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Anyone Running 18's???


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I don't see anything wrong with the 18s, except price of rims and tires! They do fill the arches nicely, but I do think that having a rubber band wrapped around them 'sometimes' looks to racey to me.....as long as you have the HP to back up the looks :D:D:twisted::twisted:

 

Also, if you have open spoke style rims, hopefully you plan to run some big brakes.....it REALLY looks silly when a car has huge rims with tiny rotors and calipers.......

 

Tim

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Tim,

 

i know what you are saying trust me there is horsepower to back this up :twisted::twisted: . for breaks i have toyota callipers with z31 rotors (but i might go with JSK setup or similliar) and for the back i have disk conversion with z31 rotors also. i would also like to add that i am running 240z suspension that has been sectioned all the way around with tokico struts and as far as wheels go i paid $440 for all four of them shipped (gotta love discontinued wheels on wherehouse clearance :D ) but tires were about $140 a piece :cry: .

 

Ivan

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I'm REALLY biased on this subject. Too much racing I guess. I can't stand a car that is 7 inches off the ground with no suspension travel and the wheels stuffed into the wheel wells. Too much rotating mass, no one makes brakes big enough to fill the wheels, and even if they did they would be such tremendous overkill it wouldn't be of any use anyway.

 

Less rotating weight = faster acceleration and stopping, and brakes should be big enough for the car's usage and wheels should be big enough to fit the brakes IMO. But that's just this racer's humble perspective.

 

I was at the track with my friend's girlfriend's brother and he was running a Civic on 18's. Full on ricer. By the end of the day he was actually pushing it pretty hard after a friend and I rode along with him for about an hour's worth of track time, showing him which one was the hole in the ground. :D Here's where the 18's came in handy: His brake pedal got mushy (probably from trying to stop all that rotating weight), and I was able to bleed his brakes by reaching through the spokes and attaching my bleeder bottle and cracking the lines open, from the outside of the car!!! Didn't even need to jack it up or anything!!!

 

We joked at the time that we could have changed his brake pads without taking the wheels off!

 

After that my friend GAVE him a set of 13 x 7 slicks, the car was MUUUCH faster, but about a month later he bought a set of 13" rotors and stuck the 18's back on the car. 13" rotors to haul a hatchback civic down from 90 mph. LAME. In his case he didn't want to go fast, he wanted to look cool to the rest of his "crew" and he told us as much, to his credit. If that's you're thing, then more power to you. Not my thing at all.

 

Jon

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It is a matter of functionality. My car would look great with 17's but would not hook up for crap. I run 15's with drag radials with plenty of side wall. I like the look of 17-18" rims but would suffer traction loss.

 

Mike

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Ok... First off, I wasnt trying to say "your car is a rice bucket". And yes, I have 14"s on my Z (old school slotted alluminums) AND I have driven or been a passenger in many vehicles with 16, 17 18" rims. That is where my opinion comes from. I have seen LOTS of ppl destroy their 17, 18" spoke style rims hiting a small pothole at 40Km because the 40 series tires have what.. and inch of sidewall? And as it has been stated, big rims = more rotating mass. Not to mention the added strain on stearing componants. Hmm... oh yes the 'Little tiny looking brakes inside the huge rim" gets me too... And its NOT that I am lableing something I dont like as rice, but face it: Most rice always starts with the 'stuff you can bolt on' and one of the FIRST things on that list is rims. Really, I think a street driven Z rides harsh enough on 15" 60 series tires (my old Z a few years ago) without adding MORE by running 18's and 40 or 45 series tires. I agree totaly with doing something diffrent to your car, but really I'm kinda bored with the big multi spoke rim thing...

It does in the end however, come down to personal taste I supose.. and if my tastes are diffrent that yours, so be it.. I wasnt trying to be a donkey or anything, just making a coment.

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I guess I am trying to find a balance between 'bling' and performance for my ride. I like the looks of larger than 14" wheels on the Z, but for reasons Jon has mentioned, I won't run 18's. I've bought a set of 16"x8" wheels that I think are a good comprimise, weighing less than 16lbs each, and still not looking like wagon wheels on the Z! Plus I can run reasonably big brakes and get lots of rubber on the road. My hope is once my coilovers are installed with sectioned struts, I'll be able to run the car low enough that it looks & performs well, and still have a reasonable amount of suspension travel.

 

In summary I am trying to say that there is some balance available for those that want the big rim advantages and decent performance along with it. However, I still wish my 13"x7" wheels would clear my brakes...

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This is an interesting (and surprisingly civilized, given the topic) debate over what constitutes "Rice".

 

IMHO, just because something is done for cosmetic purposes does NOT mean that it is rice. After all, we see cars painted all different colors and we don't call it 'rice', do we? We don't all drive around on stamped steel wheels, either. Style that doesn't kill practicality isn't rice.

 

Are 18" wheels rice? Depends. If you're putting them on a trailer queen to take to car shows, no. Same thing applies if you track the car, and you NEED large wheels to wrap around a huge brake kit. If you're trying to use them as a daily driver on typical roads, they probably are rice, because they sacrifice the overall functionality of the car at the alter of style. Putting rubber bands on 22" rims isn't a smart thing to do any way you slice it, although it might be fashionable right now, just like other fashion faux pas like tongue studs, body piercings and tribal band tattoos. If looking trendy is paramount to making you happy, then feel free to go right ahead. But be prepared for people to snicker behind your back because the reality is, they will. I'm not meaning to cut you down, I just want you to understand the cause/effect relationship of your choices.

 

Rice is as rice does.

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Ok this is getting intersting now let see how this started:

 

1. Guy asks question if anyone is running 18's and what they have to say.

 

2. Someone then posts picutres of various Z's with 18's (so far we are on topic).

 

3. Then third guy comes in (with no experince in Z with different size wheels) and tells how in his opinion bigger wheels are rice (now its getting off topic).

 

4. I then come in (have experience with 18's) and i try to defend myself by explaining that my car is NOT drag or road race car but just plain street car that gets driven ehhh about 3k miles a year.

 

5.Now guy comes in and tells about civic on 18's (dont know how you can compare civic to z?) and he totally misses post about me saying that my car is NOT road race car.

 

6.By now we are so much off this topic and i really belive we should change it to "Whats Rice and Whats Not" :D .

 

datsunlover

 

Sorry man i just took you response very personal because one thing that i despise is rice. You see i asked you if you have driven "Z" not some other car and there is plenty off difference in riding in civic on 18's and riding in z on 18's. i have driven both so i know that at least. You also said that most of things start with things you can just bolt on do you realize HOW MUCH it took to get those wheels on? there is no such thing as bolt on for our cars (figure of speach). If you think that z with 15's ride harsh then all i can say is that you need to ride in more z's preferablly sp in one with nice suspension setup. Friend of mine has same wheels on his z and previous driver has used that car as dailly driver. He eneded up putting thousands of milles and still no dings and bent wheels they still look like brand new. As you said whatever floats your boat.

 

Drax240z

 

as i already mentioned i have 240z suspension (car is 280z) with sectioned struts so there is plenty of suspension travel.

 

RPMS

 

You are kidding me about you definiton of rice right? Go to the first page and look again at my car and look at it good. Now if i told you that those were 17's could you tell the difference if they were on not? most likelly not. So now are we gonna call every z with 17's rice also? because then that would be very large number of z's.

 

Ivan

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So hot rods are rice huh? thats the first i heard of that. almost every hot rod has 18" or larger rims and they use it as a daily driver. I could care less if someone snickers behind my back because i choose to run 18" rims. I dont like 18" wheels because its "Tredny". The reason i like 18" wheels is because i like to see large rims and very little rubber(3" max. sidewall). If anything, the anti-ricers are hypocrites. they ALL are bashing them because it is "trendy" which is the supposed reason that the ricers are getting bashed. i dont bash people who have small rims, and i dont see why people bash people who choose big rims. I have tons of friends running 18" tires on their mustangs, camaros, rx7's, ect. and the ride in their car is wicked. the truth is, the only place that 18" rims will hurt performance is on the track, and chances are, if you can afford the big wheels, you have a second set of wheels meant for the track. The 18" wheels with 45 series rubber does NOT ruin the rims over pot holes unless the person is going really fast, in which case, that person deserves the damage they get.

 

ok, thats my rant.

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Click on link in my signature. Car is running on 16x7 Center Lines with 225/50-16 Yokohama's. The car is not lowered at all. Compare it to the look you want.

they are alright, but not to my liking. they look tiny. ill stil with 17's or 18's. Although, those rims would make a good set for a road course or auto cross. im not a drag racer so thick sidewalls arent that important to me.

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I am running 17" momo's that i got a killer deal on. they look bad ass in my opinion, the stock brakes are smallish I agree. So untill i can afford biguns, Tim, you can make fun of me :D.

 

Anyway, thought it was funny how a post that stuck with no answer at first and for a seemingly long time now has two pages of replies, in like a couple of days.

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I am running 17" momo's that i got a killer deal on. they look bad ass in my opinion' date=' the stock brakes are smallish I agree. So untill i can afford biguns, Tim, you can make fun of me :D.

 

Anyway, thought it was funny how a post that stuck with no answer at first and for a seemingly long time now has two pages of replies, in like a couple of days.[/quote']

 

rim size tends to bring out a lot of drama.

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Just an explanation for Ivan:

 

You:

5.Now guy comes in and tells about civic on 18's (dont know how you can compare civic to z?) and he totally misses post about me saying that my car is NOT road race car.

 

Me:

Less rotating weight = faster acceleration and stopping, and brakes should be big enough for the car's usage and wheels should be big enough to fit the brakes IMO. But that's just this racer's humble perspective.

 

In his case he didn't want to go fast, he wanted to look cool to the rest of his "crew" and he told us as much, to his credit. If that's you're thing, then more power to you. Not my thing at all.

 

I thought my comments had some bearing on the discussion. If you disagree, just ignore me like everyone else! I certainly wasn't aiming to piss you off.

 

Jon

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Yeah I didn't account for the img thingy being automatically placed at the end of the URL. As soon as I hit submit I saw that it was messed up --- Got it now!!!

 

Thanks about the paint comment, it's a Chrysler silver if I remember right. I don't think it's staying though.

 

normal_smallerz3.JPG

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