please help find a tire and rim chart..
 

Sorry to bug you guys with this but I once saw a chart, put out by Michelin that showed the tire sizes that could be put on a given rim.

It does not have to be Michelin , but that makes it more official than just a mechanic taking a guess.

My rims are:

rear: 18x10, 3" lip, offest 58mm
front: 18x8.5 2.5" lip offset 52mm

I currently have 275x35x18 on the rear, and 225x40x18

My question is how big can i go in the front,
and do I want to, what will a wider wheel do to handeling of the car?


Thanks,
James

Assuming you leave the rear tire the same size (275) a larger front tire will reduce understeer (or, in a glass half-empty, half-full world: increase oversteer).

While I don't have a chart handy, many tire manufaturer websites (Toyo's comes to mind) has a chart like the one you speak of.

A 245 should fit on an 8.5" rim just fine. A 275-295 should fit on a 10" rim.

The guy at the tire store talked me into 245 / 40 for fronts. You don't want to go any larger. There isn't even a fingers width between the top of the tire and the spring of the strut. Also, I feel the height of the 245 looks a little big on the front. I went 275 on the rear because anything larger really reduces the manufactures to choose from and the prices go astronomically higher. Add to it that the choices you are left with will probably only last 10K mi and it just didn't make sense to me. Money may not be an issue, so you might want to go 285+ rears and 245 front. The 275 is stretching across a 10" rim, which added to the 245 looking big. I would go 235 - better fit and better asthetics.