Sticky Thread for wheel and tire combos

oh boy i'll go first.

front 17x8 w/ 4.5" bs 255/40/17's
rear 17x10.5" w/5.75" bs 315/35/17's

sumitumo htz tires and cragar soft 8 wheels. 625.00 out the door.

rears>i had to cut the rear lips on the fenders(i coulda rolled) fit is good now EDIT **i have sense updated my rear to whats current above. i started with a 17x9 wheel and had it widened in the rear part of the wheel by 1.5" giving me a total of 10.5" wheel with 6.5" backspace. i run spacers to get the wheel where i need it. .75" on the left of the car and .5" on the right. the 315's tuck nicely in and i have no rub issues. i did heat and beat the seat belt humps in.



fronts> i have minimal rub on the sway bar. only occurs during lock to lock. no fix tried.

 

okay here's mine :

old school day2 look

FRONT 15x4 us-indy mag wheels with 165-15 tires


REAR 15x10 western mag wheels 3-1/8th BS mounted on mickey thompson indy profile s/s tires


with the rear tire/wheel combo and the 3-1/8th BS they fit in the wheel wells vey nice with about 2" sticking out past the fenders

 

Here's mine:

Front suspension: Hotchkis 1908F coils -¼-3/8 coil (can't remember exactly)
Rear suspension: Landrum 225lb 5-leaf, 1½" drop -1" lowering blocks

Front wheel/tire: not very interesting - 15X8 w/4" BS 215/60R15
Rear wheel/tire: 15X8 w/4" BS 295/50R15

I had to roll the fender lips in the rear but could have also solved it by going with ½" or so more BS on the rear wheels. I was a teenager when I bought the wheels/tires and didn't know what I was doing.

 

16x8 w/ 4.5" BS 245/50R16 front and rear.

Car is on stock springs, no rubbing.

 

16X8 w/5" backspace Ultra wheels (similar to Firebird GTA's or Epsilon wheels) all around here. Super grippy Sumitomo HTR-Z tires. Rears are 255-50-16's. Tried the 255's on the fronts, looked like there was no way to run a low spring height and not have rubbing, so I convinced myself to go the safe route and get 225-50-16's for the front.
I've posted this many many times... I think on the fronts, the best thing to do is to get a 7" wide wheel max, with maybe a 4.5" backspace. People run 4.5" bs even on an 8" rim, but if your ride height is real low, you will rub your tire on the outer upper portion of the inner fenderwell. My worn out factory springs let me test this by compressing them enough to make the tire contact the fenderwell. I would say 7" wide w/ 5" b.s. for extra fenderwell clearance, except that you will then have interference with the sway bar a slight bit at full steering lock.

It is worth it to me to chop up the fenderwells and re-weld them with maximum clearance in the top outer edge to be able to run a 245 and lower springs (Moog 5606 or 5610).

Those tires are GREAT for traction, best bang for the buck there is in a 16". They don't wear like a T/A Radial or a standard all season radial, but they grip like glue! My next choice were the Firestone Wide Ovals.

By the way, a 16X8 255/50/16 in the rear definitely sits inward a hair with 5" backspacing, and would do a lot better with around 4.5" backspacing. I will most likely upgrade to longer 1/2" studs and use a 1/2" wheel spacer in the back. Fronts on our cars always require a little more backspacing than rears. I would say a 10" in the rear is do-able with maybe 5.5" backspacing.

Refer to PHR's Project g/28 article when thinking of running more than 5.25" backspace! Tubular a-arms with extra clearance could be a lifesaver, err, rimsaver in this case.

 

Like Chuck above, I have 16x8 with 5" BS on the front and rear. Running 245/50/16 on the rear with no clearance issues whatsoever (and I would concur that Chuck's 255's would clear with now issues on our car). We have Eibach lowering springs on the front with a 2" drop. Mounted 245/50/16's on the front and decided against it (really tight clearances) and went with a 225/50/16 on the front.

At our Camaro link below, you will find some closeups of the tire clearances.

 

The rears with 16X8 and 5" b.s. sit maybe 3/8" to 1/2" inboard of the center of the tire opening (center being the middle point between inner and outer clearance issue points). 4.5" bs on an 8" rear would be perfect, and around 4.5" on a 7" front (or a little more b.s.) would be great up there.

Looking at my car with 255's on the rear, which are close to centered with 5" b.s., I would imagine you could easily run a 275 on the rear no problems if it were around a 26" tire diameter. Heck, my 255 section width is 10.2" wide, a 275 in a 17" HTR-Z is 10.9" wide, you could easily run a 295 at that rate. A 315 in the 17" HTR-Z is 12.6" wide, that would be really close, I would not recommend that without some serious research!