Heavily enhanced pic to show wheel gap and clearance


Need the forums advice on how to fix a problem I basically created by the tires that I chose and the lowering of the car.

Here is the issue. Right now the car is lowered all the way on the stock bolts. Tire sizes I'm running are 265/40/17 up front and 295/35/18 out back. With this setup the car is just too low for my liking and needs to be raised. I scrape severely going in and out of my driveway, in the parking lot at my work and even when driving around town depending on the road conditions. I think about a 1/2 inch increase in ride height would be perfect.

Now unfortunately that's going to create some ugly wheel gap. So the problem is how to raise the car and eliminate any wheel gap that would be created. I've considered new wheels and tires but that's just a little too expensive and more $$ than what I want to put in the car right now. I could go with new repro wheels and tires but even then I'm looking at least 2k for a set of wheels/tires. I could keep my current wheels and get different tires and this is the easiest/less costly route to take. Problem is what size to buy. I want to keep the 295 tire in the rear so a 295/40/18 would be my choice for the rear tire size. Front I'm thinking either a 255/45/17 or 265/45/17. Now only to find a company that makes tires in the sizes I need.

I'd appreciate any feedback from forum members. I know a lot of you may say there isn't anything wrong with the setup I have now and I can appreciate that as many of you may currently run the same thing. This is just my personal preference and for my needs and what I want out of the car. The ride height needs to be increased a tad so I can enjoy driving the car more and not worry about scraping.

 

I've inflated my tires to the highest dpi recommended by my tires. It helped alot with the speed bumps. Maybe, inflating could help.

 

And what would that setting be? The recommended psi for the tires is 30 cold, and inflating them to a much higher setting may help solve one problem, but it may also cause premature tire wear in the center section of your tires.

Jim - I think I would try and just raise the car up slightly, a little at a time until you find a good setting for clearance and an acceptable one for looks. As you say, new wheels and tires may help, but that's an expensive fix. I guess if you can find a different sidewall height for all four tires that still keeps the appropriate stagger setting, that could help too.

Like you, I think the lowered look is great on these cars, but to me the ability to safely drive the car on the road without fear of scraping means more to me than a little extra wheel gap.

Best of luck to you in finding a solution you can accept - post up what you come up with.

 

Try raising the front only about a quarter inch...

 

That's the cheapest solution I can think of: stock width, 45s in front, 40s in rear IIRC is about 1" bigger overall diameter at both ends...then raising the car 1/2" giving you the same gaps and 1" more ground clearance.

One question I've never seen asked/answered here: how much larger diameter can the tires be without rubbing?

 

you can raise the car up 3/8'' of a inch with spacers which can made from a neoprene glass setting block,( can be picked up at any local full line glass shop) then measure and raise

 

This is what I was considering but who makes tires in the sizes I would need? For now I may just try raising the front a little like someone suggested.

 

I'm running Hankooks in stock sizes...it's been a year or so since I looked, but at the time they had the next-taller sections available.

(Just noticed you're running wider/lower than stock...try going to tirerack.com and looking up what you need. They list the diameters somewhere in the specs.)

 

My vette is a lot lower than yours. I have very little dragging.
How do I do it?????
No raising or blowing up your tires.
It's simple.
I trimmed the splitter underneath the car. I trimmed mine 3/4
of a inch; its all rubber and easy to cut. I still run cool with
zero overheating..
There; any other earth shattering questions-??---good luck.

 

That's an idea but I think I'm going to try raising the front a little bit first.