What terrasmak (and Trav earlier) said. ^^^

 

Hello everyone I hooethis is the right thread to post this. I bought my car with Varrstoen ES2s 19'' x 9.5 Fr and 19" x 10.5 Rr already equipped. I recently bent a rim and will be looking to paint all four wheels and possibly get some new tires. I calculated that the offset of my rims to be 20mm in the front but I feel these are more aggressive and might be more like 12mm offset. Not sure if my measurements were done properly but I measured width of rim to be 26mm and 15mm from back of rim to mounting face. I'm looking to run 255/35 in the front and 285/35 in the rear. The rear has more room and fenders are rolled so not too worried. Do you guys think 255 PS4S in the front are pushing it on this setup? (currently running 245/35)

Front wheel

Front wheel

Front wheel

Rear wheel

 

255 and 285 will be fine at what appears to be stock height and rolled rears.

To double check your offsets:
https://my350z.com/forum/wheels-and-tires/606968-back-to-basics-wheel-offset-pictorial-explanation-for-offset-novices.html

 

Thank you for the link! It’s essentially the same way I got my calculations. Is this how 20mm wheels sit up front on the Z?

 

Looks great in the photos tho

 

Thanks man! And can anyone give any feedback on this setup? Thank you

 

Well, it's about the tires at this point. What brand/type? I mean, if you're running a set of Michelins or Contis (or other big name, established performers), fine setup.

The typical upgraded tire sizes are:

18"
F: 245/40-18 or 255/40-18
R: 275/40-18 or 285/40-18

Optionally, square is used and leads to a little more oversteer (increased traction front allows more slip at the rear for a very simplified description)

19"
F: 245/35-19 or 255/35-19
R: 275/35-19 or 285/35-19

This is an example of 255 & 285/35-19 combination on 19x9.5/10.5 +22 all around.







So, my take. For how I drove my car - street/highway/hill roads - there was no discernible difference in performance between the "smaller" 245/275 and the 255/285 combinations. The tire pyrometer spelled out what I suspected. On the same loop, roughly same environmental conditions (temp/time of day) the 255/285 combination the tire temps were consistently 5°-7° lower. Possibly the make of tire, possibly the size. Either way, it's a well known fact that a larger tire will take more time (read: driving) to heat to optimum operating temp. So, after that grand experiment, I just stuck with the 245/275 combination on all my other wheels with zero downside. There really wasn't any reason to spend the extra $$ for my type of driving. Obviously, YMMV.

The biggest improvement in handling comes from unsprung weight reduction. That means to get real, "feelable"(or empirical data with lower lap times on track), you seek out lighter, stiffer wheels. Stock wheels average out at about 24-25lbs/corner. Install a set of Enkei RPF1s (combined with a good, lighter tire) just to use them as an example, and that 6-7lb reduction (about 10# net reduction with tires) will do wonders for handling and response, my big deal. Sure, the bigger tires are heavier than stock but the net reduction by using lighter, stiffer wheels and shopping good tires by weight, you can still come out weighing less than stock with the benefits of response, grip as an added bonus.

 

Thank you for the response! The reason I want to go with 255/285 vs my current setup is I like the look of a meaty setup. 245 on the front looks a bit stretched and gets lost in the wheel well. Minimizing curb rash is another plus. I will be going with Michelin PS4S tires but unsure how to confirm if they would indeed rub or not. I don’t want to order new tires only to have them not fit properly on my Z without additional modifications.

 

The front 255s in my post above never rubbed at -19mm drop with 9.5 +22 wheels.

 

Hey man thank you for your response! Your fitment is super tight! I'm not dropped nearly as much but I will say that after double checking today, the actual width of my front rims are 10.2" from lip to lip. I have gone through your post you posted on wheel offsets and have followed that guideline. So I can confirm that my offset in the front is indeed 20mm, now given that I am not as lowered BUT because my wheel width is wider than I thought, will this in any way affect whether or not this setup will indeed rub? Hard to tell if your rims are still "inside" your fenders but if you look at original post, the lip of the rim is completely flush with the surface of my front fender. You can see that I have plenty of room in my fender well but my main concern is going of humps or bumps on the road which could lead to rubbing. If not an issue, I will be going with the 255s!

 

Probably best if someone else answered this one. I've never run anything larger than 10s up front. I did run them with 255s with zero issues but they had +25 offsets so can't say definitively.

 

Can rims run larger than advertised similar to tires? I don’t know that Varrstoen advertised 10” or 11” wheels.