The title says it all. Does anyone have Hawks 17in Gold GTA wheels on a burgundy Trans Am yet? If so, I would love to see some pics. The tires on my 89 GTA are not the best and I'm contemplating these. Thanks

 

Give me, lets say 2-3 weeks and I'll have some pictures for you
Car is currently in winter sleep, and will return to street by april.

 

Awesome, Im looking forward to some pictures. Thank you.

 

Hi!

Sorry for the delay, but tomorrow I'll finally get my 17in wheels on my car.
Was a bit trouble to have all set up legally ( I'm from germany, we have some restrictive regulations on car modifications, usually it's difficult to get the official approval for any mods that alter power/emissions/safety even it is an improvement over the stock setup ).

I'll mount some like new 245/45/17 tires that I bought for my SLP 17x8 wheels, hope they don't look too bad compared to 275s all around , getting some good 275s would be financial overkill for now ( around $1200 for a set of 4 quality tires , especially with the autobahn speeds over here I wouldn't consider buying cheap ones... )

So... pictures coming tomorrow.... I'm already looking forward to see my GTA like it was a christmas present

 

Sounds great, I'm glad it's coming together for you. New tires are not cheap but it should look ok. Do you have lowering springs?

 

I'm not sure of how much tires cost in Germany with extra taxes and all - but here in the USA, you can get excellent 275-40-17 tires for $150 to $200/tire.

 

Over here there are not too much choices , i could get Tires like Nankang which I consider crap for around ~$100 each, Federal SS595 for ~120 (but those have a V speed index with a max of 150mph , my GTA does around 180mph max if I push it to the limit, so I better have some really good tires ) .... the next price class would be toyo and michelin ( $270-320 each ).

@SMKNGTA : No, don't have lowering springs, maybe one day I'll drop some in, but then I'll have to find routes round all the speed bumps and keep out of parking garages.

 

So now these are the first pictures I made.
The 245s look ok, but certainly will be replaced when possible.

Unfortunately the car is undriveable.... starting at 25mph you can feel the steering wheel getting nervous. Once I reached 50mph it felt like the wheels will come off sooner or later, so I headed back to the shop that mounted them to check that issue and correct it.
By any chance, did some of you encounter the same problem?
The garage will remove the front spacers , clearance will be minimal but maybe it's still worth the try. I don't think they are too stupid to balance the wheels , so most likely the error maybe even comes from the spacers which were provided....

 

Continental makes an excellent 275-40-17 summer tire.

Do you have access to tires by Falken or Nitto? They make some great tires at fair prices.

 

The larger wheels look nice. Its too bad you weren't able to drive it much, but I'm sure the shop can figure it out. Like you said, the 245s look ok but 275s will look better. Thank you for posting pics, I love that color with the gold wheels.

 

Good news :
Everything is properly balanced now

Bad news :
Those wheel spacers are completely junk...

Good news again: It's a tight fit, but nothing is scratching the wheels from the inside, but anyway I'll order some new and better spacers.


Some pics I took today :







Next investments: Getting a paint job (at least the roof)
Drop Springs (I think Eibach will be my Choice)

 

What is wrong with them? They look like a flat piece of aluminum, hard to screw up. I can see that they will cause the wheel to become lug centric instead of hub centric, which is always a possibility with aftermarket wheels and/or spacers. No one that buys wheels really understand the difference or the implications of not having hub centric wheels, which is actually very important for safety

 

I have to check what was the problem with the spacers.
For the moment I can just tell having the wheels just lug-centric with the spacers was causing a non-driveable condition. Steering wheel started to shake at 20-25mph , completely undriveable at 50+mph .
Maybe the spacers were warped/bent , or maybe the combination just needs to be hub centic. Anyway I will invest in some other spacers. For the moment there is not much clearance but at least there is some.

 

I'm glad you found the problem. The lowering springs will help a lot. If you can, post some pictures when you get the springs on. I have a set of Eibachs waiting to go on when I get some time, a lot of people seem to like them.