[Marcus]

What do you guys think about 18x8.5 +38 with stock sized tires? Will they fit without any modification on a mild drop suspension?

[sponaugle]

Originally Posted by Marcus

What do you guys think about 18x8.5 +38 with stock sized tires? Will they fit without any modification on a mild drop suspension?

That would be a non optimal fit... at least with that offset. you are talking about pushing the tires out 17mm, with no gain in tire width. If you then decided to go with a wider tire, you would have to roll even more.

More offset is the key.

Jeff

[PortlandSTI]

Anyone know of rally rim set for the '08 that will fit with the Brembo's? It seems anything smaller would hit the break caliper. But I want a slightly smaller wheel and taller tire for offroad, eventually.

[Gearz]

Make: TW Motorsports
Mode: MT1
Size: 18x9.5 +45 5x114.3
Tire: Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec 245/40-18
Notes: No rubbing anywhere

I ordered these wheels and tires from the TireRack. I was concerned about them clearing the brake calipers and was surprised when they sent me this screen shot of a CAD file they had of the clearance envelope for the '08 STI chassis. The green lines are the fender, liner and brake caliper envelope (including where the fender edge ends up under full compression and turn). The red curves are for the rear. The purple curves are the stock BBS wheel and tire profile. The black curves are the profile for the 18x9.5 TW Motorsport wheel, and the cyan curves represent the OZ Ultraleggera (18x9 ET55) that I was considering as well.


I'm setting this car up for the STU class which has a 245 tire width limit. Stretching the tires out with the wider wheels helps the response quite a bit. Looking and waiting for a good set of coilovers and swaybars to become available.

[Marcus]

That looks gorgeous! Those Direzzas look pretty wide for only a 245, I'm considering the same tire but was probably going with 265/35R18, but from those pictures it doesn't look like the fender will fit much more.

Let me know how you like those tires once you start autocrossing them

[SlackerNJ]

How much do the stock BBS weigh? Having the stocker specs int he first post would be cool to compare everything else to.

[frcefed]

Would a 19 x 8.5 with a 45 offset work?
Or 18 x 9.5 with a 30 offset?

Thanks

[freeman]

You can probably put 275 tires on these 9.5 TR Motorsports wheels later with a little or no fender rolling . I would like to have the same rims in black though.

[mofoSTI]

How much do these weigh?

[Gearz]

The TR Motorsports MT1's weigh 19 lbs.

Ran the Dunlops at our first Divisional last weekend. They worked well. The car obviously needs stiffer suspension. Everyone told me it looked painful watching it pitch and roll so much when every other car in the class was stable. So I'm hoping to have it on coilovers and swaybars before the next Div. My datalogger showed sustained lateral g's of over 1.0 on the sweepers.

A couple of pics from the event:

[tro8]

i have the same wheels going on my car on tuesday... i will post up when i have some pics to show off

[neptunian588]

Hey i have a couple questions and if anyone could help it would be awesome. Spaceman just recently fit Advan RS 18x9 +29 so i know they do fit the 08 ok. My question is do you guys think they'd be ok for autox? How does the low offset affect the car? Would it be better to go with a higher offset? Thanks for your help.

[Gearz]

Originally Posted by neptunian588

Hey i have a couple questions and if anyone could help it would be awesome. Spaceman just recently fit Advan RS 18x9 +29 so i know they do fit the 08 ok. My question is do you guys think they'd be ok for autox? How does the low offset affect the car? Would it be better to go with a higher offset? Thanks for your help.

I think the Advans look incredible, but I also think they'll rub in front once the car is lowered a bit and anything wider than 245's are on it. Since STU rules limit the tires to 245 that may not be an issue. And, I could be wrong, we'll know for sure once Spaceman lowers his car. Here's a link to his awesome ride.

The trade off for wider car in autox is it can be slower through slaloms or "Chicago box" like maneuvers (basically a 3-cone tight slalom). The interesting thing is, the REAR track width is the determining factor since the front always has a larger turn radius than the rear. Also it doesn't take much to make a difference, but we're only talking about an inch or so per side with those wheels. I'm already hitting cones with the rear tires on high-speed slaloms but that's partly because I'm used to running a CSP CRX for many years. On the other hand, a wider track width will reduce weight transfer so in theory your steady state cornering speed should go up. I've found that autox courses are nearly always more transitional than steady state turns.

Another wheel that looks kinda like the RS's is the OZ Ultraleggara but I don't think they look as good. I've always liked those RS's on just about any car.

[neptunian588]

nice, thanks for the info. I'm thinking bout just sticking with the stock 245s on the RS to begin with until they wear out. From reading what you said, i sorta get what your saying. I'd be sacrificing some slalom speed but gaining steady state speed?

[HRCboy]

I'm torn between these two wheels as well. The Ultraleggera and TRMotorsports. I'm just looking for a resonably priced light weight wheel for the track.

I want to run 265-285s, but judging from your pics it might be a issue with the TRM wheels. I like the 9.5 width of the TRM but like the +55 offset of the Ultraleggeras...... WHAT TO DO?

Originally Posted by Gearz

Make: TW Motorsports
Mode: MT1
Size: 18x9.5 +45 5x114.3
Tire: Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec 245/40-18
Notes: No rubbing anywhere

I ordered these wheels and tires from the TireRack. I was concerned about them clearing the brake calipers and was surprised when they sent me this screen shot of a CAD file they had of the clearance envelope for the '08 STI chassis. The green lines are the fender, liner and brake caliper envelope (including where the fender edge ends up under full compression and turn). The red curves are for the rear. The purple curves are the stock BBS wheel and tire profile. The black curves are the profile for the 18x9.5 TW Motorsport wheel, and the cyan curves represent the OZ Ultraleggera (18x9 ET55) that I was considering as well.