Originally Posted by
TeKKiE 17" wheels and larger belong on SUV's.
16" would be the absolute maximum I would go with (and I have more than enough power to spin them.)
I disagree slightly... while I also prefer 16"s, the tire choices are very limited.
That's not the case for 17"s. IMO, Tires are the most important performance and safety item you can choose for your car. For that reason, I can see the justification of stepping up to a 17" if you want a good selection of high performance tires and can't fit a 15" due to a BABK. The downside is that you'll have to put up with the additional weight and costs involved.
For the OP... here's what Mike Kojima had to say on the subject a few years back.
"The widest tire that you should run unless you have a turbo or some other ungodly power is a 205. Wider tires will result in more drag than our relatively low power engines can accelerate. A 205/50-15 works well in most cases and a wide variety of R compound tires are available in this size. The maximum rim width that the B14/B15 can run is 7.5 inches with a 35-40 mm offset.... Remember that 1 lb on the wheel is worth about 10 on the car due to the wheels rotational Inertia. We took 0.4 seconds off of Mike Saiki’s ¼ mile time just by going from 16 inch Axis wheels to 15 inch TE37’s. The difference is all in the wheel weight and tire diameter"
Good advice which can be found here:
http://www.sr20-forum.com/suspension/1801-b13-b14-b15-suspension-information.html#post24096