Considering a new tire/wheel combo

[1gtx]

Looking to improve the stance and look of the car and I'm considering going to 50mm offset 18"x9.5" aluminum wheels on all four corners and 255/45ZR18 Nitto NT 555's for the front and 295/45ZR18's for the rear.

Seeing as the wheels have the same offset as stock it doesn't sound like there's any problem doing this with the rear. Correct?

The question in my mind is whether this combination is reasonable for the front--especially if I'm considering a full turn coil cut on the front springs.

The wheels I'm looking at only come in the one width and the Nitto spec show the widths work for the front and rear tires (though the front is at the maximum width and the rear is at the minimum).

It seems to work on paper and looking through the archives it looks like it'll work.

Before I order them anyone go any specific comments/opinions?

- Mark

[jim geary]

That's what I run on my car. Except I don't have the 91/2 rims on the front. I just use the 18/8's. Good ride. You'll like it.

[jdando]

Sounds interesting. What wheels are you going to run?

jeremy

[magindat]

You will have clearance issues in the front. The new combo will move the tread shoulder outwards 3/4".

I'd stick with 50mm offset 18x8 in front if available. Those will still hold a 255/45 and should clear.

[Grifter]

18x8 with 50mm offset is not the same as 18x9.5 with 50mm offset.. offset is the distance from the center of the wheel to the hub mounting surface.
the stock wheels stick out 2.04" from the hub (just a reference number) the 18x9.5 with 50mm offset will stick out 2.78" from the hub. it will stick out about 3/4" more than the stock wheel does (as magindat said). (easily calculated by, the difference in wheel width divided by 2, since they have the same offset)
If you can live with that much more wheel stickin out, I say go for it. Its about what YOU like.
I am assuming your looking at the GT500 wheels?

[1gtx]

Yes I was thinking of the GT500's--a pretty nice looking wheel. I just couldn't see the point with widing the rear wheels at $200 a pop when you could get chrome wheels for the price of the widening.

Now that I discovered that I'm deluginal (sp?), this bring up an interesting question. Since the 50mm offset is different on an 9.5" wheel that means that the GT500 will also be 3/4" farther outboard than the stock wheels that are widened. Since the original offset will become 50mm+.5(1.5") or about 69mm. Correct?

So to get the right stance I need 8" wheels on front with 50mm offset and 9.5" wheels with a 69mm offset for the rear.

Hmmm. This suddenly seems to be getting real hard.

I had even considered the idea of narrowing the GT500's to 8", but then the offset becomes, hmmm, 31mm? (50mm-19mm). Argh!

I think I'm getting dizzy--it's time to lie down :-)


Since the original offset will become 50mm+.5(1.5") or about 69mm.

[Grifter]

yes, for a 9.5" wheel to sit at the same distance 'out' as the stock wheels, 69-70mm offset is what you need. My winter whels sit out 1/2" farther than stock, and personally i think it looks very good.
The only gt500 wheels you could narrow are the FRPP units, they are the only ones that are forged wheels, the replicas are cast. I have found 18x9 gt500 replicas, i dont remember where nor do i remeber the offset.
I just got done with the whole offset ordeal after buying my new wheels. I made up an Excel spreadsheet to help me out with the offset calculations. Easy to look at and see how far out each rim was going to be..