Another rim size question

[revat619]

ok, here's the thing...I'm thinking about buying some new rims for my car and i know its been said that 18s will kill you on the performance side (rotational mass...blah, blah, blah...)Anyway, i think im gonna go with 17s, but im into the look of my car too, so are 17s gonna fill the fender gap with eibach pro kit springs? Also, what width and offsetts should i go with...i hear a bunch of combinations going around....17x8 front/17x9 rear....17x7.5 front/17x8.5 rear (also x7 front/x8 rear) and then 17x8 all around....and then there's offset which is pretty vague "somewhere between the high +20s and nothing above +40"....theres a heck of alot of offsets between those numbers. I dont know...somebody help please! Thanks.

p.s. i dont want tires with tiny sidewall either....sorry, i dont mean to be difficult <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

[camppain]

dunno bout s14's and prokits but this is my s13 prior to the 5 lug swap with 17's and prokits didnt fill shit

remember a bigger rim wont fill anything its still centered in the same spot if you get bigger tires however that will fill the gap

[orange-grey]

I think it's been decided that staggered setups are a waste of money without an SR. &nbsp;You also dont want to screw around with the front offset too much since it screws up the steering geometry, so I would try to keep it as close to 40 as possible, but no less than say 35. &nbsp;Since you're also limited to about a 7.5" wheel in front with stock-ish offset from what I hear, a set of 17X7.5's all around sounds good. &nbsp;And remember that tires with a big sidewall are going to be taller and will effectively screw up your gearing, making the car slower. &nbsp;215/45's won't quite fill the wheel wells but they will be the right height. &nbsp;225/45's will fill it a little bit better and won't make the car too much slower, so that is probably your best compromise.

[revat619]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (orange-grey @ Sep. 22 2002,02:44)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I think it's been decided that staggered setups are a waste of money without an SR. </td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
Well, I'm gonna turbocharge it eventually (im probably going KA-T instead of SR), just not right away...so should i still not stagger the wheels in the meantime?

i really dont want to have to buy wheels twice.... <img src="http://www.zilvia.net/f/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'>

[adey]

Seriously.

How certain are you that you'll turbocharge the car? Is this the same old rhetoric that we hear everyone and their mom talking about, or are you already taking steps towards it? (i.e. researching turbos and saving LOTS of money -- which it doesn't sound like since you're buying what seem to be a decent set of 17" wheels) ...
If you're not realistically going to turbocharge your KA within a span of, oh, 2 years, i wouldn't bother with the bigger rims out back. It just means that you'll be understeering (and feeling underpowered) for two years.

[drifterx]

with the prokit u will have alot of fender gap... try to go with a lower spring something that is like 1.8 and at most 2 inch drop.......
then u will have a nicely dropped car and some proformance
nice spring would be the Intrax, i have the sprint springs and i like the ride with my AGX shocks... they are stiff but not too stiff but i heard ppl say it isnt stiff enough......

try to go with the same rim size all around unless u plan on making the back tires wider... even with a wider tire u dont need to get wider rims unless u r going to make the tires really wide

nice tires would be 215(being conservative) or 225/40-45/17

[revat619]

i am gonna turbocharge it within the next two years, so is there a way to correct the understeer? I just dont see the point in buying something twice. I'd rather deal with less power for a while than spend more money and have to buy rims all over again when i go turbo. but if the understeer is really that big of a problem and theres no way to fix it, then i'll have to think of something else.

[xNotoriousGQx]

I got a 97 240sx KA with the eibach pro kits and 17x8 +35 all around with 235/45/ tires also all around. The pro kits fills up the gap pretty good. if you're going turbo you should go with 17x8 +38 front with 235/45/zr17 and 17x9 +35 rear with 245/40/zr17. Here's a pic of my car with 17's and eibach pro kits.
http://community.webshots.com/storage/1/v0/2/54/41/49425441wQHtRJ_ph.jpg

[orange-grey]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (revat619 @ Sep. 23 2002,8:38)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">i am gonna turbocharge it within the next two years, so is there a way to correct the understeer? I just dont see the point in buying something twice. I'd rather deal with less power for a while than spend more money and have to buy rims all over again when i go turbo. but if the understeer is really that big of a problem and theres no way to fix it, then i'll have to think of something else.</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
If you insist on getting staggered, just don't go massively huge on the rear so you have something like 215's in front and 265's in back. &nbsp;I know its tempting because there's so much room in back, but don't. &nbsp;You're still stuck with 17X7.5 in front, so a 17X8.5 sounds good for the rear. &nbsp;You can use the same 35-40 offset as the front, or if you want you can get less offset to push the wheels out more, but you'll have to do some math to do this right. &nbsp;You can use spacers to do this, but I don't like them, don't ask me why. &nbsp; Keep the tires within an inch width difference too, so if you get 215/45's in front get 235/40's in rear, or 225/45's in front and 245/40's in back. &nbsp; That should help keep it from plowing like a Caddy until you get your turbo.

[adey]

What do you plan to use your car for? will it be daily driven, or is it going to be a car that's only driven HARD (on the track or otherwise)? If it's going to be a daily driver I would recommend against staggering just because you're never going to be that "on" power for the tires to make a difference, as well as the extra cost of rims and tires. There are more negative effects than positive in terms of performance.

The thing w/ staggering is that most people do it for the look and without first considering the (considerable) down-side. If you've ever experienced severe understeer, you'll realize how scary it is and why it's so abhorred by most of the driving-enthusiast community.

Equally sized tires on all 4 corners will provide the most neutral- and arguably best- handling among your two options, and would have to be the way I recommend someone to go (provided their car has anything under ~250hp and don't intend to drag.)
On the other hand, if this is just going to be a drag machine, then go ahead and put as big tires as you can out back.

[tnord]

<----runs 16x7.5 +32 with prokits on a 98. steering is fine. fit is fine. fender gap is minimal. does decent on the track. does decent on the street. excellent all around setup for minimal $.