details about tires and rims as requested
11-05-2002, 09:58 PM
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details about tires and rims as requested
Some requests have been sent to me suggesting I talk about rim offsets and rim/tire sizes based upon my first posting. Just remember, i am new at this and my info came from talking to a lot of people and their experiences. With that said, here is some info I have aquired.
Ok, I will do my best to recall and interput my notes from September when I made a lot of calls researching rims. I will give you phone numbers too to verify my data so if you spend the money, you get it right the first time.
Fisrt of all, the track model's rims were made for nissan by Volk racing. Since i was thinking of buying those rims (at first but now changed my mind on that) after market (I am buying an enthusist model) I tried to contact a Volk rep. One of my calls was to Dazz motorsports (dazzmotorsport.com). Their phone number is (626) 962-0033. I believe I spoke to a guy named Ryan. Regardless of his name, he told me he designed rims for racing hart, and they were testing rims on the new 350Z. He told me he thought the best combination they had tested thus far was 18" rims with the front being 8.5" wide rim with a 245 40 series tire and a 275 35 series tire witha 10" wide rim. He recommended the racing hart "CR" rim. Again, remember he is partial to that company and it might not match your taste as it is not one of my favorite looking rims. I bet if you contact them, they can give you the specs on the offsets for those rims.
Ryan suggested the best vendor with real knowledge on getting the proper rims for a Z is Brett at wheelwarehouse in Anaheim Ca. The phone number is (714) 772-1281 ext. 5124. I contacted him several times and finally went up there to see him. Brett does know his stuff and their selection is great. I was surprised that Brett spent 1-2 hours with me looking at rims and told me that when i get my Z he would make sure that the tire and rim combo would work and if not, they would change it to make it work before I left the shop. Considering I did not have the car at the time, i thought his customer service was outstanding. These guys are enthusists themselves so they are a good resource in my opinion.
I spoke to a discount tire rep on their internet hotline (not the regular dealer guy). He told me the standard 17" rim offset from the factory rim on a 350Z is 30mm front and 33mm rear. He said their specs say that a rear rim that is 18" should have a 38mm to 45mm offset.
Another interesting referenace is to read the Oct. 2002 issue of SPORTCOMPACTCAR magazine. They had a good article in which they took a standard 350Z and modified it with new tires/rims, suspension, brakes, and exhaust. Maybe on a later posting, i will describe in detail what all the results were on all of these modifications. Amazingly, for the most part, most of these very expensive-high end modifications did not improve the performance of the car. Since it does change the rims/tires, I will give you a somewhat detailed account of what they learned. Remember, they were using a factory loaned Z so they had it for only a week and then had to give it back to Nissan after having to change it back to stock. They felt if they had more time, the could have greatly improve the performance they got with lots of fine tuning.
The car they started out with had factory 17 rims with 225/50R and 235/50R on back with 30mm offset. They changed to 17x8 rims on front and 17x9 in rears with a 38mm offset. They said they purchased 5mm spacers to corrected the changed offset but ended up not needing them because the wheel wells are so big. The tires they used were 235/40R 17 and 255/40R-17 on rears. They said they they even tried the 255 rear tires on the front for the heck of it and it worked fine and they felt that any front rim with 255's on it would work with offsets between 32-38mm. They said they wished they would have used 275 or 285's on the rear. This article goes into a long description on 17 vs 18" rims and the pros and cons from a performance standpoint. You can read it to decide for yourself what is best. For me, i like the 18's just because of the look (so much for logic).
The performance of the new tires vs old is skewed because they also changed the suspension and lowered the car. Actually, braking and handling were compromised because they ran out of time and realized the camber was off several degrees thus reducing the stopping power even with much bigger brakes. I feel the performance of the handling was poorer than optimal as well since the tires were wearing on only half the tread (they realized this after doing burnouts by power braking the car and noticed the tire wear was extreamely uneven). Anyways, the news tires improved the laterial grip to .98g from the stock .88g even without proper refinement of the modifications!
You can contact the magazine for full details or to get a copy of the article. If you have a big problem getting ahold of the article and want it, e-mail me your address and I can copy it and mail it to you via US mail. Here is the info I have for that magazine:
e-mail: spcc@neodata
To subcribe: 1-800-767-7006
Single copy salesperson = Rich Baron
I hope this info helps everyone. Anyone that knows more about this, please feel free to correct me or add to the info I gave. At this point, i am thinking of getting 18 rims with 9 wide on rims on front and 10 wide on rims on rears. The tires will most likely be 235/40 or 245/40 on front and 275/35 or 285/35 on rears or close to those specs. Again, I welcome feedback! If someone knows more than me, it would great to know prior to me buying tires/rims myself.
Jeff
Ok, I will do my best to recall and interput my notes from September when I made a lot of calls researching rims. I will give you phone numbers too to verify my data so if you spend the money, you get it right the first time.
Fisrt of all, the track model's rims were made for nissan by Volk racing. Since i was thinking of buying those rims (at first but now changed my mind on that) after market (I am buying an enthusist model) I tried to contact a Volk rep. One of my calls was to Dazz motorsports (dazzmotorsport.com). Their phone number is (626) 962-0033. I believe I spoke to a guy named Ryan. Regardless of his name, he told me he designed rims for racing hart, and they were testing rims on the new 350Z. He told me he thought the best combination they had tested thus far was 18" rims with the front being 8.5" wide rim with a 245 40 series tire and a 275 35 series tire witha 10" wide rim. He recommended the racing hart "CR" rim. Again, remember he is partial to that company and it might not match your taste as it is not one of my favorite looking rims. I bet if you contact them, they can give you the specs on the offsets for those rims.
Ryan suggested the best vendor with real knowledge on getting the proper rims for a Z is Brett at wheelwarehouse in Anaheim Ca. The phone number is (714) 772-1281 ext. 5124. I contacted him several times and finally went up there to see him. Brett does know his stuff and their selection is great. I was surprised that Brett spent 1-2 hours with me looking at rims and told me that when i get my Z he would make sure that the tire and rim combo would work and if not, they would change it to make it work before I left the shop. Considering I did not have the car at the time, i thought his customer service was outstanding. These guys are enthusists themselves so they are a good resource in my opinion.
I spoke to a discount tire rep on their internet hotline (not the regular dealer guy). He told me the standard 17" rim offset from the factory rim on a 350Z is 30mm front and 33mm rear. He said their specs say that a rear rim that is 18" should have a 38mm to 45mm offset.
Another interesting referenace is to read the Oct. 2002 issue of SPORTCOMPACTCAR magazine. They had a good article in which they took a standard 350Z and modified it with new tires/rims, suspension, brakes, and exhaust. Maybe on a later posting, i will describe in detail what all the results were on all of these modifications. Amazingly, for the most part, most of these very expensive-high end modifications did not improve the performance of the car. Since it does change the rims/tires, I will give you a somewhat detailed account of what they learned. Remember, they were using a factory loaned Z so they had it for only a week and then had to give it back to Nissan after having to change it back to stock. They felt if they had more time, the could have greatly improve the performance they got with lots of fine tuning.
The car they started out with had factory 17 rims with 225/50R and 235/50R on back with 30mm offset. They changed to 17x8 rims on front and 17x9 in rears with a 38mm offset. They said they purchased 5mm spacers to corrected the changed offset but ended up not needing them because the wheel wells are so big. The tires they used were 235/40R 17 and 255/40R-17 on rears. They said they they even tried the 255 rear tires on the front for the heck of it and it worked fine and they felt that any front rim with 255's on it would work with offsets between 32-38mm. They said they wished they would have used 275 or 285's on the rear. This article goes into a long description on 17 vs 18" rims and the pros and cons from a performance standpoint. You can read it to decide for yourself what is best. For me, i like the 18's just because of the look (so much for logic).
The performance of the new tires vs old is skewed because they also changed the suspension and lowered the car. Actually, braking and handling were compromised because they ran out of time and realized the camber was off several degrees thus reducing the stopping power even with much bigger brakes. I feel the performance of the handling was poorer than optimal as well since the tires were wearing on only half the tread (they realized this after doing burnouts by power braking the car and noticed the tire wear was extreamely uneven). Anyways, the news tires improved the laterial grip to .98g from the stock .88g even without proper refinement of the modifications!
You can contact the magazine for full details or to get a copy of the article. If you have a big problem getting ahold of the article and want it, e-mail me your address and I can copy it and mail it to you via US mail. Here is the info I have for that magazine:
e-mail: spcc@neodata
To subcribe: 1-800-767-7006
Single copy salesperson = Rich Baron
I hope this info helps everyone. Anyone that knows more about this, please feel free to correct me or add to the info I gave. At this point, i am thinking of getting 18 rims with 9 wide on rims on front and 10 wide on rims on rears. The tires will most likely be 235/40 or 245/40 on front and 275/35 or 285/35 on rears or close to those specs. Again, I welcome feedback! If someone knows more than me, it would great to know prior to me buying tires/rims myself.
Jeff
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