Help: Who has experience with spacers and track use?

[Guest orange260z]

Hi,

 

I just bought my 260z and intend to use it for autocross and track days, as well as some street use. I'm tempted to go with MM's spacers and run 16x7 or 17x7 Honda wheels, but my local racing tire shop has some reservations about using such large spacers on the track, due to the fact that the wheel is no longer "hub centric", but rather "stud centric" on the spacer.

 

I do understand that the SPACER is hub centric to my hubs, but I'm concerned that I will be loading the studs on the spacer with a lot of forces that in a perfect world would be shared by the hub itself.

 

Does any engineer-type have thoughts on this? The Honda wheels are a very attractive option due to their availability and price...

 

cheers,

 

Ayan

[SleeperZ]

As long as your wheel center is the same as stock, or slightly out, there is no issue. The Honda wheel spacers, with a modest width wheel (7") ARE hub centric - your spacer combined with the offset of the wheel centers place the tread exactly where the Nissan engineers designed it to be.

 

And take a look at the people who race Porsches. They space the fronts out 1" and the rears 2" using the stock offsets. Never heard of an issue from them, and their wheel offsets are ridiculous.

[ZR8ED]

I've used 1/4" spacers on the front (not bolt up) for years and years now... no probs..

 

I have used 1.5" adapters in the back and pushed 18psi on a race track all day with no probs.. I ran those same adapters on the drag strip and all summer on the street... no issues or concerns..

 

(I now have correct offset wheels to get them where I wanted them in the wheel wells)

 

Pure seat of the pants....

[Sparky]

I run adapters as well, many hard street miles and a few autoxs, with no ill effects. when you run the honda spacers, you are still keeping the wheel center line, just changing the offset. its when people run spacers with funky offset or backspacing, changing the center line of the wheel, that causes above average stress on your suspension and related parts.

[Modern Motorsports Ltd]

Too bad the search function isn't working..........lots written on this.

 

Nutshell: others shops doing customer buildups have had concerns prior to receiving the product. Once they've received the product, THEY PHONE me and want me to supply them with custom spacers for their needs. Engineered pieces done right. The bad stories come from either cheap spacers done wrong/typically generic...or from those that have only seen cheap units and not actually gone thru spacer function/the physics and mechanical constraints. When done properly specific to your ride they're great. I'm an engineer by profession and take such matters VERY seriously.....I actually got into this vendor arena as I didn't truly like any products available for myV8 Z ride/then researched and gradually did my own brakes/spacers etc and they're well proven now and built upon sound proven engineering principles.

 

Any specific q's feel free to email me directly.

[Guest z-pilot]

I have used 1/2" spacers at the track with no problem. They were machined out of one piece of aluminum with no holes to lighten them. I had started out with spacers with gaps between each bolt hole, and they cracked.

 

With the wheel bolted on, I can't see how there would be a difference between using a spacer and actually having the offset built into the wheel.