I'm currently driving Toyota Vios NCP42(First Gen) and thinking about improving my car's handling and some other light modification.
I will start from changing a sport spring, then follow by rim&tyre upgrade.
Any suggestions sifus? I'm leaning to 17" .

Small and low powered car like Vios better just stay with 15' rims, or at max just 16'. 17' is way too big, makes the car slow and very uncomfortable due to having to use wafer thin profile tires. Best is use 15x7jj rims with 195/55/15 tires coz you still keep weight down while improving handling by using better tires (coz that size has many choices of good high performance tires).

Thanks for the reply! But is it really as bad as you said? Because my friend used to drive his Dugong with 17" and he said the power is actually fine? I guess it's subjective? The main reason for me to go from 14 to 17 is because I feel it's very unstable driving in highway, it feels like it may lose control easily, or you can say it feels very light to drive at speed like 140km/h and above. What if I use some Lenso, Enkei or Advanti light weight rims?

Well the weight is actually not just detrimental to acceleration but also how hard the suspension needs to work to control that unsprung weight. And then there's fuel consumption and braking distance which also get affected negatively. Note also going too thin on tires might not always be beneficial to handling because such wafer thin tires means very stiff sidewall hence very less flexing to absorb road irregularities. So instead of gripping, the tires may actually skip and hop over the bumps and therefore loosing traction! Then there's also wet driving, which normally will require softer setup, so if you go with very stiff thin profile tires then your car will feel more nervous in the wet. All of this are not subjective but physics. Then there's of course like I mentioned above, the uncomfortable harsh ride but I guess that's kinda subjective.

So you need to strike a good balance, not go overboard with big size rims. You'd want a good improvement in handling while still able to handle most of the road irregularities and wet condition, all of which we often experience in Malaysia. The main key with improving handling is not all about going as big of rims and as thin profile tires as possible but also more about balance and what type of tires you use. I just bought a Swift Sport that came with 17' Lenso with just normal Toyo DRB tires and I honestly hate the rims/tires setup due to all those reasons above! Within 2 weeks I changed to 15x7 rims with 195/55/15 Hankook V12E2 tires and I can tell you its the biggest improvement I made to the car handling, not to mention all those other stuff I mentioned above!

That's why I suggest the best is just 15' rims with 195/55/15 tires where you got options of high performance tires at still relatively cheap price, tires thin enough to give good feedback and handling but still thick enough to absorb irregularities better and still comfortable. The rims also will be much lighter still. If you want a bit more aggressive and better looking then opt for 16' rims BUT it's much less choices of good high performance tires available AND the prices are much more expensive too (almost double the 15' options).

This post has been edited by 6UE5T: Oct 21 2018, 12:35 AM

Damn you've got a lot to tell man! Thanks for all those valuable info! Aite I got those point. I'm just wondering, from 14" to 15", just one inch difference, does it really gives the stability while speeding on highway? I was gonna go 16" at first for a balanced yet aggressive looking. But then I later found that the prices of rims and tyres between 16" and 17" are very little so I thought why not 17" instead. What if a 17" with thicker tyre profile, does it make any difference? Or it's still the same like what you keep telling me? Same shitty but only good looking?

This post has been edited by krazymy: Oct 21 2018, 01:52 AM

The risk of upsizing your rims without adjusting the tyre profile would be your tyre scraping your fenders whenever you go over bumps & potholes.

To me, the cheapest solution right now would be to change to a better tyre with existing rims.

The next best thing would be to upsize your rims to 15 inchers, which also gives you a lot of choices of high performance tyres for a good price.

Changing the rims to size larger than 15 inch for a Vios sized car would be overkill & unnecessary.

This post has been edited by amscouzach57: Oct 21 2018, 06:57 AM

Aite, thank you so much for the reply. I will rethink about it whether which size to go

It will make a noticeable difference even just going from 14 to 15 because you already reduce the tire sidewall height by 1.1-1.3cm! With 195/55 tires, you have sidewall height of 10.7cm which is in the balanced range for handling performance yet flexible enough to be comfortable and grip better for not so smooth roads (for me personally the ideal range of sidewall height is between 10-11cm. Going under 10cm will start making it a bit stiff while going over 11cm will have a bit too much flexing). If you use 17' but try using thicker profile then it will get out of tolerance for your overall diameter and give even more negative effect: risk of scrubbing to the body, even worse acceleration, fuel consumption, and braking because on top of extra weight (bigger tires is heavier) you also add extra overall diameter. You need to maintain no more than 3% difference to your stock overall tire diameter.

I think @6UE5T explained everything you need to know very well.

Going from 14" to 15" will bring a noticeable improvement on your handling. I went from 14" to 15" on my myvi and the improvement was quite big.

15" gives you more option for good tyres with a lower price. 15" rims are affordable too. Your vios doesn't have an overly large fender gap so 15" rims with 195/55/15 tyres will look just nice. Upgrade to lowering springs with performance absorbers and you'll smile everytime you layan corners/bends.

My suggestion, go for 15/55/15 tyres with advanti storm series. Their 15" rim is only 4.9kg. But do take note of the rims offset. Wrong offest will cause your tyres to rub your fenders.

Thank you all Sifus for the advices and experience sharings. I love yall, you guys are great!

Actually may i know your original sport rim & tire size? If not mistaken Vios got 2 tire & sport rim spec.

If already 15 inch, changing to better spec. UHP type tires are far enough than going for wider range. Going wider range does provide better grip but worsen your fuel consumption. Even my previous ride a Toyota Corolla GT, 20v with 6-speed manual original only come with tires & sport rim 185/60/R14 (Take note that almost 160hp on engine). After some time i upgraded the rim to 15 inch also use 185/55/R15 with Michelin Pilot Sport 2/3 tires, even beat some of the competitors wider range tires on the track also...

My advise fix your suspension system first, steering arm bush, anti-roll bar bush & lower arm bush. After fix these basic handling items, go for suspension setting (would recommend adjustable absorbers if want to lowered your ride, or custom modified current absorbers & buy lowered spring - Dont cut the OEM springs!) only after that go for tires & sport rims.

This post has been edited by littlefire: Oct 22 2018, 02:24 PM

He said it's 14' rims so the tire size should be either 175/65/14, or 185/65/14.

Your previous ride's hidden beast man! Should be very much of fun driving it around. And yes you sifus have successfully brainwashed me for going 15" instead of 17" hahaha, a big plus for doing that is, it's MUCH CHEAPER. For me, I'm just gonna upgrade the.rims and.tyres.to 15" as most of you sifus advice and then, deal with the suspension system and after that, lower it with ftuned sport spring. Custom modified current absorbers? But how? Is it any good?

And yes sifu, you guessed it right! It's VIKING 175/55/14. And it sucks, RM130 each, could've top up another RM50 to get the performance tyre Hankook which you recommended. Damn!

Yes, local got a lot of custom made absorbers for different requirement.
They can made your current OEM absorbers to serviceable type.

If your are in KL/Selangor area and visit this HWL factory to do customization. If northern area i can introduce TKA Motorsport.

http://www.hwlsuspension.com.my/page/170/Services/

Serviceable is more cheaper to maintain for long run and you can either customize to make it harder or softer depending on your needs.

I didn't even know there's such thing haha. Can I know how much would it cost rougly? Is it durable by doing this?

I'm going to lower my car anyway to gain better handling and get better look, of course it would be best to keep the comfortness at the same time. How would you suggest me to reach my needs in the most economical way? For example changing just the spring itself, or change the absorber too? Or modify my stock absorber to serviceable or even get a HI/LOW? Any advice would be helpful thanks!

hey, I am using ncp42. G spec with 15 inch.

Recently just change to Gx rim and PS3.

Otherwise nothing changed.

May I know your budget? AFAIK, adjustable, rim, tyres already can up to 3k... And don't go for cheapo tyre like ling long lanmdsail, roadstone please.

Cannot go 17. It will rub fender. And why you want lower your car? NCP42 already damn low. If lower will be awful. Over bum higher abit can rub undercarriage full load more gg.

Are you spirited driver? If not... better spend those money elsewhere rather than in car.....

And if you just want to look better har... advice you just go for 15 inch rim la... already good enough...

besides, you also need to thing of all those bush nuts arms etc etc..

long list owhh

Most economical way? Probably with ftuned springs + stock absorbers. Ftuned claims their springs can be paired with stock absorbers so it shouldn't be a problem. Use it till it wears out then you can decide if you want to upgrade to adjustables or better absorbers.

For me, I feel sports springs + the right absorbers can give you almost the same comfort levels as stock. I'm using eibach prokit and paired with my stock kyb absorbers. The comfort was alright. Now I changed to kyb rs ultra absorber, the comfort is slightly improved with better high speed stability. They say ftuned springs has the same comfort levels with eibach so it probably should be fine. I have no experience on adjustables so I can't comment on that.

For now I'm just gonna lower it first, then rims & tyres right after that. As these are already to cost much enough for me otherwise I wouldn't be riding NCP42 still haha. Yea man knew that it's gonna be a long journey and it's gonna cost a lot more, but I'm just gonna hunt them down 1 by 1 since I'm not planning to sell the car in future. I've made my mind going 15" with some light rims and great tyres. Not a pro racer but I do rage in the street some times haha, I take this as a hobby, to improve the performance, to squeeze them all out a little bit more for a better driving experience.