Blue Dream

issit possible?
just a weird idea that popped in my head. Would be cool if it will fit without problems.
i'm a noob, wheel guru's please enlighten me

ttsupra94

iTrader: (1)

i'd do 8.5 up front instead of 9.5, so there is a stagger but thats just me. I'm also thinking about doing a different size front and rear, 20x10 in the rear and 19x8 up front but i'm not sure if that is ok.

Blue Dream

I already have the 18 inch lmgt4's. I was just wondering if i could just put the rears in front and get the 19 inch rears and put em in the rear. not a good idea huh?

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

The 18x9.5x30mm Nismo rim will just bolt on in the front, but you might have rubbing issues inside on some of the suspension parts. To prevent the rubbing, you'll probably have to get a small spacer in there to push the wheel out a bit. (Maybe 5mm?) Probably wouldn't take a very big spacer to make it work, but once you push the wheels out a bit you'll probably rub on your fenders unless you roll them.

As far as running the same width front and back, SCC magazine actually found that this gave their Z much more neutral handling. They did 275 width tires all the way around and said it was fantastic. To make the fronts work without rubbing on the suspension, though, they had to keep messing with offsets of the front rims. They ended up finding a BBS 9" wide rim that worked perfectly, but I don't recall what offset it was.

I personally think running the 18x9.5 Nismo rim in front *and* back would look awesome and super aggressive. It's just a pain to deal with spacers and rubbing issues. I'm sure it could be done, but I'm too lazy. If you just want to play around, jack up your car and put one of the rear Nismo rims up front. While the car is in the air, turn the wheel and see if it rubs. Get in there and look at things and see how close things are.

Blue Dream

Great response, thanx for answering my question

spankyG35

Blue Dream,

Funny, that exact idea popped into my head the other day while searching for new PS2 tires for coupe. Seems one way to get more choice of tire, a wider lower profile and still keep the correct stagger is to have a 1" diam. larger wheel in the rear. Not sure how that would look, but the tire sizes work much better. Check my link from yesterday where I posted the same question. Anyone running that kind of setup?

18" Front, 19" Rear

Strife350z

iTrader: (4)

IMO, both of these are great ideas:

1. Running 18x9.5 and 19x9.5
2. Running 18x8.5 front and 19x9.5 rear

1st idea is ideal since it'll help dial out the understeer, and I think the setup would look hot

As for the 2nd idea, I'm currently running 19x8.5s in the front with a 245/35/19 tire and there's just too little sidewall for me... running 18x8.5 in the front would be great because you can run a 245/40/18 (which means you'll have equal sidewall front and rear) and you'll have a lot more sidewall to work with

and i don't think it'll look strange one bit

it's weird... most people are drawn to your rear wheels far more than your fronts anyway when you're running a staggered setup... the lip/offsets just set it off... so i seriously doubt anyone will even notice that you're running a smaller diameter in the front at first glance

without question, next time i buy rims for my Z i'll go with 18s in the front and 19s in the back... unless of course i move to a city that has prestine roads (not many out there)

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

I actually like a slightly fatter sidewall then is popular now days. I love the sidewalls on my 275/40/18 rear tires. It's low profile, but still fat enough to look mean and soak up some bumps. I'm really not into that super thin sidewall look that many people are into. My 245/40/18 front tire sidewalls are just a bit too thin for my tastes. On my next set of tires, I'm going to go up to a 255/40/18 in the front. This has multiple benefits over 245/40:

• Larger sidewall. (Looks meaner and soaks up more bumps.)
• More width. (Helps with the Z's understeer problem and maintains the stock 20mm difference between front and rear.)
• Larger diameter which actually matches the stock 225/45/18 diameter. A 245/40/18 (which everybody uses) is about .3 inches less in diameter than stock.

spankyG35

Yeah, I'm thinking this setup would work really well, since we can't rotate the wheels anyway. may as well use the 18" wheel up front, smaller diam. with some sidewall. and in the back with the 19" you can buy tires that fit and maintain the stagger in the overall diam. Win-Win.

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

To my knowledge, maintain a smaller diameter in the front is not necessary unless you want traction control to function perfectly. You can do equal sized diameters front and back, but tcs would complain more easily. This could be remedied by just turning it off.

Strife350z

iTrader: (4)

by maintaining same diameters front and back, i mean that you can retain the stock stagger and still have the same sidewall

the sidewall on a 245/40/18 is the same as a 275/35/19

but the overall diameter is similar to the stock front and backs

spankyG35

Yes, agreed. I like the option of having traction control when needed, having VDC on sometimes is very helpful. However, I always turn it off and keep it off on the track, except maybe if it was raining. Any other advantage to having this stagger, suspension, or just looks better on these cars? Just wondering why they chose to set it up this way?

jreiter

iTrader: (6)

I imagine it was just part of Nissan's overall choice to make the Z handle the way they wanted. Nissan's choice of handling was of course understeer, as it is with just about every other car company. (Because understeer is safer for inexperienced drivers.) Other than confusing the traction control system, running the same diameter on all 4 corners should be fine.

As far as neutral handling is concerned, every thing I've read states that achieving perfect balance is much, much easier once you've made the tires the same width all the way around. My limited personal experience definitely coorborates this. I know there are many people here on the forums who've done it and they are very happy with it on the track. (I believe they often use 255's at the track.)