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A 1994 corvette c4 coupe has standard 8.5 inch front and 9.5 inch wheels on the back side.
How many inches can a c4 have without the wheels sticking out of the car?
Last edited by bethundered; 07-23-2017 at 05:07 PM.
i have 18x10.5 (with a factory 56mm offset) on my 95 and they are smack dab right at the edge...they do stick out on the sides as the quarters roll back under (if i had better paint i would probably buy those cute little EXPENSIVE mud flaps).
and a pretty horrible video (that i def need to re-do)
I have 11s in the back and without changing anything they will technically stick out slightly. I remember doing the math and cambering the rear in about a half a degree with fit them in. It's only noticeable to me if you put something against the fender to measure so I left it as is.
Thanks guys, I think I put 9 inch on the front and 10s on the rear of the car to be save.
Regardless of 'width' you need to purchase correct 'offsets' you miight be wise to solicit more help from maybe your wheel source and then confirm here.
I'd maybe suggest that your choice for a 'driver' be a choice of something X 4 so you could potentially accomplish at least a front to rear rotate.
Regardless of 'width' you need to purchase correct 'offsets' you miight be wise to solicit more help from maybe your wheel source and then confirm here.
I'd maybe suggest that your choice for a 'driver' be a choice of something X 4 so you could potentially accomplish at least a front to rear rotate.
Thanks for the suggestion, that is exactly what I am going to do.
Regardless of 'width' you need to purchase correct 'offsets' you miight be wise to solicit more help from maybe your wheel source and then confirm here.
I'd maybe suggest that your choice for a 'driver' be a choice of something X 4 so you could potentially accomplish at least a front to rear rotate.
I spent a year researching and it does in fact take a plan....i chose the tires that i did so i could at the very least swap left to right (and that requires a non-directional tire...which Nitto's arent so i got Continentals) and it was important to me to keep the correct factory 56mm offset. i didnt want to go the 11" route that a lot take because well...its illegal unless i add wheel flares and I'm not into the redneck look. my 10.5" rears are the MAX i would go on mine...they are dead even with the crown of the quarters. I also got a Replica Corvette wheel so i kept it in the family (C5 is close enough right? haha)
not that you cant do all 4 corners, but you are probably going to end up with 9.5's all the way around and if I'm not mistaken thats not what your goal is...it's to go as wide as you can?? and as noted above, WVZR is making some solid points and i suppose some people actually do go 10.5 on the front but i think you run into issues, especially if you plan to lower your car...i am very much for the x4 approach and the ability to rotate (which could as much as double the life of the tire) but if the goal is to go "wide" then i dont think you will achieve that going x4.
i chose wider over x4 and can rotate left -to-right the only thing i needed to take into consideration after that was tire size (to keep the stance and the speedo the same). fyi your tires with a "factory" 8.5 front will be 25.94 OD all the way around the car, even though you have different rubber up front (Factory Good Years were 255/45 front and 285/40 rear with all 4 having a 25.94 outside diameter).
That was one of the sites I used when I was planning on upgrading tires and rims on my 86. Mine has a different offset, but once I had a possible size, I ran it through this site to confirm my choice. Then I went and talked to vendors to confirm all should fit as planned before laying down my $$. I also got the rims before the tires. If there's a problem, seems foolish to have tires but no rims to mount them to. in fact I had to go to multiple places before I found on that could actually get the rims I wanted.
That was one of the sites I used when I was planning on upgrading tires and rims on my 86. Mine has a different offset, but once I had a possible size, I ran it through this site to confirm my choice. Then I went and talked to vendors to confirm all should fit as planned before laying down my $$. I also got the rims before the tires. If there's a problem, seems foolish to have tires but no rims to mount them to. in fact I had to go to multiple places before I found on that could actually get the rims I wanted.
Just some comments. Good luck.
carbon copy of my approach. i also got the rims first and I'm glad i did because one of them got dinged in shipping and i needed to order a replacement, so another week delay. point is it requires a plan to buy tires, you're going to be in this for a couple grand so plan wisely, once tires are mounted you typically cant return wheels.
once you go wider, you will more than likely realize the rear axle isnt positioned on the car perfectly center. its VERY common in a late model C4 and almost impossible to correct. The C5's corrected this by allowing the entire rear cage to be adjusted via slots on the mounting but not in the C4...even in my car at just 10.5 i notice it (about 1/8th of an inch difference...some see as much as a quarter inch difference and its not specific to driver or passenger side). its a problem and you can google it if you want to research this for yourself. this could be used as justification to go x4 at 9.5 it's all up to what look you're going for
and btw x4 on a C4 isnt odd...91-92 did it factory base and i "think" the Z51 package did it 93-96 (excluding 95..no Z51 that year but maybe FX3 did it?, i dont really know), they just used a 275 at all 4 instead of a 285.
These rims is what I have in mind. Called the American Racing dealer and he recommended me 18x9 at front and 18x9 at the rear. So I don't know, half an inch smaller at the rear. I don't like that.
These rims is what I have in mind. Called the American Racing dealer and he recommended me 18x9 at front and 18x9 at the rear. So I don't know, half an inch smaller at the rear. I don't like that.
the BIG issue with non-corvette wheels are the sizes. they will almost always be narrower with a goofy offset to make them "fit" to the edge of the wheel opening. i would suggest going to "OEWheels" website and looking at ALL the direct fit 56mm offset Corvette replicas they offer.
These rims is what I have in mind. Called the American Racing dealer and he recommended me 18x9 at front and 18x9 at the rear. So I don't know, half an inch smaller at the rear. I don't like that.
But those wheels do look nice! they are just going in the opposite direction that you want to go in (narrower)
11" with the right offset is the widest I've seen that fits flush. I have the same 18x10.5 wheels as mark970 above.
You could probably go wider but it'll be aftermarket and something more specialty.
the 11" come with a 50mm offset (which is .236 or basically a 1/4") so that 1/4" will sit more inside and the other 1/4" will stick out the other way on top of whats already sticking out for a 10.5 with the normal 56mm offset.
Because the 11" wheel is 1/2" wider than a 10.5, the 50mm offset helps split that difference and provide a balanced growth of 1/4" in both directions.
07-23-2017, 03:26 PM
How many inch wheels without sticking out.
