This message was originally intended for Dave Coleman at scc, but he's not accepting email:

Dear Dave,

I have read your article on "Balance" for the 350z, and in my effort to run some larger tires up front to decrease understeer, i am considering the following setup:

1. gold volk gtn (heavy, but i love the style)
2. 18x9" all four wheels
3. 255/40/18 front, 275/40/18 rear---puts front/rear stagger at .61", which is closer to stock stagger, .7", than the 245/275 which everyone else is running but which increases stagger to .94".

When i presented this idea to Bryan at 350zonline and Tony at performance Nissan, they both advised against using same size wheel all around, saying i should run 10"width in back. Tony said it would look "funny", but i'm not as concerned about looks as i am handling. Bryan said the offset for 18x9x4 would be 22 front, 17 rear.

Please, what are your thoughts about my idea? Should i use the 10" wheels in
back? In your article, you had a width difference of only 0.5" front to
back. Any and all feedback you could give me would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Matt in San Diego

 

Tire size is more important than wheel width. The width will slightly effect the contact patch of the tire. I find it strange that everyone is basing the fact that the stagerd setup doesn't work on one article in one magazine on one car. There are tons of factors that go into how a car will handle. More important is choices of sway bars, ride height, and shock settings.

 

Actually, in that article, they said everyone else is packing the back with as big a tire as possible and that doing that is causing more understeer. They went the other way by making the fronts as wide as possible, running 275/40/18 all around, with 19x9 in front and 18x9.5 in back.

 

I know what the article says, I read it, and I have the mag at home. They think the staggerd setup is a mistake just like I said. That is why they put the same size tires on all four with a small .5" change in wheel width that will barely affect the contact patch of the tire between the front and back. That setup isn't going to work on every car, but whoever was driving that car felt it was best.

 

yeah, i've decided to go 18x9 front, 18x10 rear.

 

Well they did pull 1g+ on the skidpad with that setup, Hotchkis sways and an LSD...Thats pretty damn good...