1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
A few more comments:
I find the stage 1 upgrade quite thrilling enough but of course it is your option if you want to go further. Since you are interested in more sound from the exhaust, you might consider trying a stage 2 first (ECU upgrade and sport exhaust) and add the rest of the stuff later if that stage isn't hot enough for your tastes.
I'm not sure if I would want to try 18 inch wheels. The performance is excellent with 17 inch wheels which were standard on the Viggen and optional on the SE that year (so you know the cars suspension was designed to handle that width and section height tire). There is no guarantee that 18 inch wheels will improve the handling and a certainty that the ride quality will suffer, also damage to the rims is much more likely unless your run very high tire pressure which will make the ride quality ever worse.
Note: Road & Track Magazine did a test many years ago where they took a BMW with 15 inch wheels and tested it with 16 inch, 17 inch and 18 inch wheels and wider low profile tires so the overall diameter stay about the same. Skid pad and slalom course results improved with the 16 inch and improved even more with the 17 inch wheels, but fell way back with the 18 inch wheels. This was done with Pirelli tires and there were Pirelli tire specialists there watching the test who were not in the least surprised by the results. Basically what was happening was that the car's suspension was not designed to keep an 18 inch wheel with tires that wide and with that low of a profile (short side walls) flat on the ground, so it was lifting the inner edge of the tire off the ground when turning. So you can come to a point where you have gone too far with wheel diameter and tire width. I don't know if this will happen with a 9-3 SE convertible but I'm not willing to find out either.
Brooks,
posted by 24.19.179...
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