Hey everyone,

I'm currently running in BS locally, and like all the other Enthusiast/Base owners, am being faced with the fact that the front rim is just too damned narrow to fit any kind of rubber under it.

To adhere to BS rules, you have to run the same size/width and offset to within .25". Rules don't explicitly state which corner of the car they have to be on, so my question: Can we put the rear rims up front (and the front rims in back) and still be BS legal?

Thanks in advance,

Jay
04 SB Enth

 

I asked the same thing in my region and they said no, because you're essentially altering the way the car came from the factory, ie. in thoery flipping your control arm upside down to get more camber, was the example i got. The 0.25 tolerance is only for offset as well, not wheel width.

Thing is if you did it, i find it hard to believe any tech guy would notice unless he/you removed the wheels and checked.. you can just say you flipped the tires and left the wheels the same. I was thinking of the same thing too. You can do a 235/50 on the front wheel, or just swap the tires front to rear.

Problem is the Z is good enough to beat a lot of cars so if the thought came across someone's mind and you got caught cheating, that would suck.

 

First of all you can perfectly fit HUGE tire on stock front rim. I know people here put 265 and probably more for autox.

Second, on local level, nobody will care about 1/2 of width. I'm running 8" all around and nobody ever asked me anything about wheels. If you compete on Nationals than, of course you should be compliant with rules.

 

Damn! And here I figured it would be a good way to get more tire

I am only going to be running locally, so I don't think being protested will really matter, not to mention I'm not all that good yet.

Vlad, you mentioned that you can get a 265 on the 7.5" front rim? Man, and here I figured I would be pushing the limits with a 255. I have heard that Carter is running 275's on the 7.5" which sounds impossible, but then again nothign surprises me anymore.

Thanks again for all your input, guys....

Jay
AIM: TractionCircle
04 SB Enth

 

I'm planning on running 275s on my 17's when I go to order new tires later this summer.

 

You have to be careful about not complying with the rules. I've found you can "cheat" and get away with it in two ways: 1. If no one in your region every goes to nationals and/or doesn't wish to, or 2. You're not competitive enough to make anyone worry. Not trying to put anyone down, but in the Phoenix region at least where we have 10-15 Nationals competitors every year, they would have a heart attack if you tried to run a wheel 1/2 wider than allowed. Just be careful in stock class because like I said, some regions don't care/know, and some are extremely picky and usually when you have a bunch of Nationals contenders running, they'll get pissed off if everyone doesn't comply with the rules.

 

I have been running Hoosier 275's on 17's and 18's on the front and rear with no problem. The 17's were on a touring model and the 18's on a track model. Lee

 

On a related subject - does the rules prevent you from changing wheels? Can you change to an aftermarket wheel if it's the same size as the factory? I would assume that changing to a different width wheel would not be OK.

 

you can run any wheel you want in the stock class provided it's the same diameter, width and the offset is within 0.25" of stock. you can run wheels made of titanium if you want. haha

that's the thing that kills me about Solo2 stock class... you can't run an aftermarket wing or chin spoiler, yet you can run any wheel you want and you can spend $5,000 on shocks and still be legal. gotta love it!

 

Hmm, I thought that somewhere on there it said that cosmetic mods were OK. I assumed that applied to an afermarket chin and wing (since we don't hit speeds high enough for those to make a difference) but maybe not.

-D'oh!

 

I got kicked out of STX with my 240SX because I had a carbon fiber hood.. a mod that saved 10lbs, which is less than 2 gallons of fuel worth of difference and has no aerodynamic benefit. STX is a lot more lenient than stock class as well.

From my understanding it has to be a factory option, not sure if dealer options apply for Aero parts. I know dealer options on things like wheels, headers etc are not allowed so I'd assume Aero parts are the same. Like everything else I've tried, i was also told "No" to my chin spoiler (the one in my avatar).. well I wasn't flat out told no way, but they basically said "Just do it, but be ready in case someone complains". My roommate is on the "committee" for the Phoenix area Solo2, so I whenever i mod my car I get to hear all about it. That and I'm beginning to think our region is more strict about stupid stuff than most.

 

You understand, that's a special set of wheels for autox, right? I'm not sure 275 on 7.5 is a good idea for the everyday driving

 

Last week I saw a guy who was removing aftemarket lip, to stay in BS I assume. He had it on bolts or something...

 

Of course, these would be going on my stock rims while I drive on aftermarket rims/tires. I am just amazed that a 275/40/17 fits on the 7.5" wide front rim.

 

If you want to run that class, you have to obey those rules...
Otherwise, run BSP and have a little fun with some real comp...

Here, we can run whatever till someone complains. And, even then...

You can always track your car instead...

 

Oh it fits, and it fits VERY nicely.

http://www.solo2.org/blogs/christoc/...06/14/386.aspx

I'll tell you how much of a pain they are to mount in the next week or so as I need to flip the 275s I picked up this past weekend.

 

FWIW, I tried doing this to rotate my tires and the wheels don't even fit. I forgot if it was a front or a rear (thinking it was a front, trying to be put on the rear) but the hub center sizing on the wheel was different and it wouldn't go on all the way. For the stock, 17s at least, the wheel wouldn't even fit if you swapped them.

 

Can I run 275 as everyday rear tire on 8" rim? Anybody doing it? If yes, what tire brand?

 

I wonder how much running a 275 on a 7.5" wheel even helps. If you look at this crappy diagram I made to describe what I want to say, look at the inside and outside of the tire.. the tire is so big on the rim it's probably not even on the ground most of the time.

A local Street Mod guy (7th at Nats) was running 225s on a 6" wheel and had a similar situation. He went to an 8" wheel so the tire was damn close to perfectly square and picked up immediate time and PAX points. He said it wasn't even close to being the same - the same size tire setup "square" due to a bigger wheel was so much better than being squeezed on a small wheel.

Not saying the 275s are bad by any means, totally awesome I'm sure. I just wonder if you'd get the same grip level by running a smaller tire on the stock wheel, perhaps a 245 or 255. I have 245 Hoosiers on my stock 17" wheels, they're very square.

My picture isn't totally perfect, but the areas I'm talking about are in yellow.

 

I think it's pointless to look at unloaded tire. If you want to compare two setups you need to measure contact patch. I never thought about it before but now I think your concerns are reasonable. So measure the contact patch of loaded tire and tell us what it is.

I'm not sure what the best way to do it... I'd try to slowly roll over paper/carbon copy/paper sandwich taped to the bed of sheet metal. It'll give you the width of contact area. Which should be enough. Or jack up the car and lower it on carbon copy (don't forget to seat in it after that), this way you'll get the area in 2 dimentions.