10" wide wheels and tires?

[Jesse OBrien]

I just did a bunch of reading on wheel and tire sourcing, but I'm a little disappointed. There are a few reasons why:

1. I like a little sidewall to my tires. 40-series is as small as I'll comfortably go with a road car.
   
2. Smaller diameter wheels save rotational mass, letting me accelerate and decelerate more quickly.
   
3. I want wide wheels. Why have all this power if it's just causing you to slip all over the place?
   
4. I really want to keep the stock rear, and not have to convert to 5-lug. It just saves me lots of headache.

So I've been looking around for wide wheels that aren't 17" diameter. In my ever-so-humble opinion, 17's look like ♥♥♥♥ on Datsuns. They're too tall. 16's would be fine, but there just aren't any tires available. I found a set of local steelies off a Levin that are 15x10 in the rear and 15x8 in the front, and are 4x114.3. They're $570 for the set, which sounds fine to me. I'm also planning to slap some 295/50-15(rear, 10" wides) and 275/50-15(front, 8's) Toyo Proxes on them and call it a day. All told, I'll be spending around $1200 for this first set of rubber (including mounting and balancing, assuming they need it).

 

Before I go spending all this money on this setup, does anybody forsee any problems with this setup (other than my welded diff, which will chew through tires... I'm sourcing an lsd r200 to replace it) that I might be missing?

 

Do I want the exact same width tire patch to wheel width? I've always thought tire stretching was idiotic, and having the sidewalls as close to parallel to each other should be the ideal for performance. Thanks for reading as always, and I'm really looking forward to any replies or thoughts.

 

(yes, I'm getting BAMF zg's to cover these)

[sweetride2go]

It will be tight, and you may rub the fenders, I did... I have 3" flares on my z, and I originally had 295/50-15 on the back, but they rubbed any time I sneezed, heh... I'm now running 265's, and rubbing occasionally, using AZC red springs and strut inserts...

 

Here's a pic of 'in construction' with the 295's...

 

...and with the 265's

[ShaggyZ]

I have a few things to say... those are some tall freakin' tires you're planning to run. I don't know how you think that looks any better than running 17's with correct-height tires - but that's you're opinion and you're entitled to it. I'd prefer to run 16's over 17's if good tire sizes were readily/inexpensively available. 17's can look to be smaller or larger depending on the design.

 

Another thing, you could run 275/40/17's in the rear and only be at 25.5", which is pretty close to stock overall height; the size tires you're talking about running in the rear are 26.6" which is worse considering your #2 thought - you end up with very tall gearing, more rotational mass to spin up, down, and overcome with from the perception of it as a gyroscope (harder to steer at speed), and you're handling will be sloppy at best. Going with a properly sized wheel/tire combo (under 25.5") instead of the monstrous height you're talking about, will weigh much less - tires weigh more than most people realize, even as compared to an aluminum wheel.

 

A 40-series tire gets a taller sidewall the wider you go - with a 205/40, your sidewall is 3.2", but with a 295/40 you end up with 4.6" of sidewall. With the size tire you're talking about (and gaging off the picture above), you're talking about, I think, approximately 10 feet of sidewall.

 

I don't mean to bust your balls on this, but I think you have some misperceptions about tire sizes... or, at least, some misexecutions of your perceptions.

[Jesse OBrien]

I have a few things to say... those are some tall freakin' tires you're planning to run. I don't know how you think that looks any better than running 17's with correct-height tires - but that's you're opinion and you're entitled to it. I'd prefer to run 16's over 17's if good tire sizes were readily/inexpensively available. 17's can look to be smaller or larger depending on the design.

 

Another thing, you could run 275/40/17's in the rear and only be at 25.5", which is pretty close to stock overall height; the size tires you're talking about running in the rear are 26.6" which is worse considering your #2 thought - you end up with very tall gearing, more rotational mass to spin up, down, and overcome with from the perception of it as a gyroscope (harder to steer at speed), and you're handling will be sloppy at best. Going with a properly sized wheel/tire combo (under 25.5") instead of the monstrous height you're talking about, will weigh much less - tires weigh more than most people realize, even as compared to an aluminum wheel.

 

A 40-series tire gets a taller sidewall the wider you go - with a 205/40, your sidewall is 3.2", but with a 295/40 you end up with 4.6" of sidewall. With the size tire you're talking about (and gaging off the picture above), you're talking about, I think, approximately 10 feet of sidewall.

 

I don't mean to bust your balls on this, but I think you have some misperceptions about tire sizes... or, at least, some misexecutions of your perceptions.

 

I think you may be right. I've been doing my math wrong (the formulas were right, I understood how it worked... but my calculations ended up wrong). I think most of the reason I was so far off was because I currently have 14"s on there, and they're 60-series. My (incorrect) math told me that my sidewall would be around the same if I went to 295 width and down to 40 sidewall. That being said, is there a nice, wide 17" tire that's readily available, cheap, and doesn't look too flashy that you know of?

 

Seeing the 295/50-15's they do look a bit big for this car. Almost like it's got drag slicks on it.

 

I'm really only concerned about getting the width. There's nothing sexier than really wide tires, and the ability to USE all that traction. That being said, I'm open to suggestions. Feel free to offer any suggestions you may have, I'm all ears.

[Jesse OBrien]

I think I'm going to directly copy http://www.cardomain.com/ride/827044

He has:

CCW CLASSICS

-FRONTS: 17x9.5" (5.25" backspace, 0 offset) (BFG g-Force T/A KD 275/40/ZR17)

-REARS: 17x10.5" (5.25" backspace, -12 offset) (BFG g-Force T/A KD 315/35/ZR17)

 

I may not end up with CCW Classics, if I can find something else I like more, but just finding tires in those sizes seems impossible. I like the Yokohama S.Drive, but they just don't go that wide. Am I just shopping in the wrong places? If so, where should I be going? I've been poring through

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=100039

and

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=116603

but there's a lot of info that isn't immediately pertinent for me, so I'm skipping past it. I really want something that fits the car nicely, and Justin's just look great squeezed up under the overfenders. I have to admit, I'm a fan of the car overall. I'm looking to do something similar as my final goal, but with a black/white color theme and no headlight covers.

[rudypoochris]

Your not searching in the wrong place. There just really aren't that many 16" or 15" tires that hit those widths anymore. The trend has been larger wheel diameters.

 

The 295mm tire is already too large for a 10" wide rim imho, let alone the sidewall issue. I think 275 or 285 is more appropriate. For the 8" rim 225 or 235, not 275. You should be able to find the 225 and 235 no problem, the rear is the tricky bit. Hoosier makes a 275/35/15, but beyond that its really quite tough.

 

The CCW's are beautiful and great wheels from what I hear, but they are not cheap. If you are willing to cope with smaller widths, I am running a group buy for Rota's in 17".

 

I honestly don't know how people manager to fit 5.25" back spacing on the front of a Z with out rubbing at full lock. Hmmm...

[Dan Juday]

If you want to see what a 305/50/15 on 10" rims (four lug BTW) look like in person on the back of a Z PM me. I'm just north of the SF bay area.

 

I'm running 265's on the front on 8" rims.

 

[rdsk8ter]

If you want to see what a 305/50/15 on 10" rims (four lug BTW) look like in person on the back of a Z PM me. I'm just north of the SF bay area.

 

I'm running 265's on the front on 8" rims.

 

 

what offset are those?

[Dan Juday]

what offset are those?

 

Backspacing front and rear is 4.5" so the front is close to 0. The rear, obvoiusly, is a about 2" out.

[Clifton]

This is a street car right? You are worried that 17's look bad on a Z but you want to run a 295 or 275 50-15, OMG? IMO a 275-35-18 looks the best but 18's are more $$ than 17's. Over all height is the same as a 275-40-17 though. 15's are too dated, 16's have the classic 80's side wall look. Modernize.

[ZR8ED]

try usacomp.com Rims in different configurations, and they will do our lug pattern.

 

Don't forget about the KIND of tire that you can fit. No point in spending all kinds of money to end up having wide "s" rated tires on nice rims. I gave up on 15's and 16's due to the lack of performace tire availability in the wider widths. It seemed as if the wider tires were older technology rubber and/or designed for s10 pickup truck show vehicles. (meaning H rated performace at best.)

 

I almost bought from usacomp.com, but I settled on Simmons. See my sig. My rears are 315/35/17 with 4.5" of backspace (they really stick out from a stock fender lip, but fill my flares nicely enough.) I would not want to go with anything larger than a 17 diameter wheel though, as they start to look out of place on an old school type of car...that and you end up with rubber bands for tires. (No good for my street driven z)

[Bartman]

I don't think my 18's look out of place, but to each his own.

[Jesse OBrien]

try usacomp.com Rims in different configurations, and they will do our lug pattern.

 

Don't forget about the KIND of tire that you can fit. No point in spending all kinds of money to end up having wide "s" rated tires on nice rims. I gave up on 15's and 16's due to the lack of performace tire availability in the wider widths. It seemed as if the wider tires were older technology rubber and/or designed for s10 pickup truck show vehicles. (meaning H rated performace at best.)

 

I almost bought from usacomp.com, but I settled on Simmons. See my sig. My rears are 315/35/17 with 4.5" of backspace (they really stick out from a stock fender lip, but fill my flares nicely enough.) I would not want to go with anything larger than a 17 diameter wheel though, as they start to look out of place on an old school type of car...that and you end up with rubber bands for tires. (No good for my street driven z)

 

I'm definitely going to check them out, especially if I can fit 315's under them. The BAMF fender flares are a bit less "smooth" looking than your overfenders, and I like the backyard-ish look more than the clean-cut look your overfenders give. They still fit the 315/35-17's in there, so I think that takes the win. A few new questions (answer whatever you'd like, don't feel obligated to hit them all):

1. 4.5" of backspace works well, though?
   
2. No rubbing on suspension components or the inside of the fender well?
   
3. Any particular suggestions on where to find tires that wide (I tore into tirerack, but came out wanting), or which tires (Yokohama S.drive seems pretty solid) to get?

I don't think my 18's look out of place, but to each his own.

 

IMHO, they make the car look small-ish, but that could just be the side skirts. I'm not used to seeing side skirts on an s30, and I'm still trying to decide if I love them or hate them.