Going from 17" wheel to 19", does that affect handling?

[v6vc]

Evening all!

Haven't been on here much for a while but in the mean time, got myself a Signum!

Think the car is great but with one exception, handling.

I have the Gsi still until it is sold and on that I have the stock 17" wheels with 4 Goodyear Asymmetric's. It's also been dropped by 30mm (so overall drop of 15mm as of course has the sports suspension).

The Signum has 19" snowflakes with 4 new but awful tyres and no change to stock suspension (it's a 2.8 Design).

Now the difference in handling is vast. I know that a lot of it will be down to tyres but I'm in 2 minds to about taking the heinous decision of swapping the snowflakes for the wheels on the Vectra!

What has also crossed my mind is, is it to do with the size of the wheels? Bigger wheels do have a 'gear up' effect I know (which is also making me lean towards the swap) but does it affect handling?

Sorry, long winded post to ask a simple question!

[Ozyboyross]

Bigger wheels with the correct tyre size will be the same overall size as smaller wheels with bigger tyres....

The handling difference is down to less flex in the sidewall because there smaller

But you will suffer a harsher ride...

[v6vc]

Ah ok, cheers.

Both are standard tyre sizes. On the 17", I have 225 45 17 and the 19" 235 35 19 - so guess I'm okay there.

Would the weight of the wheels have any impact? Would have thought a wider and taller wheel would be heavier.

[tbirdbooboo]

on my 3.2 i had the 17s , think they were 215 50 17 and went to 225 45 18 iirc ( should really go out and look on the drive lol ) the 18s i have are heavier and this is a bit noticable in driving , you feel the bumps and grooves in the road a lot more also you go slower with begger wheels on . ive not played with the suspention on mine its still a nice ride and youll have no probs fitting 19s on there i rekon as i have plenty of room to lower mine. :-)