Guest Justin Posted December 27, 2002 Share Posted December 27, 2002 Any of you guys running meaty fronts (245-285ish) and a smallish steering wheel on a street car without power steering? I drove the car around for the 2 weeks or so I had it before tearing it apart on 225/60-14's and didn't mind it, will it be significantly tougher with the wider rubber? I know stuff like parrellel parking and probably the slower corners in autox will be a pain, but for what it's worth, I'd be willing to hit the gym before swapping in a power rack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudge Posted December 27, 2002 Share Posted December 27, 2002 Well, I've only got 195-60 R15, and its already stiff, so I can't help ya I know on the Camaro with 245 fronts and no PS its pretty bad, but thats about a 3400# car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted December 27, 2002 Share Posted December 27, 2002 I have 235/45-17s on 17x8.5s on the front of my 240Z, with a iron headed, alum intake and WP, headered SBC V8 in the JTR position under the hood. The JTR recommended Camaro rad is small and very light and holds little water/coolant. I have AC on it also. That gives you an idea about the weight up there. I have the short steering knuckles on the car, and a Momo Competition (350mm, 13.8" diameter) steering wheel. It's a bit tough to steer at parking lot speeds, but nothing horrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted December 27, 2002 Share Posted December 27, 2002 Weight is not really the issue; caster is the big determiner of steering effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimZ Posted December 28, 2002 Share Posted December 28, 2002 Originally posted by johnc:Weight is not really the issue; caster is the big determiner of steering effort. Agreed. I flared my fenders last year, and went to 255/40-17s on 17x9.5" wheels in the front. For them to fit at all, I had to reduce the caster to approximately the lower limit of the stock spec. Otherwise, the wheels were too far forward in the wheel well. Even though this is contrary to the prevailing logic for Z suspension setup, I am very happy with this configuration. The wheels are centered nicely in the wheel wells, high speed stability is fine, and the steering effort is noticeably lower than it was with my old 245/45-16s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modern Motorsports Ltd Posted December 29, 2002 Share Posted December 29, 2002 Both weight and caster play their part. I dropped ~130 lbs off of my front end when I moved my battery and installed aluminum heads.......that made a very noticeable difference in reducing steering effort. (caster before and after ~4 degrees). Now I bumped up to 9-10 (don't have alignment sheet handy) degrees caster and it's too much effort for my liking both parking and low speed corners....I now have some longer centre links to install/swap on my TC rods so I can dial back to ~6-7 degrees caster where I think I'll find my happy balance......BTW, on my 280ZX, the present 9-10 setting has my tires rubbing front spoiler/headlight bucket flange when turning at low speed and it's compressed at all (ie. slight bump to tire/curb/driveway etc). But minimal rub...just leaves a nice light blue/silver line on the outside of the tire Cheaper than those custom coloured tires some others run Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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