whats the widest front wheel you can fit on a third gen before you start loosing turning radius and rubbing on everything? I know years ago there was a silver trans am with 18x11's on the front, and there is a thread floating around, probably in the autox forum, about running 17x11 up front.

I would really like to use 18x11's, im not afraid of metal work, i just dont want to cut up the fender, if i have to cut and mod the inner fender that not an problem. Im probably going to use ground-control weight jacks in the front. I'll grab some measurements on my own, just wondering if anybody know the juicy details? or pics would be better!

thanks
-Phil

 

idk, i guess it can be done with the right offset and such... lots of massaging in there. It be best to have fender flares but it may look odd

i've read a 275 tire can rub alittle... i think you can fit a 285-295 tire without too much trouble but an 11 inch wide rim is calling for 305-315 tires which are very wide

 

i may be a little greedy, IDK, but a 295 would fit with the rears nicely, and fit on a 10 or 11" rim, maybe save me some room. Have to see what HMS has to say, if he responds.

 

I know the 17x11/315s, thread your referring to, and even he says it's not for a street car...Track only.

9", IIRC, for the street is what he says.

He did quite a bit of outer sheet metal trimming too, to fit those on the front.

 

Check out http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/

fbody road racing/auto cross. They have done big wheels up front and they will know for sure how to do so

 

My wheels are either 16X9.5 or 16X10 with 275 Hoosiers. They don't rub but are really close.

Pic of car in action.

Pat

 

18x11's will fit

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/post...20-post20.html

Though, I wouldn't want to drive anything more than a 9" or 9.5" wheel around on the streets, I am running 255/45/17 and in ruts, and uneven roads I am all over the place. Running 11's up front would be a handfull.

--John

 

thanks for the link, ive looked over what i could find of HMS's car and i though there was another silver car but couldn't find it. Im currently running 245/40/18 on the front and its a little loose on rough/uneven roads, but even with all that it doesn't bother me because i dont drive the car everyday, and most of the car is already overkill, but im ok with that. Im just like the mean a$$ look of a low, tough looking car with massive wheels tearing up the street. Im probably going to go with 295's, after that the only tire i can find that match the 335's are competition tires, that dont like cold weather and dont last long on the street, not to mention price...

 

i just got my 295 tires in today and they are MASSSSIVE. much bigger than the 255's i have for the front. Just by looking at them i wouldnt think they would fit the rear let alone the front Whenever they are mounted i guess i could try to put them on the front to see if they clear but i just dont think you'd beable to turn much haha

they measure about 13 inches across the tread. Thats a huge tire for a front runner. besides, these cars are tail happy, and a staggered tire size works well with smaller tire sizes for the front and big meats for the rear.

Do got a point tho, massive steam rollers everywhere is just plain mean looking

 

what brand tires did you go with? 13" is VERY wide for 295, i mean, my 335's are 13.5" overall width.

 

8" wheels will rub is not offset properly. By just putting 16" factory 8" IROC wheels on a non 16" factory car will rub when turned enough.

It all boils down to how much you want ou tires tucked under the wheel wells for travel, and how sharp do you want to turn before the rub the inner fenderwell.
9.5" wheels at full lock will rub if the are tucked under the fenderlip.

Depends how low you have your car sitting, will detemine just what you personally can get away with.

That picture of Karls car with the 18X11 wheels up front has no turn radius and if it didn't have very stiff front struts the tire would wipe out the fender on suspension travel. Works for him and his needs, but might not be the same for you.

 

Bridgestone potenza RE050A. they are a 295/30/19. i just did a quick measure across the tread width with the tape measure. looked about 13 inch

advertised section width is 12.3 and 11.1 tread width but it clearly looks bigger than that. i'm worried they wont fit as i planned

when i pick them up from being mounted/balanced i'll get pics and better more accurate measurements

what tires do you have?? most 335's i see in 18's are 13.5-13.6 sectional width advertised so they should be a good inch bigger than mine

 

I've run 295/50s on the stock 16x8s...Know of a guy currently running the same tires. They fit with plenty of clearance & no rubbing issues.

 

they are BFG's, they are 13.5 sectional, i guess i havent actually measured them mounted to see what the overall width is, maybe i will have to do that.

as for the fronts, i was looking at HMS's car and the front wheels appear to be sticking out of the fender a bit, not acceptable for me. I want to keep them tucked. I guess i will have to get under the car and measure and see what kind of room i actually have before i start fantasizing anymore

 

18x10.5 rims fit great with a 2" spacer and the C5 brake rotor. I'll have tires by the end of the week so I'll let you know how that works out.

 

on the front? i would like to see pics, and let me know what kind of rubbing you have
what the backspacing of the wheel without the spacer?

 

where did you find a 295/50 16 tire? and thats not safe to run that much tire on that narrow rim

 

I've tried both 56 and 58 mm offset, no real difference. I'll throw up some pics when I get tires mounted.

 

thats cool, if you have a minute and a ruler could you measure the back spacing? im not very good with offsets

 

I KNEW somebody would chime in about the rim being too narrow.

BFG spec call for 8"-10", so it even meets their minimu standards. The 50 series is what allows it to fit a 8" rim. If it was a 30 or 40 series tire...Yeah, not enough sidewall to flex, to allow it to sit properly.

Look at the wide tires 4x4s put on their narrow rims..It's the tall sidewalls that allow it to work & work WELL.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....e1=yes&place=0

 

Just saying it seems ungodly wide but i guess that side wall makes the difference. My 295/30's will NOT fit a 8.5" rim haha i can tell that for sure. I still wouldnt trust it on a 8 inch rim.

My 15x8 prostars i got used with 295's on them and they buldged out like crazy...just didnt seem safe or proper to me.

 

Roughly 7.5" of backspacing.

 

Are you useing spacers/adapters? My 17" x 9" have 5" of bs, and the is MAYBE 3/8", from the rim edge to the tie rod end.

With even a 18", I'm not sure that extra 1/2" would clear the tie rod end.

 

my 18x8.5's are 56mm offset and should be about 6.5" total backspacing. I'm gonna use a 1.7" spacer. Should work and will work better once the LS1 brakes get in

 

2" spacers, as I mentioned above.

The 18's clear the tire rod and the bracket on the strut beautifully. That probably gains you 0.5-1.0" inboard over a 17.

 

so with the spacer you have about 5.5" of Backspacing from the rotor. Do these wheels stick out of the well? that puts the outside lip about 1.5" out farther then my current wheel and i wouldn't go any further out than that. Going to have to see pics of these when they have tires.

i did some quick measuring last night, it would seem that i would be able to use a 295 on a 10, 10.5" wheel without hitting anything, its really close to the a-arm and strut, but looks like it will clear. Im going to have to prop up the front of the car and turn the wheels with it in the air and see what kind of room i have, make sure i have the room i think i do. The only problem with the 295's is that the particular one im looking at is 26.1" in diameter, and my rears are only 25.9, i dont think you can see that little difference but it would look pretty bad if you can...

 

I ordered spacers for my rims. when they come in i'll try fitting the 19x10 up front even tho i know it wont fit since its high backspacing/high offset but i'll try for yah

i'll try to put it in place without spacer tonight to verify what it looks like and clearances and such

 

Ok, i tryed to put on my 19x10 C6 wheel i have with 295's.

It is a high offset large backspacing wheel so naturally it needs a spacer to fit which i dont have at this time, and the one i'm getting is for 8.5" wheels and lower offset so it still wont work

I am guessing a spacer of atleast 2.5 inches and probly closer to 2.75-3" will be needed to fit this particular wheel but it appears that a 295 CAN fit. See pics. Thing is, this 19inch rim has enough room to clear steering stuff and the shock lip.

No idea how much turning you can get out of it but it appears you could get enough to function on a street car with some clearancing to the wells.

That being said i still dont think i'd want a massive tire/wheel like that on the front. I'd stick to a 245-275 max

 

fr auto-x only I am doing 17x11. They stick out a bit and require some trimming of metal. An 18 inch wheel would allow the wheel to sit in a bit more. The 17 is right on the tie rod and a part of my Koni Struts. I have 36mm offset AFS 17x11 wheels with a 2" adapter.

 

Whimp

I don't have the tires mounted yet so here are pics of just the rims.


Big is good Hoosiers will be going on here soon.


Clearance with the strut.


Clearance with the tie rod.

So far, the only potential issue that I see is the brake hose, but that was close with the 9.5's as well. How often will you be at full rebound and the wheel locked?

I'm still shopping for more 18x10.5 wheels, so hopefully you fools won't be bidding against me on ebay or something. If you are, let me know at least so we don't waste each others money.

 

that looks good, what spacer size you have in front for those wheels

big wheels tires looks good but thats soo much extra weight on a already front heavy car

 

Not too much. They'll come in at about 44 lbs mounted with a hoosier.

 

so BIG-MODS, have any pics of the wheels are full lock? does it look like there will be any major clearance issues? Other than that, lookin' good

 

i also tried my c6 19X10 rims with 315's up front, just a mock up sticks out way 2 much, this is on the 2" spacer doesn't look normal, the 18X8.5 on 255's with a 2" spacer just sits in there nicely specially with my 2" drop, besides with the cost of 295's and up tires why would anyone want those bigger sizes up front

 

I still have my stock crosslaces with 245/50R16s on them, & they are 40 lbs. So the extra 4 lbs is worth the extra traction.

One of these days, I'll weigh my 17" x 9" Snypers.

 

my 19x10 with tires have to be over 50lbs

 

I think they will probably rub the inner fender a little at full lock but so do the stock 16x8's.

The guy that put on 17x11's had to cut fender sheet metal. I won't have to do that since the 18 allows the wheel to be tucked in closer to the strut/tie rod. an 17x11 is sticking the wheel outward probably an inch farther than the 18x10.5's.

I've rolled my fender lips and made a new inner fender out of roll plastic so they should be ok going up. I'm basically .5" out and .5 in over the 18x9.5's that I had on the car before. I don't think this will be an issue at all.

 

I know this is a year old topic. I am curious, are you saying that you had to roll the front fenders? Do you have any pictures of the front with the tires on the rims with 18x10.5"? Are the wheels in the inner fenders or in line with the fenders?

I would like to run 18x10" with 275's tires up front with my C6 Z06 brakes, and I dont want to do any mods to the fenders or the wells sticking out the fenders or inline with the fenders. I am trying to find more information.

Thanks.

 

I have 275s on 9" wheels, just like the stock 4th gens had 275s on 9" wheels.

If your goal is simply 275s, no need for 10" wheels.

 

Hey thanks Stephen.

I was told that for the big front C6 Z06 brake would need to be 18x9.5 or wider to run up front to clear the front brakes. I found a deal with a guy that has 18x10" with 56mm offset and 2" lip for the front. I just need to make sure if it will work up front.

Thanks again.

 

I can understand 18" being needed (vs 15"/16"/17") but not a certain width being needed.

10" up front would be cool, I'm just not sure how it would be required.

 

Ah okay, hopefully someone would give a better answer for the 18x10" up front.

Thanks.

 

alot have done 9.5" up front, 10 should work provided the spacing is right. i'd run a 285 tire if available, 275 on a 10 seems stretched but will work just fine

 

Anyone ever actually run a C6Z sized (18x9.5 or 18x10) front wheel on their car?

Any updates?

 

Big Mods you got any pics?

 

 

no updates people? pics? I am BFH'ing my car right now for 325/30/19 on back and 275/30/19 on the front. I am running C6 Z06 rims, 19x11 in the back and 19x9.5 in the front. I am sure it will hit the inner fenderwell at lock.