looking at doing some drift events in the near future, so i'm looking at how to make it cheaper to use the Z. my idea was to run 17s, since that would make tires cheaper.

my question is: can i use something narrower all around, like 7.5 wheels, on a stock Z? this would be for drift only, so normal street handling is not a concern. what tire size goes on a 7.5 wide, and how would i find out what offsets to be using with that, or any other size wheels / tires?

 

The 17" stock wheels that came with the early model years would certainly work fine. The wheels were either 17" x 7½" +30 or 17" x 8" +33. The stock tires were 225/50/17 and 235/50/17. You can probably go with something a little wider and shorter.

 

sorry, to clarify, i mean narrower. i'm thinking to decrease my contact patch...my current thinking is to run 225s all around.

 

True, you did say narrower. Then you can definitely use the 225/50/17" all around. You won't have stagger but you won't be running with VDC/TCS anyway.

 

awesome. so how do i find out for sure what offset will work? and what kind of difference am i looking at if i go with a 45 series sidewall, would that be alright?


if i'm asking too many n00b questions and there's a place that i can find this stuff, feel free to let me know. otherwise, thanks for the help

 

anyone?

 

Obviously, you can go with the stock offsets of 30 to 33mm. I don't know what the offset limits are for 17" wheels, some of that depends on the wheels themselves. Once you have picked some out, you can search here to see if anybody else is using that model/size/offset to confirm fitment. Some sellers can probably tell you whether they'd fit or not.

Because of the narrow wheels, you can probably go pretty low on offsets which push the wheel out further from the hub. We regularly run 8, 9, 10 and 10½" wheels are various offsets without any rubbing issues so with 7 to 7½" wheels you'll have room to spare.

 

Sure. You can put 17 inch wheels on a 350Z. 16 or 15 inch wheels if you want. 7, 8 or 9 inches wide. It will all fit.

 

if you are just starting out go to ebay and buy someones stock 17's- i run the stock ones 17 235 50 yeah lower profile will help or you can use about 10 more psi in the tires, becareful you will notice the difference so pratice first. If you are not a beginner or better than i am pay the extra doe for back tires you do not need to do fronts as long as you have good tread. just my
.02 hope it helps