19" v 21" 0-60 Times

[Pax]

Asking this as I'm debating between 19" and 20" wheels for the Touring, but since no 20" wheels are out and they're staggered like the 21"'s I'll view them the same for comparison reasons.

Do any DE or GT owners know of the grip difference between the 19" 245s and the staggered 21"s? The 21"s would be definitely gripper (at the cost of range) since more rear wheel width but in extreme examples like a 0-60, how much different is it? I can't seem to find any official numbers on 19" 0-60 times for either GT or DE but I think any would be due to 21" being summer performance tiers versus 19" all-seasons.

Thinking of leaning towards 19" since ride noise would be lower with higher range and ride quality, but want to see how much grip and fun factor I'd be losing stat wise.

 

[Impatient7536]

im no car enthusiast, so take what i say with a grain of salt. i test drove both 21s and 19s and i noticed some small handling differences. but the difference is negligible imo. it'd be the equivalent of getting an A, instead of an A+ on a report. so unless you're extremely particular and precise, it might not make a big difference, especially since the 0-60 is already in the sub 3 second range.

i think the more important question is how ready you are to have the 21s pop on you. if you search the forum, you'll see that there's been significantly more 21s that have given out during routine driving than 19s.

 

[borski]

One important difference: don't launch on the 19s. They will skid, the car stays stable, but it isn't good for the tires and it will scare the living bejeezus out of you and everyone around you, with it's loud unhappy screech.

The 21s? Launch all you want. Roll like butter.

 

[Tesla2.0]

I have 21”, I know the risk of busting easier, less pothole absorbing than 19”. But to me, the ride quality is too subtle. My 21” feel really smooth. The big part is losing that range, instead of rough 500mi, getting rough 450mi is livable, it is still longer range than everything out there. I don’t drive a lot to charge all the time. So I can live with braking, cornering and launching a little better than ultimate range as trade off.

 

[Impatient7536]

I have 21”, I know the risk of busting easier, less pothole absorbing than 19”. But to me, the ride quality is too subtle. My 21” feel really smooth. The big part is losing that range, instead of rough 500mi, getting rough 450mi is livable, it is still longer range than everything out there. I don’t drive a lot to charge all the time. So I can live with braking, cornering and launching a little better than ultimate range as trade off.

interesting, i'd be the complete opposite. i don't feel enough of a difference to convince me to give up the 50+ miles as well as the additional risk of busting.

i guess thta's the perks of having a sensitive butt/body so you can enjoy all the subtilties of this beauty

 

[Tesla2.0]

interesting, i'd be the complete opposite. i don't feel enough of a difference to convince me to give up the 50+ miles as well as the additional risk of busting.

i guess thta's the perks of having a sensitive butt/body so you can enjoy all the subtilties of this beauty

when I’m alone without passenger. Swift and Sprint modes would be my default drive mode, and gripping more of those road concrete at 10% sacrifice of efficiency is not a bad trade off imo.

 

[Pax]

Thanks for the insight. I'm in California where potholes are much less of a problem than most. Like everyone said, its range versus spirited driving. With a Touring on 20's I think the expected range would be somewhere around 350 to 365 miles compared to the targeted 406 on 19's. Those extra 40-50 miles look pretty good when it means I can make a trip from bay area to SD with only one stop in Tejon before the Grapevine versus perhaps needing two charge stops.

I'm still leaning towards 19' if the only thing I'd need to avoid doing is launch, but spirited driving through some curved roads in the hills and HW1 would be OK.

 

[Pax]

One important difference: don't launch on the 19s. They will skid, the car stays stable, but it isn't good for the tires and it will scare the living bejeezus out of you and everyone around you, with it's loud unhappy screech.

The 21s? Launch all you want. Roll like butter.

Clarification - does this mean using the Launch mode in the UI or just flooring it from a stop? I'm assuming there's minimal difference but I've read and experienced in test drives that Launch mode is less torque punchy than just flooring it (albeit it is quicker).

 

[Amgz]

One important difference: don't launch on the 19s. They will skid, the car stays stable, but it isn't good for the tires and it will scare the living bejeezus out of you and everyone around you, with it's loud unhappy screech.

The 21s? Launch all you want. Roll like butter.

When you did the launch on the 19s was that with your performance dream? Has anyone who has done a launch with 19s on a non performance model experienced this issue?

 

[Shuasha]

One important difference: don't launch on the 19s. They will skid, the car stays stable, but it isn't good for the tires and it will scare the living bejeezus out of you and everyone around you, with it's loud unhappy screech.

The 21s? Launch all you want. Roll like butter.

That doesn't make sense to me. You should be able to launch on whatever tires you want and not break loose (screeching), otherwise something is wrong with the traction control.

 

[joec]

That doesn't make sense to me. You should be able to launch on whatever tires you want and not break loose (screeching), otherwise something is wrong with the traction control.

When you switch into Sprint mode, it warns you that you should be on performance summer tires (i.e. the 21s). The car doesn't have a direct way of knowing which tires are installed at the moment, so it isn't optimized for any other configuration. I imagine sometime in the future, you will be able to tell the car which wheels/tires you have and it can adjust accordingly. I imagine this is why they want you to take the car in to "recalibrate" when you switch wheel sizes, as that should effect the range estimates as well.

 

[SDHacker]

That doesn't make sense to me. You should be able to launch on whatever tires you want and not break loose (screeching), otherwise something is wrong with the traction control.

Sprint mode minimizes the electronic nannies that are supposed to keep us from doing crazy things. The car has more power than the average driver can control/handle. It's why the warning says Sprint mode should be utilized by "expert" drivers. The unleashed car can be more than I can handle if I overestimate my skill without the nannies to electronically attempt to keep me safe. That also means traction control is minimized so I can drift or do spinouts if I want.

If you smash the go pedal in Smooth mode, traction control will probably activate.

 

[hydbob]

Traction control is a separate setting no matter what drive mode you are in just a FYI. You can put it in sprint and keep full TC on.

 

[borski]

That doesn't make sense to me. You should be able to launch on whatever tires you want and not break loose (screeching), otherwise something is wrong with the traction control.

This is on my DE-P. Also, the car didn't lose swerve or break loose in any way; the tires just did not have as much traction as the 21s, and thus screeched a decent bit during the launch. The traction control kept the car planted straight the whole time, so it did work great.

You shouldn't launch on the 19s.

 

[Amgz]

This is on my DE-P. Also, the car didn't lose swerve or break loose in any way; the tires just did not have as much traction as the 21s, and thus screeched a decent bit during the launch. The traction control kept the car planted straight the whole time, so it did work great.

You shouldn't launch on the 19s.

The non performance model has less power so it might not need as much traction, does anyone know if the 19s have the same issues using launch mode on a non performance model as they do on a performance model?

 

[Bunnylebowski]

This is on my DE-P. Also, the car didn't lose swerve or break loose in any way; the tires just did not have as much traction as the 21s, and thus screeched a decent bit during the launch. The traction control kept the car planted straight the whole time, so it did work great.

You shouldn't launch on the 19s.

I launched on the 19s one time, didn’t seem to cause a problem BUT I was a little too preoccupied with the being-shot-out-of-a-cannon feeling to notice if the wheels slipped or not.

 

[victoryroad]

Interesting discussion about driving with 19" wheels vs 21". Since I probably will not be doing exit ramps at 10/10 the 19s should be fine. Regarding the launch for maximum acceleration, I guess everyone has to experience it. I will not plan to do closed circuit driving when my AGT eventually arrives, so the 19s are a compromise that I will accept. I would have gotten the 21s if the wheels were forged.

 

[Luckyismydog]

Does anyone know if the tire size has any bearing on the clearance for the GT? We have an awkward driveway with one side having a different slope than the other. Our 750Li easily goes into the left side of the garage but it scrapes the bottom if parking on the right side.

 

[Impatient7536]

Does anyone know if the tire size has any bearing on the clearance for the GT? We have an awkward driveway with one side having a different slope than the other. Our 750Li easily goes into the left side of the garage but it scrapes the bottom if parking on the right side.

do you live near a studio for a test drive? my SA told me that theyve accommodated people and allowed them to drive the car home during the test drive to make sure the car can get over the dips and humps

 

[Mkatz]

Does anyone know if the tire size has any bearing on the clearance for the GT? We have an awkward driveway with one side having a different slope than the other. Our 750Li easily goes into the left side of the garage but it scrapes the bottom if parking on the right side.

I have very steep driveway as well and clearance is reported as 11.5 degrees with GT with 19 inch tires. My driveway is 11 degree and I occasionally scrape front end when going down . I put Sliplo guards on the underside of the front part of car to protect it.