adaptable and it is down to what suits you Sir.

Regards

Andy