jcurrieirocz

Hi,
Im wondering im looking into a 4th gen or vette (probobly replica) wheels and ive searched to find most of you are running 2" spacers... and with the spacers on ebay for 70bucks now makes it more affordable for me to get these 17 and 18 wheels. Im trying to figure out a good choise of tire and rim width combo that avoids rubbing or even coming close to it as i have to be picky cause my car is lowered and i dont have much margin of error like ppl with stock springs.

My questions for everyone with 17s or 18s are:

1-What size wheels do you run (remember to post the width also), also post offset if you know it??

2-What thinkness of spacer do you have?

3-What size tires are you running?

4-Also list if your car is running a 4th gen rear or if its lowered or not!

Thanks

roughskinjrz

i run 17*8's and i just use 245/40/17 size tires

Al Hasse

I run with 17" X 8" with 245-45-17. No spacers and stock height.

blyth18md

17x8.5" y2k c5's (+56mm i think)

2" adapters

245/45/17

eibach prokit with stock rearend.

Zedsled

1-What size wheels do you run (remember to post the width also), also post offset if you know it??

17"x9" WS6/SS 4th gen wheels

2-What thinkness of spacer do you have?

2" on all 4 corners

3-What size tires are you running?

was 275/40/17,now 255/40/17 due to availability

4-Also list if your car is running a 4th gen rear or if its lowered or not!

Stock height(for now),stock length rear diff

Fastrnu

edit* Chrome C6 Replicas *edit
18x8.5 - front on 255/40/18 BFG KDW's - 2 inch spacers
18x10.5 rear on 295/35/18 BFG KDW's - 1.7 inch spacers
+56mm offset on all

Lowered with Eibach Pro-Kit

3rd Gen rear

kairles

iTrader: (2)

I don't have 4thgen/vette rims

I run 18x9 Centerline sundance lazer's with 265/35/18 dunlop FM901's(these tires suck) on all 4 corners. no spacers, no rubbing.

I also had dunlop SP9000's and Bridgestone S02's with the same rims again no spacers, no rubbing

Zepher

iTrader: (1)

skulte 2" wheel spacers on the front
98 LS1 rear out back
Eibach Sportlines 2" drop.

wheels I have had on the car with these spacers/rear end combo:
97-99 C5 wheels, 17x8.5/18x9.5 with 245/45/17 front and 275/40/18 in the rear. Required hammering to rear front lower inner fenderwell right above the LCA mount on the body and 7/16" slip on spacers for clearance on my 88 Formula.

18x9.5/18x10.5 Z06 Replicas offset for a 4th gen Camaro.
Front tires were 275/35/18, rear tires were 295/35/18. Fronts rubbed a bit when turning and rears sat even with the fenderlip and would rub when the suspension compressed, rubbed worse when cornering hard.

17x9.5 ZR1's offset for a 4th gen Camaro with the 56mm offset. 275/40/17 Nitto 555RII's on all 4 corners.
Front rims rubbed the tie rod ends and required me to clearance the tie rods by about 1/16-1/8" Front tires rub when turning sharp.

Dewey316

17x8.5" C5 (wagon wheels)

255/45/17 Tires.

2" Skulte adaptor front
2.25" Rear

3" (or so) drop in front, about the same in the rear, via Ground-Control weight jacks.

JDubya18

I just ordered some 18"x 9.5" ZR1's from a member on the board. Ill be running spacers and probably 265/35s or 275/35s, havent decided yet, I just dont want them to rub. I cant wait to get them. Ill definitely be getting some springs too, hopefull I can get away with sportlines but if not pro-kit.

Sickness91Z28

iTrader: (1)

17X8 American Racing Torque Thrust II's, wrapped with P275/40's on all 4 rims. I'm not sure with what backspacing the shop ordered my wheels, but I can rotate them...and they fit really well.

1983Fbody

98 C5 wheels (see sig. pic).

4thgen rear, 2" spacers up front and 1/4" +/- of rotor thickness.

With these same wheels and a 3rdgen rear I would get 2.5" spacers all around.

irocyourpants

iTrader: (2)

sickness did those TT2's need spacers or adapters?

ive heard of some people usin them and others not thanks

ws6transam

17 x 9.5 inch ROH ZS racing wheels from Andris Skulte at www.skulte.com. No spacers required when running 1LE front rotors. However if you have stock rotors you need to add a 5mm spacer out front to clear the tie rod ends.

275 x 40 x 17 inch Bridgestone RE730 Potenza tires. They are excellent in rain and good on dry pavement too. I won a 1st place trophy in the NFME autocross last may on these tires.

Click on my links below for pictures.

PHAT89TA

17x8.5 in front and 17x9.5 in the rears Centerlines Saharas

No spacers

255/45/17 in fronts; 275/40/17 in rears

stock rear end, lowered with pro-kit

Sickness91Z28

iTrader: (1)

nothing needed, a direct bolt on

seanof30306

iTrader: (4)

That sounds cool. do you have any pics?

brdofpry85ta

iTrader: (1)

17x8 Boyd Coddington Magneto w/245-45-17 BFG front

17x10's rear w/315-35-17 BFG drag radial, no spacers, no rubing and could have gone with 17x11's...

seanof30306

iTrader: (4)

Do you have any pics of your car with these wheels on? I'm guessing you used the 1.7" spacers on the rear vs. 2" spacers so the wheels wouldn't stick out too far?

Hunter Motorsports

18X11 - All 4 corners.

iansane

iTrader: (1)

Can I come drool on that car? Please? I'm not to far. I'll even wipe the drool off when I'm done.

What wheels are those? ccw? Looks functional.

roughskinjrz

man your twig and berries are functional, doesnt mean its anything special.

seanof30306

iTrader: (4)

Those look awesome! What wheels are they, what size (width, backspace, offset), what size tires are you running, and what mods (if any) did you have to do to make them work?

iansane

iTrader: (1)

Just because yours aren't anything special doesn't mean that everyone else's is as unimpressive.

What are you contributing to this thread? Nothing other than crap and a single line of otherwise worthless info. Go away.

CrazyHawaiian

Hah he said twigs and berries!

Here's my info for the Boyd's on my Orange Z28 (sig):

1. 18x8 w/ 4.5" BS Front, 18x9.5 w/ 5.5" BS Rear
2. 245/40/18 Front, 275/35/18 rear
3. No Spacers, direct bolton
4. 3rd Gen rearend

Slammed as low as possible w/ static height and still streetable. Unknown how many inches its dropped, at least 2" No rubbing, even at full lock. Be aware front and rear track ARE NOT even (front inset). My IROC-Z has the ROH ZS's, already covered.

seanof30306

iTrader: (4)

guys, let's not turn this into a flame-fest. All that'll accomplish is getting the thread locked. Take it to PM.

Hunter Motorsports

iansane,

No drooling allowed, please. Look, but no spooge. :-)

The wheels are from Complete Custom Wheel in Florida.

They are all 18" X 11" wide. The backspace is the same on all 4 wheels, but I use spacers on all 4 wheels to achieve the "perfect" fit front and rear. CCW makes wheels to the 1/4" in backspace and width, but you never know "exactly" where the clearance issues will be until you get the car on the track. It is amazing what flexes and bends on these cars. Downright frightening in some cases.

Modifications are required on both ends of the car to get this big of a wheel under the fenders. Prodigious use of a BFH is necessary. Trimming of the front fenders is necessary. Rolling of all the lips is necessary. Fender liners optional.

I would never recommend anything this big for the street. Maybe on the rear, but never on the front. 9.5" wide is the largest wheel I would put on the front for the street.

I run Good Year Eagle Radial Slicks - road race. Not street legal. 25.5X11.5-18 front and 25.5X12.5-18 rear.

roughskinjrz

i was the 2nd post in this thread. boohoo

they actually look nice on that car.

Dewey316

What does that have to do with anything, maybe its because you didn't get the attention that you seem so starved to get?

Hunters car is amazing, you would be LUCKY to get 10 minutes to talk with him about suspension setup, and how he gets his car to be so bloody fast. Part of that is he was able to stick ridickulusly large wheels and tires under her.

Karl... Are you guys coming down to race at PIR anytime this year?

MrDude_1

soooo.

anyone else try to stick 315s on the front?

Hunter Motorsports

Dewey,

We hope to make it down to PIR to race, but we may not be bringing the old Vette... Building a new one for GT1 - old one may be sold... we will see.

I am going to try and make it to Pacific Raceways this year to run a SOLO1 event with my car. We'll see how that turns out.

I have put 17X11s on another car with 315-35-17s. Looks pretty intimidating, but most people do not catch on unless they look at the sidewall of the tire, because we get them completely under the fender.

roughskinjrz

dewey we all have our own opinions, i just stated that i didnt like them, then u start a war with me, are you sure its me who is starving for attention stumpy.

and i dont think by kiss this guys butt is gonna help, i dont need to talk to him for 10 minutes about suspension parts, lol, what a stupid thing that was to say to me.

Dewey316

To start, it is "you".

2nd, you started by making a completely useless and idiotic comment. I'm not trying to "war" with you.

3rd, no butt kissing here. I have a lot of respect for Karl. I'm not sure what you think I am looking for help though, or how kissing but would be of help.

CrazyHawaiian

Karl's strut mounts are pretty badass, I'm loving mine!

BarrisCustoms

After about three years of use, mine are completely wiped out and are going in the trash. The aluminum has stretched and the bearing slops inside it so much its becoming dangerous. I bummed because they look gorgeous and I spent to have them highly polished after I recieved them- The new ones I will get from Spohn will be steel but boring black, I'll have to see about getting them chromed without weakening the metal.

roughskinjrz

useless and idiotic comment, no, personal opinion, yes, i think you have family/mental issues so your coming at me full force, quit it, lol, its not helping anything. he may make great parts, i just said the wheels werent anything special but they look alright, give it up would ya.

BarrisCustoms

Tonight I am sick. And actually also tonight I am tired. Matter of fact I am Sick sick sick & tired of asswipes like this but I am too tired to respond with the proper bannishing comments towards you for tonight- maybe tommorow,

sincerely, The #1 asswipe towards the the close 2nd asswipe.

Some 15 year old kids have no idea what they are looking at, even when they grow up to be 15 year old adults.

CrazyHawaiian

Sorry to hear about that Dean, sucks that your HMS mounts are on the way out. I didnt even realize they've been out for 3 years! I've only been running mine for about a year on track days (limited street use). Didn't you replace the bearing with a different one? I remember reading you say there is a better bearing out there. The ones that came in my HMS mounts still work good, no movement.

Karl, what did you use to trim your fenders? I'm gonna have to do this in my quest to get more steering angle, decided to use adapters to widen the front track. Contact is the outside edge of the tires towards the nose of the car into the corner of the fender. Is that why you had to trim yours? It was because of tire contact right? How did you determine you cut enough away? I'm afraid of still having rubbing when the suspension loads on the track. Interested in hearing your experiences.

roughskinjrz, I'm not gonna get involved but I think you should realize there is a difference between butt kissing and respect.

roughskinjrz

im not 15, im 23

and just because all you guys respect this guy doesnt mean i cant have an opinion, i get ganged up on, i had an opinion, leave it at that.

if i posted my wheels on here, some guy could be like man that is nothing short of ugly.

i couldnt care less, one opinion, but then all these people call him asswipes, idiotic, blah blah more useless comments.

get my point?

BarrisCustoms

CH, The original bearing went bad on mine in about 3 months from what I recall- its been so long ago I forget. I replaced the originals with some very highend Aurora bearings and they were fine again for about a few more months then I discovered the new bearings were not wearing but the aluminum was now stretching above the retainer clip holding the bearing in place.

They knock all over the place now and are noisy as heck clink-cluck-clank. I have shimed them a few times but am now getting worried that the aluminum keeps stretching so much they are going to finally break and the strut will come up through and hit the hood- I need to change them. I have even loosened this car way up as much as possible in the shock settings and the KDW's just downright suck that I do not even drive this car anymore if I can avoid it. The wife mainly drives it low speed grocery getting so it doesn't matter for her performance wise. I am just getting concerned for her safety if they were to break or even for the saftety of avoiding damage to the car hood.

seanof30306

iTrader: (4)

no one has any problem with your having opinions, it with the way you express them. There is no need to insult and flame people. It accomplishes nothing, and will merely cause a moderator to come in and lock the thread, killing any chance of further information being shared in it; the reason for this website.

iansane

iTrader: (1)

I thought aluminum didn't stretch? It just broke? Either way sucks you had problems with your strut mounts. Why didn't you swap back to stock-style?

CrazyHawaiian

I get your point but your point does not have much merrit because this thread is about what wheels/tires specs people use, not what people think about the appearance of the wheels/tires people post in an attempt to help. In the case of Karl, its the specs of the wheels that "wowed" everyone, not so much the looks (though I'm sure that also contributed). 11" wide front/rear is extreme, I only know of 2 other members in the history of TGO that run wheels that wide on the front (one of em is Andris 10.5" wide, and the other I can't remember the name, 10.5" wide). So yes people are going to get excited about Karl's setup. Negative comments aren't really helping anyone.

Dean, where did you get those Aurora bearings?

BarrisCustoms

Stretch was a bad choice of words on my part- sorry. What is happening is it is under multiple compression cycles forcing the aluminum rim to draw upward and reform. kind of a technical answer to it bending.

Aluminum will not break under compression, but will break under tension. I believe it has reformed upward in a sense under compression to a point- but I also believe that any further ongoing pressure will cause the retainer clip to kind of start pulling on the aluminum rim as it is being thrusted more and more at an angle and contacting more towards the edge of the aluminum rim that retains the clip. The drawing I attached will show more what I mean by once itreforms more in an upward bend the blue retainer clip starts applying pressure at more of an angled force tearing the lip off rather than the initial compaction force. (Note: the blue ring is being forced directly upward from the strut rod/bearing) This is why I am getting nervous-Its only my theory, but I feel it holds merit. And further more, since the slop is worse, the impact on the cycle blows are strengthened in force.

As for the stock mounts- they suck in performance value because the rubber insert bushing disables any slow damper speed assistance on the chassis due to its about 1/2" up and down slop before the strut even moves.

Solution- the HMS mounts are a very good design in steel, just not aluminum. Hwence why I will buy Spohns steel versions.


Ch, The standard bearings Karl used are COM-12's. The bearings I have in there are Aurora PNB-12T's

Kat

iTrader: (4)

The HMS mounts are taller giving him more strut travel. With the stock ones, He'll barely have any.

MrDude_1

heh, interesting off-topic sidenote..

there are two steering stops in our cars.. one on the A arm that hits the spindle, and one inside the steering box.
well, when i put the tubular frontend on, i lost the A-arm stops.. but i have the factory 16" wheel option, so i just hit the stop in the box... almost no change..
but once i swapped the box out for a aftermarket one, the stops were set different.. i now have the capability of a rather extreme steering angle.. sure you still have the problem of the tire hitting everything, but atleast the wheel turns that far now..

i donno if that helps ya or not, but its interesting to note...

Hunter Motorsports

The bearings you have should be pretty much bullet-proof, but the bearing is not the problem... The problem is that the press-fit of the bearing in the housing is gone. The bearing was supposed to be held in place by the interfearance fit - the snap ring was never supposed to see any kind of load. In this case, the interfearance is gone - so the bearing is free to do its hammering on the snap ring and cause the problem you have here.

Now, before you go and toss the mounts, there is one more rather inexpensive fix to try....
Remove the bearings, clean everything with brake cleaner or some strong solovent, (parts must be clean clean clean!) then apply Permatex Bearing Mount part# 62050 to both parts (bearing and housing) and re-assemble. Re-shim and install snap-ring. Make shure you don't get the bearing mount compound into the speherical bearing, or it will be frozen solid. Bearing mount takes 24 hours to fully set. By "glueing" the spherical bearing in place, it won't be able to pound at the snap ring and deform the groove in the mount. This bearing mount is very very strong stuff, and the bearings will be very hard to remove again if they ever wear out.

If luck is on our side, you may be able to salvage the mounts.

Try it, and please let me know how it turns out.

Dewey316

Awsome info Karl.

I was actualy supprised when Dean had problems with his mount. I have been running mine just as long, with zero issues at all. I don't know that I could go back to driving a car with the factory mounts up there, it really does tighten up the front end so much.

MrDude_1

so, would you consider doing that to a car that spends a large amount of time on the street?

what fenderwell modifications are needed for safe street usage? mostly minor stuff, or some major "hammertime"?

Hunter Motorsports