Have to agree that at least for me, so far, running the same size tire at all four corners has worked very well. The Z has pretty close to a 50/50 weight distribution. It makes sense, therefore, that the same size tire all around would benefit handling, and I believe that it does.

At first, I ran 265/35-18's all around, with good results. Lately, I have been running 275/40-17's, also with good results. And Skrill is right, 17's are usually much cheaper than 18's. That's why I switched. I was able to buy new 17" wheels with the money that I saved on the tires!

As for brakes, 13" are good for N/A (I had the 13" front Stop Techs myself), but if you plan to go FI, I might opt for the 14" brakes. The non-stock rears, however, are not track worthy IMO... (I was always having to bleed brakes and change pads). If you already have Brembos though, your OEM rears will likely be okay.

Mike (350ZNV), has a very fast car, and has more horsepower than God, so he can afford (and probably needs) to run very larger rear tires. If you are still N/A, I think the same setup front and rear is a better choice.

 

Forget these sizes if you're running a stock suspension. I'm on 255/275 on RA1 on 17 in rims now, with the stock suspension, and its a handfull to keep the car from boucing up and down, left and right under braking and in the corners. With the weird tire size, the ABS goes crazy at the slightest hint of trailbraking, making it bumpier. I had to pull all the electronics off. No ABS,EBD ABLS, nothing...

Plus you'll be plowing.

I might go 275/275 eventually, but not before I get some better dampers.

Oh and I get plenty of wheels spin on corner exit, so power is not an issue.

 

Kolia - looks like you got the Titan - you going to use it to tow your Z?

As far as going with a neutral set up or a staggered set up - I think this has to do with drivers preference.
But, you got to ask yourself both the Dodge Viper Competion Coupe and the Porsche 996 GT3 Cup come with staggered set ups (305 front and 345 rear)?

 

I am running the same setup as White Knight. 275x40x17 in V710's. This is a great combo. I have also not seen the breaking balance problems. Only if I have not squared the car up under heavy breaking. I am running 13.6" wilwood with 6 pot front and 4 pot rear. The addition of the break duct cooling has further reduced the vibration I would feel under heavy breaking and allow later breaking.

 

Thanks for your posts and insight. For some reason I have not been getting emails that anyone has updated my thread, so sorry if it looked like I dropped off there for a while. I just manually went to it now and noticed all of this additional input.???

It sounds like the general recommendation is to go with 18x9.5 with 275/35/18 at all 4 corners (if my budget permits). That would allow me to rotate tires and would allow for the necessary room if/when I upgrade to a BBK. Moreover, in the future I get a TT setup then I would just have to get wider rear wheels/tires and the two that were originally on the rear with the 275 setup could be used to start a "wet" set of tires/wheels.

Did I get that right?

 

That would be my recommendation. Just make sure you get the right offset for the wheels (somewhere between 20mm and 30mm).

 

If you use 275 RA1s, be advised that Toyo's sizing for the RA1 is not accurate. You can easily run a 275 on narrower wheels (8.5") - you should have no problem. My 250 A005s have nearly the same contact patch as my shaved 275 RA1s.... hell, even my 275 T1S' are substantially wider than their RA1 counterparts.