stretched tires upfront only (pic request)
 

i'm riding on my stockers during winter, but summer is coming up and i want the nicer rims back on the car. my problem is the front tires rub on the springs and i was running spacers, but i want to clear the springs without spacers now. the rims are 16x7 with a 32 offset. my plan is to have 195/50/16 or 205/50/16 fronts and 225/50/16 rear.

anyone running a similar setup?

17x9 (fronts) 205/40, going to a 215/40 as them shits are toooo stretched

https://i579.photobucket.com/albums/...rain74/010.jpg

a stretched tire on a 16x7? lol
dude you need spacers so you dont hit the struts.

thats what i love about federals. 205's are like 215's lol. but the again you have a slightly lower profile than i do. 205/45 on the 17x9

http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/a...9-11154056.jpg

yes, spacers or a 205 on the 16x7 fronts but either way the +32 offset fucks you up. 205 and go with a 5mm spacer. this should be more than enough to clear

Ian- I am def going 215 or some 255/40 front 275/40 rears and raise my shit up cause i cant get anywhere. Mainly b/c my long tube headers scrape even the crown on the road... lolz

thanks, if you have a 205 i might get a 195.

i'm not going for a record breaking stretch i just need a little stretch to stop the rubbing. i have 8mm spacers and during hard corning it starts to rub again.

i think with a 195 or 205 should be enough to clear with out the use of spacers. and i had pep boy cheap spacers so if i still need spacers i'm going with something better.

oh and here is a picture on why i don't want spacers, tires stick out a little too much upfront.
no spacer
http://i52.tinypic.com/2j1s7wm.jpg

with 8mm spacer
http://i52.tinypic.com/f28tg8.jpg

yea a 205 is definitely enough.
stock 16x7 t2 wheels. dont know the offset but it had 205s
http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/a...0004046656.jpg

its funny to read this only 3 days into winter, lol

i have tein springs and agx shocks :icon_tdow i know others have had problems even with the turbo wheels.

:lol: its stupid Colorado, here in Denver it has not snowed and its like 45 degrees outside, i don't think will have snow this year :nod:

hmm weird..

but yea it was cold yesterday morning then it warmed up to 50 then it rained a little then snowed a little at night. all 4seasons in one day.

Buy coilovers. Problem solved.

205/40/17 on 17x8

http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/s...aidhoyxx/1.jpg
http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/s...dhoyxx/2-1.jpg

Why do you want to stretch on stock? fc3 pro has a good line for wider rims and offsets that will clear everything.

What kind of rims are those? Kinda nice. :icon_tup:

17x8 w/ 205/45 Federals up front (small stretch)

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/e...rs/Fitment.jpg
http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/e.../cars/Side.jpg

What size tire looks flush on a nine inch rim?

The right width tire for performance on a 9" rim is a 255. The tire will sit flush with the rim. Anything less will begin stretching the sidewall. I like a little stretch look, but a 255 can fit with some camber and rolling the inner lip of the fender up front.

MaczPayne's old car with 17X9 +24 255/40/17
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...g?t=1293087465

To Alex N/A:

Buy some coilovers or at least some 2.5" diameter springs if you have issues rubbing up front. The shape of the stock spring will cause you grief with changing wheels, tires, and ride height down the road.

yea like what Grip said. it does solve alot of fitment issues

damn thats awesome. it looks like a hulking beast with those size tires on. You can also get over size fenders to help with spacing. if your into that. Haha What size are the rears? They look like 18".

215/40/18 on 9.5


http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l...oraiter288.jpg


http://i328.photobucket.com/albums/l...s/98cddd59.jpg

what front lip is that?

Are you saying your current winter tire/stock 16x7 +40 ET setup is rubbing now with the 8 mm spacers, or it only rubs if you take the spacers off? Do you currently have the stock 205/55-16 tires on these wheels? If you're just barely rubbing now and you switch to a 16x7 +32 offset wheel with the same size tires, that will put the sidewall in the same spot as your +40 wheels without the spacers.

Ya. K sport. Put up a pic of the extreme angle you have.

hmm, I might go with a 195, I need a little more stretch than that. thanks for the pic.

sorry for the confusion, I have another set of rims(mustang) and that's the rims that need a stretched tire. Yeah offset sucks.

I'm going with Federals too, found a good set for 250$ shipped on directbuytire.com might get 195/45 since you have more stretch than 205/50 would give me.

to clear things up, i have stock coupe rims on 205/50/15 (they fit fine), but I have another set of rims that are 225/50/16 with 32et I just realized i put 16x7 but they are 16x8, and these are the ones i'm having fitment issue.

8mm spacers did solve the problem unless I corner pretty hard (then I get a little rubbing). I am going with a 195/45/16 (if that exist) up front if I still have fitment issues I will get smaller spacers 3mm or 5mm. and just to make the rear end look better I'll put 25mm on the rear :)

oh and i'll get an alignment, maybe that will help.

mmm streched tires!

Anyone have a picture of a 215/45 or 40 on a 17x8?

Are there front camber kits? Do you have to go all out and get a full perfomane suspension?

Look at my pic I posted earlier. Mine is a 205, but it's a federal tire, so its really the size of a 215. and its a 45 btw.

I like it! Thank you sir. :icon_tup:

17x8.5

215/45's

same set up as above, on feddys

http://i330.photobucket.com/albums/l.../nightime3.jpg

How come federal 205 are like 215? Are they wider than any other brand of tires?

Front camber would be adjusted by the camber plates on my coilovers. Coilovers are also much thinner than stock suspension and will give more clearance. :icon_tup:

Well ya. You do it all with good coil overs. so there are no camber kits?

federals seem to be a bit popular on the fronts so far. Are they good for sideways shinanigans? lol

yes


Responded to ur pm, but yes, these tires are great! Very sticky, and put out tons of smoke, like uber smoke yo!!! And hold tread pretty well for the amount of thick yellowy smoke you'll be dumping out.

Does anyone know how to measure offset with spacers?. being related to the subject since I have a 32 offset if I added a 25mm spacer would the rim resemble a rim with a 7offset? in the picture I posted you can see how the rear wheel is sunk in more and looks weird with the front wheel being flush.

Yes, that's right. If you have +32 wheels and a 25 mm spacer, the resulting offset is +7. Imagine you are actually attaching the spacers to the inside of the wheel mounting surface. The result is that the new mounting surface is that much closer to the centerline of the wheel on a wheel with a high positive offset.

If you look at the location of the factory wheels on FCs, the rear wheels are more sunken than the fronts. I've always wondered why Mazda did this. Did it reduce the drag produced by the rear wheels to have them more sunken? (Low drag coefficients were the hot-button marketing point in the 80s.) Did Mazda have the shape of the body set before finalizing the suspension tuning and discover that a smaller rear track had some positive handling benefit (less understeer)? I'd love to know the answer on this.

There were a bunch of other cars from the late 1980s/early 90s that also had weirdly sunken rear wheels. One that comes to mind is the Saturn SL-1.

^my ford explorer also has rear wheels more sunk in then the front, I think mazda and other companies do this to allow for larger wheels on different trim levels with out running into problems. It probably best for the economy too since they can order in large quantities instead of 2 wheels one size and 2 wheels a different size. Its pretty much made for the majority of the people instead of those few people who want a more flush look.

and thanks for answering my question about the spacers.

I don't think that really explains the more sunken rear wheels on the FC; all the wheels on all trim levels that came from the factory used the same size front to rear. Also, I'm pretty sure all trim levels had wheels with +40 offsets. I highly doubt Mazda set the car up this way to allow future owners to use larger aftermarket wheels. Remember that back in 1986, a wheel as large as 17" would have been really exotic; even the C4 Corvette had 16" wheels back then.

Your reasoning might make more sense for a newer design like your Explorer though. Come to think of it, I have noticed that they often have more sunken rear wheels too.

Are you sure the front wheel base is actually wider then the rear? Maybe the rear fenders themselves are a bit wider and with more negative camber on the rear wheels it just looks like they're more sunken in?

@K!NCH, 215/45/17:

http://img37.picoodle.com/i87u/yence...fm_6caa96f.jpg

its all about the offset of the wheel im running a 225/45/17 on the front and a 255/40/17 on the rear stock fenders, no spacers, racing beat springs, and some kyb adj.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c4...a/DSC01670.jpg

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sorry for the shitty pix....fd wheels 205 45 30 mm spacer front 225 50 rear 30 mm spacer

that's exactly the setup (front/rear) that I need. what tire brand are you running? and where did you get 30mm spacers I can only find 25mm

well i just get random tires what ever the shop has i just wanted that size and the spacers were from a small shop by my house there 150 for all 4 witch is really good

"Wheelbase" is the distance from the front axle to the rear axle measured along the side of the car. I was referring to the difference in the front and rear "track," which is the distance between the centerlines of the tires located on the same axle.

According to Yamaguchi's book on the FC, the front track is 1450 mm/57.1" and the rear track is 1440 mm/56.7". Of course if you add spacers and/or use wider wheels with lower offsets, you'd be changing the track.

I guess my question was why Mazda did not design a body that would disguise the fact that the rear track is a bit narrower than the front. If anything, the body exaggerates this by having the rear wheels appear much more sunken than the fronts.

I was referring to that too, didn't know the proper English word for it, sorry.
I remember reading about a front track being wider then the rear, it decreases understeer. This was about FWD cars though.

What size are fd wheels anyway? 17x?

There 16

Lovely