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As we all know, getting new 255/50 r16 tires is almost impossible, therefore I'm planning to move to 18inch rims with C4 87 corvette. I found the following:
Alloy rims 18x8.5 ET32 and bolt/PCD 5x120.65
Tires Pirelli P7 Cinturato 255/40 R18
Will that setup work without any spacers? Standard 87 C4 runs on 16x8.5 ET32 5x120.65 and 255/50 R16 tires so based on the calculators and math, all should be good with the new setup...
Will be grateful for your help
thx
T.
Is there a good reason for your tire choice? Tire seems a bit 'Extreme'? The sizing seems to be a match but an 8 1/2 width is a minimum and it might be better suited to a bit wider wheel?
Does the wheel manufacturer offer anything in a 9 or 9 1/2" that could work? How happy are you with the wheel brand/design?
I tried to match old vs new wheels in the way that width is the same and overall diameter (wheel+tire) is the same as old one:
rims design is OK for me. I can also get them in the wider sizes:
18x9 ET32 and bolt/PCD 5x120.65
18x9.5 ET32 and bolt/PCD 5x120.65
...but wider wheel would require wider tire and not sure if that will fit well.
My main objective is to avoid spacers and switch to rims for which I'll have tires in reasonable price. As mentioned earlier, one tire 255/50 R16 is over 500USD which is way too much
Maybe a 'seasonal thing' when I searched the 'Tires Pirelli P7 Cinturato 255/40 R18' it took me to a default 'WinterActive' vs the rest of the Cinturato Pirelli family of tires. That's why I mentioned 'Extreme' but after looking further I see several in the Cinturato tire family. I'm certainly not familiar with the brand. Are there OE that spec your tire choice? Into the future that sometimes effects availability.
ok got you. Pirelli brand is not the only choice in this size. I can get Yokohama, Michelin, Conti etc. Plenty of choices for reasonable $$
My main question was if that new wheel+tire combo will fit into C4 without any modifications like spacers etc.
A 9" @ 32 would put the outer rim edge equal to a 9 1/2" @ 38 I believe and make the tire size I'd think a better fit? No spacers for sure with either choice.
I went with 9.5"x18" 40 backspace rims on my 86 the other year. I put 255x40x18 ZR BFG tires on it and it worked out just fine. I started out with 9.5"x16" 38 backspace rims and these turned out to be a great fit. Diameter and offset on the tires worked out to be as close a match as possible to the oem setup. If you're looking for something to match the OEM setup and not mess up the speedometer etc., check this out.
Hope that helps.
Switch to 18'' rims
