I am going for the same size rims all around my Z (for the better turning/handling) and LOVE the nismo LMGT4s they are beauties, anuway, could i use the rears on all four corners of my beloved Stillen charged Z?

 

i have been thinking of this also. i already have the lmgt4s, but may consider picking up an extra set of rears to use up front. lemme know how it goes.....the rears SHOULD fit up front too

 

I think the offset might look funny.

 

post some pics as soon as you've got them on... can't wait to see the results

 

as sport compact car put it when they tried that :"it looks like some kind of an autocross freak show". which is not really a bad thing.

 

sport compact car's 1.0g setup:

wheels:
Fronts-BBS RG755-18x9, 42mm offset, 12mm spacer
Rears-BBS RG679- 18x9.5, 25mm offset

tires:
Fronts and Rears-BF Goodrich Gforce KD, 275/40/18

tire pressure:
Fronts and Rears-34psi cold

anti roll bar:
Front-Hotchkis 35mm (middle setting)
Rear-Hotchkis 24mm (middle setting)

differential:
KAAZ adjusted to 30-percent locking with KAAZfluid and RedLine differential additive

link ->http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr.../0404scc_350z/

quote from the article:
"We found, conveniently, that the rear tires Nismo uses on the Z--275/40ZR-18 BFGoodrich g-Force KDs mounted on 18x9.5-inch wheels with a 30mm offset--actually fit the front perfectly."

 

How will an extra 5mm of offset effect things? how will vdc react to the same diameter fronts and rears?

 

i was wondering if it would look a little teetrarded, would the fronts stick out more??? Does anyone have a suggestion for wheels with good looking offsets and about equal size for front and rear
???

 

with rears up front, the tire will stick out more then an inch further then with a 245 front tire. from what i understand nismo fronts are pretty much flush with the fenders, so i think it will stick out quite a bit. i would love to do that though.

 

VDC won't like it. It will have a tendency to activate much easier during cornering. So, when running the same diameter front and rear, you'd want to disable traction control if you plan to drive the car hard.

 

Nismo rear rims are 9.5" with a 30mm offset. The fronts are 8.5" with a 25mm offset. So, the Nismo rear is 25.4mm wider than the front. Given the same offset on both rims, this would make the 9.5" rim stick out 12.7mm wider on each side than the 8.5" rim. However, the 9.5" rim has a 5mm greater offset, which means it is pulled in 5mm into the wheel well. The end result is that the 9.5" rim, when mounted up front, would only stick out 7.7mm more than the 8.5" rim would on the outside where you see it, and would stick out 17.7mm more on the inside where you don't see it.

Of course, a 275 tire bows outward a little on a 9.5" rim. (Just look at a 275 mounted a Nismo 9.5" rim... see how it bows out?) So even though the 9.5" rim only sticks out 7.7mm more, the tire would stick out a bit further. How much would depend on which tire you use. (They're all slightly different in width, despite the fact that they all have the same "rated" width.)

So yeah, it'd probably work, but you'd have two main problems that I can see:

1) Tire rubbing on the suspension upright. (As seen in a photo on SCC's webpage, linked to up above.) That would be a very tight fit. You'd want to very closely inspect it before you went and drove around too much. A millimeter or two of spacer would solve this problem, but would make item #2 worse...

2) Tire rubbing on the fender when the suspension is compressed. I'd guess you'd definitely have to at least roll the front fenders, and that might not alleviate the problem altogether.

In the end, I think it would be a killer setup, but a sort of a pain to make it work. I *love* the look of the Nismo 9.5" rim, and think it would look fantastic up front, too. Just gotta squeeze it in there somehow. A slightly wider front fender body kit would solve the problem easily. All you'd need is a few more millimeters of width in the front fender.

 

Cool, this I shall commence to do!

 

You don't roll the front fender, they are already rolled. I don't think this is such a great idea.

I guess I mean, Nissan with the help of Rays, engineers a set of wheels that is specifically designed for the "Z" and the "G", and you think you can make it better? I guess I don't understand.

IMHO, the Nismos look great. The offsets are perfect, the designed in tire sizes fit and look perfect, and the increase in handling prowess over the stock sizes is well documented. In short

Lou

 

Why put same-width tires on the front and back of the Z? Here's a pretty good article:
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr.../0404scc_350z/

Also, in my personal experience, I find that my Z understeers *worse* now that I've gone to Nismo's "recommended" tire sizes. My stock Z came with 225 fronts and 245 rears. This handled reasonably well, but still understeered quite a bit and lacked grip due to the lousy stock tires. So, I went out and put the money down on Nismo rims and higher performance 245/275 tires. What do I get now? A higher cornering limit? Yes. But even worse understeer at that limit? Yes.

I'm guessing it's because the stock tires had a 20mm width difference, and these new tires have a 30mm width difference. Seems to me that would explain the greater understeer. So, on my next set of tires I'll step up to a 255/275 combo to get back to that 20mm difference. That should help a bit. (I'd do the 275/275 combo, but I don't want to deal with new rims and such.)

As far as looks, that's subjective and each person will differ. I do really like the Nismo rims (which is why I bought them!), but I *really* like the aggressive concave spoke layout of the rear 9.5" rims. The front rims have virtually vertical spokes, and while they don't look bad at all, they don't look as aggressive. I think the 9.5" wide Nismo rims on all 4 corners would look fantastic. (Not to mention the benefit of equal tire widths all the way around.)

 

255 upfront will make the tire 1/4 inch taller. this will screw up the VDC. it will kick in a lot more.

 

Do what????????

 

it will see slip when there isn't any. or there is less slip then it thinks there is. the vdc will over react.
a bigger rear sway bar is the way to go to get rid of that understeer.

 

255/40/18 has about the same 26" diameter as the stock 225/45/18 front tire size. Also, 275/40/18 is about the same diameter as the stock 245/45/18 rear tire size. Seems like that would most definitely not make VDC complain more often.

245/40/18 (which is what most people use in the front for some reason) is actually about .3" shorter than the stock 225/45/18. So, by using the 245/275 combo, your diameter difference is actually greater than the stock difference. By using a 255/275 combo, your diameter difference is the same as stock.

 

Not according to the SCC staff in the article I linked to up above:

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr.../0404scc_350z/

They seem to suggest that, while a stiffer rear sway bar can help with understeer, it doesn't necessarily help with snap oversteer situations at the limit. I imagine that for most people this wouldn't be a problem since most people won't ever push their Z to the limits of its handling abilities. But if you track the car or like to otherwise push to the limits, the tire width difference can be a problem.