Originally Posted by davidv

Cool but I want to see the car in six inches of snow.

Originally Posted by Spike100

Very good point!… as you mention, it’s best to position your winter wheel/tire setup way inside the wheel-well. That prevents “sandblasting” the side of your car and its paint when driving on winter-maintained streets on which the DOT drops sand for better grip.

Here is my winter wheel/tire setup (more picture “whoring”). “It ain’t prudy,” but works just great




It’s all-square (Dunlop snow tires, 225/55-17” all around) allowing rotating the tires. The all-square setup works with my Performance model 350 z (which is VDC-equipped).

--Spike
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Originally Posted by SteveZ

I can see why my ASA's have such a deep lug hole now, it takes a very thin and long socket much like my NISMO Ray's to get to the lug nuts. No spacers used at all, the offset is a little less than OEM 18's. Once on, they're tucked n nicely. The lug nuts are shorter than stock and still have plenty of thread engaged, but a standard socket won't even fit in the lug hole, no way. Engaging minimal threads on a Nissan OEM lug stud is not something you want to do, they are notorious for breaking on Nissans for 20 years if you try to run them too short.

I can't strongly recommend the ASA's (JH3?) other than being cheap and reasonably strong, based on their excessive weight (26 lbs in 18") but they nailed the offset, they tuck in to avoid blasting the finish (other than up front, when wheels turn, about all you can do it get some sort of guard). At least they fit well, but knowing you could run a 17-18 lb 17" or 18"wheel, I'm likely to sell them this year.

It's a painted cast wheel with clear coat, cheap, and you can see they've taken some abuse, but for snows they're not bad other than the -10 whp feeling when you swap them.

I just wish they had the 17's that cleared the Brembos 3 years ago, that was my biggest constraint in using a 17" wheel. Running 18's is less effective and it sucks for the price of the tires, my rears are done after 3 Winters and are over $300 a pop for Pirellis. Fronts are holding up well, but I'm looking at another $700 for tires and mounting this Winter.

It's either that, or the car sits all Winter in CT, because with my Summer tires, even a thick dusting of snow, or any freezing rain, the car cannot get out of the parking lot. I once got my Z stuck in my driveway with the RE040's because the dew froze in the AM, plus those tires are a nightmare cold for traction even w/o snow or ice.

It's just hard because this year I've been running 21 lb 19" LMGT4's with 245/35/19F, 275/35/19R, it's very hard to give up that kind of traction and wheels lighter than the stock 18 G Coupe had in '04. If $$$ were no object, I'd get a set of the same wheels in 18's for Winter use, they just rock.

Originally Posted by sry110

Your setup actually doesn't look too bad. Mind sharing wheel widths and offsets? Also I like the tire sizes you are using. From an aesthetic standpoint it fills out the front and rear wheel wells very nicely. More meat on the tires probably makes for better snow handling too.

Originally Posted by Spike100

Very good point!… as you mention, it’s best to position your winter wheel/tire setup way inside the wheel-well. That prevents “sandblasting” the side of your car and its paint when driving on winter-maintained streets on which the DOT drops sand for better grip.

Here is my winter wheel/tire setup (more picture “whoring”). “It ain’t prudy,” but works just great




It’s all-square (Dunlop snow tires, 225/55-17” all around) allowing rotating the tires. The all-square setup works with my Performance model 350 z (which is VDC-equipped).

--Spike
==========================================