Wheel Fitment Issues

[jsausley]

This is a "ChumpCar" enduro racer.. I'm having so much trouble with finding wheels that will fit.

 

Here's what I'd like

 

http://www.teamdynamicsracing.com/pro-race/Pro-race12.htm

 

These are light, not super expensive and look decent. They come in 4x114.3 17x9 E+23. Fender clearance is NOT an issue, the car is about to undergo a custom home widebody job. No big deal here. But spring clearance is an issue. The car has MA offset control arm bushings front and rear for additional camber and Tokico HP springs/struts, so it's lower than stock. We've also notched the strut towers for a bit extra camber. I don't think this wheel will fit. I'm showing a necessary backspace of <4.2 inches to clear our spring and these wheels have a backspace of 150mm, or 5.2 inches.

 

I also found the Rota RBX on their website but it seems like no one stateside stocks these wheels. They're only available on the UK website.

 

The trouble is that NO ONE makes a fairly inexpensive wheel that fits the Z anymore from what I can tell, all the wheels now have positive offsets and we need an even or negative offset to fit the Z. I almost don't even care what it looks like as it's for a race car, but they have to be 16x9 or 17x9 and they have to fit WITHOUT spacers (I'm not comfortable running spacers on an endurance race car that will be out on the track for 2 hours at a time for a total of 24 hours). 

 

Any suggestions on where to go now? I've found some wheels but they're all $500+ per corner.. the car is only supposed to cost $500, so I'd rather not drop that much.  Thankfully, wheels are "open" on the OBCCWS rules - I guess they figure if anyone is dumb enough to show up and race a $2000 set of wheels that probably will get scuffed and damaged, they don't care.. lol.

 

Budget is in the <$250/each range. (TDM and Rota both fit this but from what I can tell both wheels are questionable fits. And yes I have searched..for the past three days! Even went through the 40-page wheel thread, but most people there either have $500+/each wheels or are running spacers.

 

Any suggestions?

[yhlz]

Why do you need 16 or 17? Just get some 15inch konig rewinds and throw on some slicks.

[jsausley]

Well, we can't run slicks - TW limit is 180. Really the only way to squeeze more lateral grip is to go wider. We're running 16x7 Rota RBs right now with 225 width tires. I'd like to step up to 245 or 255 if possible. Fender clearance is NOT an issue, but spring clearance is. 

 

Also, this car has a 3.70 rear end with a stock 4-speed so there is a minimum size that we can use before we start hitting the rev limiter on the straights.. right now the car tops out at about 126-128 MPH. Any smaller wheels and we'd drop that down too much. 

Edited August 15, 2013 by jsausley

[yhlz]

Looks like youre out of options unless you want custom sized wheels. Haha.

 

I see some 17x9 wheels on ebay with et10-20. The only thing is you will probably have to run spacers.

[JMortensen]

Why not just change out the rear end or throw in a 5 speed? Should be able to do either for less than $200.

[ComicArtist]

I'd suggest Diamond Racing, you can get a 16" in any width and offset you want and they're just a little heavier than Rotas or XXR's. I got mine for $450 shipped

[BluDestiny]

Spinwerks makes light custom wheels also. Diamond racing won't make anything 9" wide, they go from 8" to 10", don't know why.

 

Xxr makes low offset wheels. A lot of people run those. I would try searching zilvia, because cheap, low offset, wide wheels pop up all the time.

[Chris Duncan]

Why are you set on 16x9 or 17x9?

 

Look at 16x8 or 17x8, there's a lot of wheels in those sizes with 0 offset.

 

Looking at a 245-45-R16 on Tirerack the optimum rim size is 8". Why would you go wider, it's just heavier?

 

Also thinking the 255 is just too wide for the average Chumpcar Z power, it's just extra rotating weight with little gain. And even a 255 will be within specs on a 8" wheel, although the tire may stick out more and be past your max backspace.

 

Agree with you on the wheel spacers, not good on a racecar.

[miky360]

Since no one is helping the guy out directly but rather steering him into the direction you would go I thought I'd give you a small wheel selection. Replicas of course since your budget is low. Don't expect these to be Volk strong or light.

 

Custom wheels? You need to get out more.

 

Anyway,

 

XXR 531

Rota Shakotan

Diamond Racing Wheels

Varstoen also has a wide selection.

 

There's plenty of more wheels out there. That's all I can remember off top my head while laying down on my iPad lol

[74_5.0L_Z]

Remember that these are going on a race car.   So these have to be strong and reliable.  The diamond racing wheels will be both of those and will be the cheapest option even if they are a bit heavy. 

 

The Rotas,Varstoen, and XXR are of dubious quality.  I've seen pictures on the web showing catastrophic failure of these wheels.  In my opinion, they do not belong on a race car.

 

 

As mentioned earlier, the Spin Werkes series 82 wheels are about the lowest priced custom wheel that you can get.  Unfortunately they are only available in 15" and 16" sizes.  I am running 15x10 Spin Werkes wheels with a 5.25" backspace on my car.  They weigh 14.9 pounds.

 

 

edited to remove Rotas as a decent choice.  Look under Google for Rota Failure and you will see why.

Edited October 17, 2013 by 74_5.0L_Z

[m1ghtymaxXx]

Is their a reason you're set on 17's? Brake clearance? Tire selection?

 

Perhaps going with a 15" would open up some 9" wide options. As mentioned Shakotans are available in 15x9 for dirty cheap and they look sharp, and weigh 15 lbs. I can tell you from experience fender flares aren't required unless you're running wide tires at a low ride height. As for the above post, I wouldn't get too hung up on the strength argument. I've hit some nasty road cuts with mine that I was POSITVE would have at put a dent in the lip, but nothing. You probably won't find many potholes on a race track, and it's not like the high dollar forged wheels used by the pros don't sacrifice strength for weight savings.

 

Another not, a friend has ran the Targa Newfoundland rally (a week long endurance rally on some of the roughes 'paved' roads anywhere) twice on dirty cheap Motegi's twice, and the previous owner ran several Targas on the same set of wheels. That is thousands of race miles in conditions far worse than any track, and absolutely no sign of damage to the wheels. I don't know how Motegi and Rota compare, but I wouldn't suspect they're too far off each other strength/quality wise. For a chump car I don't see any issue with running cheap wheels, not bottom of the barrel, but cheap. If you eventually break one, at least a replacement is less that $150 away, and chances are the same incident that broke the cheap wheel would have broken an expensive one too.  

[miky360]

That's why I said don't expect it to be Volk Racing strong or light lol

[rooger82]

Remember that these are going on a race car.   So these have to be strong and reliable.  The diamond racing wheels will be both of those and will be the cheapest option even if they are a bit heavy. 

 

The Rotas,Varstoen, and XXR are of dubious quality.  I've seen pictures on the web showing catastrophic failure of these wheels.  In my opinion, they do not belong on a race car.

 

 

As mentioned earlier, the Spin Werkes series 82 wheels are about the lowest priced custom wheel that you can get.  Unfortunately they are only available in 15" and 16" sizes.  I am running 15x10 Spin Werkes wheels with a 5.25" backspace on my car.  They weigh 14.9 pounds.

 

 

edited to remove Rotas as a decent choice.  Look under Google for Rota Failure and you will see why.

 

 

We have all seen the infamous Rota failure but that could be in an extreme situation, I doubt he will ever hit anything that hard. Plus the same can be said with any Cast wheel. You can lookup Gram Lights failing, XXR failing, even Enkei failing (Japanese made)

 

You can actually search and see there are Diamond Racing horror stories too. Remember that is a race wheel, a lot of those teams buy many sets and when they bend or break them they just replace them with another wheel. That is why they are so inexpensive.

 

Spinwerkes I have not seen any bad reviews from, they are actually not as heavy as Diamond racing and do come in 17" even though they are not listed (I asked them) but it costs a bit more than what you wanted to budget

[tyson]

The Rotas,Varstoen, and XXR are of dubious quality.  I've seen pictures on the web showing catastrophic failure of these wheels.  In my opinion, they do not belong on a race car.

edited to remove Rotas as a decent choice.  Look under Google for Rota Failure and you will see why.

 

I'm going to argue with you on this one.

 

I bought XXR wheels, and did a fair amount of research beforehand as my safety is pretty high up on my priority list, I think dying in a car crash would be one of the worst ways to go.  So... There are hundreds if not thousands of forum posts where people talk about XXR/Rota/etc being cheap and suffering many failures.  Try to find the actual photos of them, and then read the stories that go along with it.  There aren't nearly as many as you would think and many of the stories just don't add up or are clearly missing details.

 

Also, remember that the average person who buys "sport" wheels for their car, especially the XXR/Rota crowd are the honda and drifter crowds...They aren't exactly known for driving civilized and can be quick to blame others before themselves because they are NEVER at fault   These folks also aren't known for buying quality parts, or doing quality work to their cars (think: thick, cheap wheel spacers with cheap worn out wheel studs).

 

Also, when you look at the pictures remember that there's probably 100 sets of XXR or Rotas sold for every 1 set of Rays.

Edited October 18, 2013 by tyson

[morbias]

Rota wheels carry a VIA stamp which means they have been tested to comply with JWL standards, plus they are an OEM wheel supplier for a lot of car manufacturers so I very much doubt they are going to explode for no reason...

[miky360]

The OP CLEARLY stated that he only wants to spend about $250 per wheel. He knows very well he's not getting top shit wheels. He wants wheels at a certain size and for that price range. 

 

If you want to talk about Rota vs Rays then please start another thread. And btw, i've seen TE37's equally as damaged as any other Rota out there. Unless you're doing a serious time attack or something like a rally then you should be fine with XXR's or Rotas. But with that kind of budget, he obviously isn't. 

 

Fun fact: Some XXR's are lighter than what Volk or Ray's have to offer.

[Gmagno]

We run ChumpCar.

 

1973 240Z stock shock towers, eibach springs. XXR 527 wheels 16x8.25 with Bridgestone RE-11 tires 245/45/16. Zero offset. No rubbing.