ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

Sorry, not trying to be discouraging... I just went down this road once, and wished i'd just not wasted the time and gone right to wheels that work. I don't have any problem with the widening process per se... just think that everything else you'll have to do to make it work probably won't be worth the end result.

For the 285 tire: To use a 285-section tire in 17" size, the only thing available is a 285/40/17. That's a TALL tire... 26" or so. It's also a very rare size. I'd say a 275/40/17 (25.7") is about as tall as you want to go, considering the stock was 25". In 18", you have the option of a 285/35/18 (just as tall as a 285/40/17) or a 285/30/18 that alot of people use... the 30-series is very short though (24.8"), and that's why I went with a 275/35/18 (25.6")... for a little more sidewall for traction, comfort, and to fill the wheel well up a little more, but half the people on this board will already tell you that its too tall because their obsessed with maintaining stock diameter. I can say that I actually have some light rub marks in the top of my rear wheel well plastic from the track though.. and thats with 400# coilovers in the rear... a 285/40/17, or 285/35/18 will only be worse.

For the 296/30/18... thats a fairly rare size, but you'll probably see it more since its used on the 911 GT2 and GT3. Its a little taller than the 285/30/18 (25"), so i'd be more comfortable using it... but it really should be on at least a 10.5" wheel with just the right offset, and I don't have exact specs on that.... My wheels are 10 +42's, and from the looks of it, couldn't be out any further... but there is about 1/2" clearance to the inside, and thats with the stock trailing arm... You could always come by and check them out sometime.

wanklin

iTrader: (2)

18 Inch
Tires Tire
Height
285 30 18 24.73
295 30 18 24.97
315 30 18 25.44
335 30 18 25.91

215 35 18 23.93
225 35 18 24.20
235 35 18 24.48
245 35 18 24.75
255 35 18 25.03
265 35 18 25.30
275 35 18 25.58
285 35 18 25.85
295 35 18 26.13
335 35 18 27.23
345 35 18 27.51

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

Yeah?

wanklin

iTrader: (2)

the 4th column is the tire height in inches

PM me with your number and I'll try to drop by to take a look.

thanks, Rob

here I will repost the 17 heights for comparison

17INCH TIRE HEIGHT
205 40 17 23.46
215 40 17 23.77
225 40 17 24.09
235 40 17 24.40
245 40 17 24.72
255 40 17 25.03
265 40 17 25.35
275 40 17 25.66
285 40 17 25.98


225 35 17 23.20
245 35 17 23.75
315 35 17 25.68
335 35 17 26.23

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

Sure... also bear in mind that actual heights and widths and recommended wheel widths vary from manufacturer to manufacturers... so the calculated sizes are approximate... Check the actual specs on each tire on tirerack or the manufacturers site... I've had four different sets of aftermarket wheels in various sizes, and tried a few others, so i've had most every size combo by now:

1. Stock 16x8 w/ 245/45/16 all around and 225/50/16 all around

2. 17x8 F/R w/ 245/40/17 all around (SSR's)

3. 17x9 F/R w/ 255/40/17 all around (SSR's)

4. 17x8 f, 17x9 r w/ 235/45/17 front, 275/40/17 rear (SSR's)

5. 17x8.5 f, 17x10" r w/ 235/45 front, 275/40/17 rear (Fikse's)

6. 18x8.5 f, 18x9.5 r w/ 235/40/18 front, 285/30/18 rear (Advan's)

7. 18x9 f, 18x10 r w/ 255/35/18 front, 275/35/18 rear (BBS)

Montego

iTrader: (1)

Just to add my $.02. A LONG time ago. I cracked one my rims on my truck. Actually it really wasn't a crack. I hit a HUGE pot hole and about a 1'' triangle chunked off the lip.

I took it to this place in TJ and they made my rim like new again. In both looks and durability. I still don't understand how they did it, as they left no evidence that there was ever a problem. I kept those wheels for like 3 years after that. Oh yeah they charged me 50 bucks too.

SpeedKing

iTrader: (4)

Hey "montego", I know where you got your avatar from - it was from the "Thong Thursday" thread in the Lounge. I know because I have that pic as my desktop. You have a great taste in ***!

wanklin

iTrader: (2)

An approximation is all that I was looking for. I'm going to have to do some tire browsing before I can make a solid decision about anything.

Montego

iTrader: (1)

Ha ha, yup that's where I got it from oh and that ***

wanklin

iTrader: (2)

what would you say the offset is on that ***?

wanklin

iTrader: (2)

just to update, I took some time to think about the end cost of this whole project and it was just too expensive and involved. I am going to play it concervative and stick with the stock widths and either 265s or 255s in the rear and 255s up front. The car will also be tuned down to accomodate the narrower tires. If I ever get serious, I will go with aftermaret wheels. Thanks for your input.

-Rob

dis1

Putting 255s on the 8" rims and 265s on the 8.5s isn't really a good idea. 245s max on the 8s and 255s max on the 8.5s.

wanklin

iTrader: (2)

20mm (on each side) overhang is what we're talking about with the rear 265s, whether that's too much or not remains to be figured out. I here a lot of theory but I'm waiting to hear from somebody who has tried this.

I do agree with the 245s up front after checking my numbers

rob

weaklink

yeah and in theory you should not jump off a cliff. guess what? I'm gonna take someone's word on this too, without trying it out myself. the gain from 255 to 265 is not worth wondering about your "theoretical" safety. Why are you so intent on bucking the system? Tires, like brakes, are not something that you want to play around with.

dis1

Yes, you can probably get a 265 on the 8.5" rim. However none of the tire manufactures I looked at recommended anything less than a 9" rim with their 265 tires. Do what you wish but for an extra 10mm of rubber I would suggest that you pay attention to what the tire manufactures recommend. You will sacrifice performance and safety if you do otherwise.

dis1

wanklin

iTrader: (2)

I've done my own research (including calling a major manufacturer) and found that the 265s would almost certainly work without a problem; however the reduction in sectional width due to the narrowness of the rim will negate some of the gains from the wider contact patch. Abnormal wear will occur if you push the limits too far. per Tire Rack, Chevy and BMW have strayed .5 inches beyond the acceptable rim width "limits" straight from the factory with some of their cars in accordance with their engineers and tire manufacturers. That should tell you something about the conservatism of manufacturer specs.
Also notice in the pics on page one of this thread that the rims are almost 9" bead to bead. Don't assume that the rims are 8.5" wide just because that is what they are stamped as.

So the point is that the 265s will work on my particular rims per my own research of actual manufacturer spec widths and real world rim measurements. The manufacturer will not endorse this for liability purposes but the tech support guy unofficially knew of several people doing this without a problem.

Your points were all well taken and appreciated. I am just skeptical until someone can back their talk up with substantive info rather than forum heresay, and you did back yourself up with manu specs so that was good to go.


Now enough with the negativity!

dis1

That is some interesting info wanklin. My only added comment is that I measured my 8.5s and they were 8.5" measured from the inside of the lips. The way you measured your rims (lip to lip) is incorrect. Please see this article.

http://www.rsracing.com/tech-wheel.html

dis1

ptrhahn

iTrader: (9)

I think there's a distinct difference between whast will "work", and what will work well or work properly. A 265-section tire, generally speaking and for most tires, isn't going to work that well, wether or not it will fit. Why would you use something that admittedly isn't the best option? Just to say you did?

You'll probably get better performance out of a narrower section tire that fits comfortably on the rim. Also most all rims are actually wider than the nominal, stated width. Sometimes more than an inch... but that doesn't change the fact that manufacturers base their recommendation on the nominal width of the rim you buy, so as not to confuse anyone, or require that they break out the tape measure to get the "real" width.

Speaking from personal experience, as someone who has actually used a 275/40/17 tire on both a 9" and 10" wheel, a 255/40/17 on a 9" wheel, a 255/35/18 on a 9" wheel, a 275/35/18 on a 10" wheel, and a 245/40/17 on an 8" wheel, I would recommend not stuffing a 265/40 on an 8.5" wheel. That's not being "negative", it's just speaking from an educated and experienced perspective.

wanklin

iTrader: (2)

My measurement was definitely flawed according to the article but are you certain that this article agrees with every's manufacturer's definition of rim width? To be quite honest I really am not hell bent on the 265s, I just wasn't prepared to base my desision on a blanket statement on the forum from someone I know nothing about. I think we can all see that this whole setup is in the grey area, it probably would work fine but the gains really aren't worth the possibility of abnormal wear and the added cost of the wider tires.

I am always willing to listen to somebody who has real world experience in the area of question. I will just go with the 255s and call it a day, but I still encourage people out there to stop before they take other peoples word as gospel and do some research for yourself, you'll be surprised at what you might find.

I learned something interesting trivia at the bowling alley today from a highschool baseball coach. Did you know that Fidel Castro was a batting coach for the Washington Senators from 1960-1961? I thought that was pretty interesting....

take it easy, Rob

BFGRX7

iTrader: (2)

Wanklin,

Uh, sorry to throw a monkey wrench in this one BUT..... I know of two people that have widen their wheels for their rides and are doing fine. One of the characters in particular widen his wheels on his supercharged NSX. This particular car has, I believe, 450+hp at the wheels and is abused on the drag strip. You may want to give him a call. His name is Devin @ Payne Technologies, 248.649.3966 to get the low-down on the specs. Just in case you don't know this cat, he's one of the premiere Honda tuners in the U.S. and is a really good guy to talk to. Oh, and here are a few companies that still do the widening thing.

http://www.diamondracingwheels.com/S...cationWhls.htm
http://www.weldcraftwheels.com/

I think he had gone with the second company.

~Mike

P.S. LOL, Oh yeah and if there was a Fidel Castro in MLB, he wasn't THE Fidel Castro
http://www.marxists.org/history/cuba...1960/07/09.htm

wanklin

iTrader: (2)

Cuban athletes, such as Conrado Marrero, now 84, who threw out the first pitches at the March game and had played for the Washington Senators during the 1950s, traveled freely to the United States. American teams played exhibitions in Cuba. But Castro's revolution, the missile crisis, a failed U.S. invasion and the embargo ended that.

The Washington Senators apparently had a great number of cuban players before the Cold War.

http://baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?t=1638

http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/cubanpitcherdefects.html

I did a little research on my own and found a few links. Castro was definitely involved in baseball and had a mean curveball but this was just before the cold war. Some sources site him as being a pitching coach for the Orioles.

the baseball coach from the bowling place was a little off on his facts and nobody really knows for sure what the true story is. This guy was 100% sure of himself and we had no reason to question his baseball knowledge but it just goes to show you that you need to do your own research to filter out the nonsense. I'm sure that someone has asked Castro about this but it'll be tough to find a record of an interview. Interesting stuff none the less. Legend has it, had Castro succeeded in MLB the Cuban Missl Crisis would not have taken place.

Thanks for the widening links. We should look into their pricing for those who are interested.

-Rob