Running Wide tires

I have always been a big fan of stuffing the widest tire possiable under any car and so it sadden's me to see all these new cars (sti's, evo's, 350z etc.) with huge wheel wells and all these people throwing tiny tires and wheels on them.

So if you every need any assitance determining what size tire or wheel you can fit, shoot me a PM. I an easily calculate how your tire will sit and how it will look on your car in comparison to your current setup. If need be I can even model your wheel in 3-d to give you a comparison to your stock wheels.

Fitting huge tires comes down to proper wheel fitment, fender rolling/pulling, and camber.

Some of my old wheel/tire setups are below and they just scratched the surface of what I consider wide tires (I never even rolled my fenders)

18x10.5 front and back with 265/35/r18 - G35 coupe
17x10 front and back 255/40/17 - Evo IX


FYI for all you subie guys, my old wheels on my evo came off an STI so I know you guys can man up and throw huge tires under those AWD beasts!

All this talk from a man running one pink wheel and snow tires!

I would love to run pink rims and snow tires. I envy you Jake, well at least 25% envy, as you only have one so far.

Good info on the EVO wheel size. I'd like to size up a bit here with future track events. My fenders are rolled so I don't think I'd have too many problems. I have 255s on right now, and the wheels are sunk about .5" in the front, and 1.5" in the back. I was thinking about using spacers but I'm worried about trashing my wheel bearings.

I ran 25mm spacers for 4 years with no problems. However if you can fit it I would jump up to 265's or 275's depending on your power output.

I ran a 30mm spacer and also had no issues after rolling the fenders.

I think on the newer subies you can run upto about 275's in 17" or 285's with 18" wheels (you can get a 35 series in 18 so you have a shorter sidewall... that usually is what kills the tire selection in 17 too tall of sidewalls without anything other than fender rolling and camber. Obviously that all depends on what offest your wheel is but that is what I seem to remember. I know my old Evo setup had 275's on them on an STI that competed in the SCCA nationals.

The new dunlop direzza Star Spec Z1's are suppose to be a super grippy tire and have lots of good sizes available... that's what I would be rocking if I still had an Evo.


FYI: There are concern with spacers outisde of wheel bearings, but in regards to your wheel bearing... it knows no difference between a low offset wheel and a high offset wheel with spacers they both put excessive loads on your wheel bearings and hence why you don't see low offet wheels on mass produced vehicles. However racing puts excessive wear on everything so it probably doesn't matter much!

My 30mm spacers would have killed my bearings if I had not taken them off. I only had them on the car for about 500 miles.

The reason I had to get the spacers was Brembo clearance. Just decided to go with the OZ Ultraleggras and get rid of the spacers.

Have not looked back since.

I am running 275's on my STI, and am stepping up to a set of 295's in the spring. Is that wide enough for you? Stock suspension, no spacers, etc just rolled rear fenders. Any bigger will require some work.

That what I like to hear! 295's is a lot of tire, what size wheel are you running? Now get some suspension and start killing the SCCA tracks. Even if you kept stock suspension get some camber plates so you can run a good amount of camber and really get some corner gripping performance

The new designs of cars have created huge potential for wide tires, it's good to hear people are taking advantage of it.

What power level are you at to justify 295's? Either way that is sweet and if you need a fender roller let me know and you can borrow mine. Anything to help out someone running real size tires. It is crazy how the new designs are more focused on fitting larger tires.

RJ needs some big & fat tires for the way he drives lol! Amazing! Welcome to MAEC bud!

I'm runnin 235/45R17's on my spec-v and hasn't rubbed yet

RJ! Sup. Thanks again for the ride in the S2k.

i run 305s on my SS. i know it dosent count i have a truck. 305/35/24s FTW. ive seen 345s on a vette.
heres a picture i took. its that twin turbo vette. really nice guy.

I am running 275/40's currently (Kumho XS) on 17x9" Rota DPT's. Fitment is perfect on the GR STI, but I did have to roll the rear fenders.

The 295's will need a wider rim- wheeldude is coming out with a 17x9.5" Rota that should do the trick. I don't anticipate any fitment problems at all with this setup. I am still running stock suspension. With a decent set of coilovers, there is even more room to work with. A 305 would definitely fit.

Honda Civic Coupe 07.....what's the widest I can stick on it?

Thats tough without knowing what is stock and what size rims you are going to run. Just a guess I'd think you could run 225's all around but I think with the right fitment you could get 245's to fit. Post what you currently have on there and a picture or how much room you have between the fender and the tire and I can help you get a better idea.

Just bought a set of Falken Azenis RT615.

I wanted to get back some of the torque I lost running the bigass 295/45/R18 out back with the tall sidewalls. The new rears are 295/40/R18 and are near the stock height. Over an inch shorter at the sidewall. Should take my final ratio back to almost 4.10 again.

Selling the Nittos now, maybe on ebay. These Falkens are supposed to be the cat's meow so we'll see. Only racing I do is at the drag strip but they will come in handy if I take the car on a nice twisty road.

Sadly it's that time of year so I won't have many opportunities to test the new setup until spring hits us again. Summer tires don't like temps below 40 much.

The falkens are a good tire, I have had several pairs myself and all of the team sprock guys I think have had atelast one pair of azenis' on their car at some point. The biggest con they have is they get greasy pretty quick in the heat. You will get a couple good runs and then they are slippery. On my evo they would last through the morning for me in cooler weather but after my first or second run in the afternoon they were really inconsitant. For the money they are tough to beat, just do your best to keep them cool.

Cool yeah I've read a few reviews and that is one of the gripes. I've also read in a few places that they like to be heated up a bit before they give the best traction.

These tires are overkill for me. The car is driven in town 99% of the time. Other than an occasional drive (ala BTR) around some twisty curves or at the drag strip they won't see much use outside of town.

I wanted to get the best traction I can in a tire that will be close to my car's stock overall diameter. These are wide tires that should have plenty of grip for drag racing with my relatively low power levels. Someday a drag radial will be a requirement but these should hold up to a 300hp launch no problem.

I just put my 265 on 18 rims fits well other then the rear fenders need to be rolled just for insurance and the occasional rear passenger.cant find a roller in town to use might just buy one?

When I get mine back from the Zoo i'll let you know and I can rent it out to you. Its not something I see as worth buying unless you plan on doing a lot of cars. I have used mine twice and other than that just let my friends use it. So its sitting around most of the time.

Anyone else tired of this conversation?

Let's see here. The last post was on the 20th. You come in like 15 days later and bump the thread.

I was kinda tired of this conversation. But now that you've bumped it I think we should all start yapping again! Yay!

sprockmember wrote:

Anyone else tired of this conversation?

If you do not like the conversation, then do not post in it.

/applause

BTW I ended up not getting the Azenis RT-615. I just went with the much cheaper goodyear supercars in 285/40/18. Not quite as wide and not quite as much sidewall but for the money they are supposed to be pretty killer.

Nels... I am tired of you being a pansy!

Jesus Christ dudes... it was a pun.

Quit treading on me. (Get it?)

Let us know how the GoodYears treat you.

I've had great luck with Azenis with light cars. The greasiness is no lie... but you usually won't get to that point on the street. For the street I still roll 205 615's (on a car that's a little over 2000lbs). Fun and cheap!

Fun and cheap, sounds like a date with Nels! Nels quit using words like pun, you know that kinda lingo is way above my head!

hehe yeah unfortunately it's gonna probably need to wait until at least march before I have a chance to test anything with that car. Right now it's in hibernation. Summer tires don't do very well in these temps and road conditions.

Sure they do.... ask my wife how well the rt-615's on the g35 handled the fluke snow storm in Beaver, UT on our way back from Vegas. Needless to say I spent the night in Beaver... which actually sounds pretty sweet unfortunately it wasn't! I think it dropped two feet of snow that night!

615s are on my list of goodies for the upcoming season.

Yeah I have to buy two RT 615's to replace the ones I damaged on the beartooth run.

If anyone wants 245/40/18's let me know I'll sell two of mine and buy some 265's!

ts4l wrote:

If anyone wants 245/40/18's let me know I'll sell two of mine and buy some 265's!

I really want these Smase!!! I will call you and we can figure something out.

Sounds good, my car will be at the shop getting the cage welded in until at least the end of the week. But after that its back to the garage so I can pull em off whenever.

Go big or go home, 265/35/18 18x9

All right so I'm contemplating these wheels on a 2004 STi:
http://www.wheeldude.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=5910

With these tires:
http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/tires/falken/product/submitProductSize.do?pc=18513&tmn=Azenis+RT-615&typ=Passenger%2FPerformance

I all ready know that the rear fenders will need to be pulled, just wondering how far.

Those look like the wheels RJ has on his car! I like 'em!

Looks like a good choice. If you end up wanting to save some money let me know and I'll sell you my 245/40/18's for a good deal. They have about 150 miles on them and have never been heated up or driven hard. I am looking to get something closer to a slick since I don't drive the car very often. Anyways just thought I'd throw that out there.

my old wheels on the evo where +38 and came off an 04 sti I believe. The guy ran 275's with pulled fenders, so my assumption on your question about how far to pull you fenders... my guess is not much, couple mm's

335's FTW!



Not my car BTW.

The DPT's are a great choice. Look at tirerack for some other tire choices. Michelin Pilot Sports are on closeout right now and will last longer with similar grip. I would highly recommend the Kumho XS or Star Specs though, if you want a high performance street tire. People complain about them not lasting long enough, but the XS tires I used for One Lap went 10,000 miles and that included all of the One Lap events, a day at Lewistown, and an autocross or two.

this is the tire i need on my car, but cant find the specfctions of the car anywhere.. you think its all back spceing or a mini tub?? i will be opening my wheelwells about 1.5" to the frame but thats all, what do you think the chances are jest doing that would get a tire like that under my car.?? i have taken a 295/35-18 jest the tire and put it in my wheelwell and it did fit but jest barley..

I'd guess just backspacing without knowing Mustang's real well. If you have the right back spacing on most cars you can fit a lot of tire.

thanks man!! i will do sum more diging.

rwheelz wrote:

The DPT's are a great choice. Look at tirerack for some other tire choices. Michelin Pilot Sports are on closeout right now and will last longer with similar grip. I would highly recommend the Kumho XS or Star Specs though, if you want a high performance street tire. People complain about them not lasting long enough, but the XS tires I used for One Lap went 10,000 miles and that included all of the One Lap events, a day at Lewistown, and an autocross or two.

Thanks RJ I will definitely look into some other tires when I'm in the market for wheels and tires.

hey u think you could tell me how wide of tires i could run on a 74 monte carlo right now theres like 10 inch wide tires but i think theres like 15 inchs in between the sidewall and the back of the fender

345's in the rear (like Shawn said), and 275's up front. Rear wheels are 13" wide.