The Art of Hipari...Stretched It!!

The tuners loves it, the drifters apply it, the followers adore it, the art of stretching tire to fit those huge width wheel (Hipari as in Japanese). It was done by (for example) fitting a 215/17 tire onto a 9"x17" wheels, and often with low or negative offsets.

The difference in widths causes the sidewalls to stretch from the lip to the tread giving the tire a unique low profile stance and increased sidewall rigidity.

To drift learner, this can be advantageous since you can get the car sliding sideways at lower speeds. However in pro level drifting events, drifters need as much traction as possible out of their tires to control their drift cars at higher speed hence, hipari tire would not be the best choice.They opt for wider tires and wheels instead, which of course more dollars for that.

Mounting a hipari is not always an easy feat, as sometime the air filler bead on the wheel does not align with the tires. Hence, here's a quick way mounting 195 tire onto 9.5" wheel using only aerosol and lighter!

Interesting arguments on Hipari for us to take note for;

• Stretching a thin tire onto a wide rim decreases a wheel’s standard tire width resulting in a smaller contact patch and less traction
• Stretching tires increases wear because of uneven heat dissipation and that may increase the potential of tire failure
• Stretching tire will make your wheels closer to street and damaging potholes, the risk of damaging your precious wheels is high!

Safety wise, there is little evidence that stretched tires are any more dangerous than regular tires, it just that you need to be extra careful while driving those ride with extreme hipari wheels.

Aesthetically, I always love the way hipari improve the stance of a car, any car...of course with its minimum ground clearance!