I currently have an '88 GXL that I am setting up for AutoX / road race.

It is going to just be a fun car for now, probably just compete against myself and my own times until I have more money to compete.


I was at the local wrecking yard looking at wheels, and they have a pretty good selection. About $5-$15 per wheel.

Is there a wheel that comes stock on another car that would make a good wheel for racing?

I saw some 90's? Mustang GT wheels, they looked significantly wider then my stock setup.

My goal is to be able to get some 245's on the car? I am still relatively new with wheel / tire sizing.

Any info is greatly appreciated!

 

yeah, mustang wheels tend to be a good bet. they're the correct lug pattern and are pretty wide and are around the right offset (they're +27 I think)

you can fit an 8" wide in the front easily, 9" with a bit more work (lots of camber and a fender roll)

9" in the back fits easily, 10" fits fine depending on the tire...

before going widebody the most I could fit under the stock fenders were 17x9 +25 up front and 17x10 +30 in the back with 245/40/17 and 275/40/17 Hoosier A6s (very wide for the size)

 

The wheels were like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mustang-Rims-5-Lug-Ford-1999-2000-2001-2002-2003-2004-Stock-GT-Base-5x114-3-/181173670815?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Wheels&hash=item2a2ecad39f&vxp=mtr

Is there a year that would work better then those? Or, lighter wheels?

Also, any idea if the center of these are the same width? I didn't measure before I left the wrecking yard.

Also, 245 = 9", 275 = 10" ?

Thank you for the information!

 

those are 16x7s which is what the TurboIIs have stock... You're stock wheels are 15x6, so it's an upgrade, but 17x8 or 9 would be much better...

Here is Largeorangefront's GXL on 17x9 +24 '95 cobra R wheels:


bring your measuring tape to the junk yard but also keep in mind wheels normally measure about an inch wider than they actually are because they measure from where the tire bead seats.

and yes, but I ran the 245s on 17x8s for a while too, tires have a decent range in their spec sheet (usually an inch or 2) of what they'll fit on decently well.

 

Very awesome! Thank you for the picture.
Those are nice looking rims. The ones I saw were pretty ugly. LoL.

 

FD wheels fit nicely in the rear, and will take a 245.

we have found that the hoosiers like a lot of wheel, so a 225 hoosier works better on an 8" wheel than it does on a 7" wheel.

that being said we don't have a lot of experience there, we've mostly done spec wheel/tire classes

 

FD wheels have a +50 offset... so they tend to sit very far in and need spacers for the front. and they're only 16x8. from what I've seen, people tend to want more money than I think they're worth.

 

Good to know about the FD wheels if I can find some.

The wrecking yards around here appear to have a good number of mustang wheels, and other misc. wheels.

Can you clarify for me the offset? I believe I read that, that is the distance from where the wheel hooks up, to the.... inner or outer edge?

I get a little confused seeing all the tire sizes, some saying 245, other's saying 9", and then throwing offset into the mix.

I am not opposed to reading if you have any good resources explaining wheel fitting.

 

9" = wheel width

245 = tire width (in mm)

backspace = the distance from the back edge of the wheel to the mounting face

offset = the distance from the center line of the wheel to the mounting face. This is kind of hard to measure yourself, but it's essentially: (backspace - 0.5") - (0.5 * wheel width) = offset in inches (convert this to mm)

 

Awesome! Thank you!

For offset, does a higher number mean that the mounting face is more towards the inner part of the wheel, or more towards the outer part of the wheel?

If it is more inward, I'd guess a bigger offset will push the wheel outwards, whereas smaller will bring in more into the body?

In terms of spacers, how bad are they for racing?

 

+ offset means you have more wheel on the inside. so a lower offset will push the wheels out (on my wide body car I have 0 offset front wheels)

spacers are fine for racing, as long as you have enough thread engagement on your studs. typically you need as much engagement as the stud is wide, so 12mm of engagement for a M12 stud.

for racing you'll probably want your spacers to be hub-centric. (the inside part is 59.5mm just like the rx7's hub.)

ARP makes some longer wheel studs that fit RX7s. you can search for the part numbers.

 

Awesome!

Thank you very much for all the information!

 

So, I think I've decided on some 99 mustang gt 17x8 wheels.

Not sure on tire yet, but I think the 17x8 will be nice.