Xmas tire help!

[Spitfire]

ok so as of right now on my 16" icw kobes i have 55 series tires. They tuck well and look great but i really want to get a little bit more responsiveness out of my handling instead of feeling like im ridin on air. lol Im keeping my 16's for what i have planned in the future so dont say that famous sentence "Get 18's" lol I love my rims and the size i think it looks perfect on my car. Im thinkin about downsizing to a 45 series tire instead of the 55. I can live with a little wheel/fender gap if i get more responsive handling and maybe even get my car a little lower. I ask because for christmas im going to buy new tires since my tires now are growing bald.

So my question, do you think this would work pretty well to inhance my handling just a little bit? And how much lower would it put me to the ground than i am now? I know there is some tire pros that can help me

[.Camryman97.]

yeah 45's will do the trick thats what im on. my previous set of tires, bf goodrich g-force sports, were the best tires i ever had. quiet and gripped the road extremely well. only got about 20k miles with no racing. my set i have now, kumho ecsta ast, are really good too, not z rated like the bf's but they handle damn good for h-rated

i got these because i wanted something to last me a little longer but still have performance and a good looking tread pattern

[Spitfire]

yeah i plan on gettin c/o's in the future so im not worryed about a little tire gap, it wont bug me. =]

[Spitfire]

does anyone know how much lower my car would go from downsizing from a 55 to a 45 series tire?

edit:

Also im not very good at tires so help --/45/16 what would go in the first spot marked --? like what size offset? if so what do i need. or would it be what ever my tire says now which is 215

[LynchburgCSI]

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html