Not4spd

Short Version: CCW's didn't fit, ordered ACE slick wheels, NITTO tires, and C6Z brakes will be installed Monday.

Long Version:

To give a backstory I purchased my Z five years ago. The vehicle came with CCW 505's. I have always been a fan of those wheels and still think they are one of the best style wheels for the C5 body lines.



My goal with the car of course has changed over the years and eventually one thing led to another and now I'm on the quest for more power. I have always told myself that it's important to make sure and get the suspension and brakes taken car of first before putting down serious power. Over the course of ownership my Z has become mildly modded with Borla LT's, offroad X, Corsa Extreme, vararam, and tune; the car put down a healthy 400ish whp. Recently I added C6Z shocks and accompanied it with Johnny O' Connell sway bars. With a supercharger in it's future and the brakes needing to be replaced I figured now would be a good time to upgrade the brakes. Thus the quest for C6Z brakes begins.

Not doing enough research and just thinking due to having a 19/20 setup that the wheels should clear just fine was a mistake. The front can be spaced using a 10mm spacer, but the rears were going to require a 1" spacer causing the tires to stick out like a low rider. The teaser pic before the wheel was mounted, I got all kinds of giddy until I was told the above information.




So back to square one and it's time to search for new wheels and tires. Not wanting to make the same mistake it was time to see what other members had run. I came across this thread that was pretty helpful:
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...06-brakes.html

I narrowed the choices down to a couple of different ones.
18" OEM C5Z wheels
C7 Z06 Repo's
OEM C6 GS wheels.
ACE slick wheels

While the C7Z wheels look nice, they don't look too fun to clean. While some guys love detailing their Vette (I applaud your patience). I am one who prefers doing a quick wash and driving as that is what I'd rather spend my time doing. The 18" OEM C5Z wheels while nice, I'm not a fan of the silver, and I didn't want to spend the extra $$$ to have them chrome dipped. So really it boiled down to GS and ACE slick wheels. While both are fantastic wheels the slick wheels more closely resembled my CCW's. Not to mention they are produced in C5 offset. I put a phone call in to double check they would clear C6Z brakes and it was music to my ears when I heard a resounding yes!

So wheels were ordered (18X9.5" and 18X11" for rears) in 53mm offset from WCC.

Now it was on to tires. This is one of my least favorite things to shop for when it comes to Corvettes. There are different sizes, different brands, and everyone has their own opinions. I researched for several hours over the course of 3 days to figure out what to buy. I had actually just purchased tires 500 miles before I bought the new brakes, yeah I know. I ran 2 sets of NT05's and while they hooked ok, they were absolutely horrendous in wet weather driving. I don't purposely drive in the rain, but that's not to say I haven't been caught a few times in a down pour. The most recent tires were NITTO 555 G2's in the 275/315 flavor. They hooked fantastic and did phenomenal in wet weather driving, needless to say I wanted to run the same kind of tire.

Since I have gone down in wheel sizes I wanted to make sure to get the tire size just right. The 315/30ZR20 rear CCW wheels were 27.4" in diameter and would kiss the lip of the rear fender when hitting bumps and rubbed the brake ducts(now removed). Stock C5Z tire diameters were 25.3" for the fronts and 26.1" for the rear so I wanted to get as close as possible.

So off to NITTO's site to see what diameters they offer in 18's with the G2s. I was wanting to run 315's again, but the only ones they offered would have put the diameter close to 28". The next step down would be 295's as they don't offer them in 305's which are still to high in diameter. With that being said after researching and reading plenty of threads and reviews I ended up with NITTO 555R's for the rear in 305/35/ and fronts I ended up with the G2's in 285/35. This put my fronts at 25.9" in diameter and the rears right at 26.7" which are a littler larger than stock, but will help close some fender/tire gap.

Now it was just time to wait for the wheels to arrive and then off to Discount to mount the tires and put them on.

In the meantime I found a buyer for the CCW wheels. He was kind enough to drive over and swap wheels so I could borrow his stockers to get my car to Discount.





I had to remind myself this was just temporary.




Fed Ex dropped by today.





Time to mount wheels and tires.























Monday it get's dropped off to get the C6Z brakes installed..... finally. I should have some pictures uploaded next week.

I hope this helps someone else when they begin to look at going big brakes.

My Vette Life

Wait so the c6z rims won't clear the c5 with c6z brakes or you just don't like them?

Not4spd

Yes they will clear just fine, but that would put the front 14mm offset less than factory. Tires would stick out more than I would want. I wanted something flush with the fender.

gimp

Ace Slick wheels are specifically designed for big brake kits and they cleared my wilwood 14.25"/14.00 aero6/4 setup.

They're not specifically designed to break for absolutely no bloody reason, but they do that as well. Ace stopped making the ones I had and couldn't do anything to help me. I sold the matching non-broken pair for a pittance and threw the rest in the scrap yard where it belongs, and will no longer touch anything made by that company.

64drvr

Cool build. What pads are you going with?

Not4spd

Centric Posi Quiet Ceramics

64drvr

I would recommend goong to a proper brake pad- that’s where you really pick up performance.

USAZR1

What were the specs for the CCW SP505's?

Not4spd

I had a two options with the big brake kit ordered from TPS, both of which were made by Centric. The supercharger is still a ways out, so once these pads go out I'll replace them with some different ones. In the mean time I will be doing some heavy research for quality street pads with limited brake dust(preferably). Any street pad suggestions to get me started? My Z is mainly a cruiser with the occasional back road twistees, and of course some street/highway "fun"

Fronts- 19X10 with 1" lip C5 offset
Rears- 20X11.5 with 2" lip C5 offset

64drvr

I’m a fan of Carbotech- probably the 1521 for you.

USAZR1

The front wheels on my car, when purchased, were 19x10 CCW SP500's with +57 offset and 2" lips. I also wanted to run C6Z front calipers but CCW told me a 10" wheel with those specs would not work. They also told me a 10" width with more offset and smaller lip would not tuck inside the fenders w/o excess poke,either. These are what my former 19x10's looked like.




I decided to have CCW build me a pair of SP500's that would clear a C6Z or Wilwood six piston caliper and went with 18x9.5's with +48 offset and 1" lips. Here's a pic of them and my rear 19x11's with +54 offset and 3" lips. BTW, my rears will not clear C6Z rear calipers so if I decide on adding larger rear brakes, I'll probably go with a C6 Z51 set-up.

Domin8r

What finish is that on the new SP500's?

'Shifter

Vetteman Jack

Very good choice on the wheels. The color will go well with the Mil Yellow exterior.

C5R USA

Looks like you are on the right track to get the setup you want. I'm sorry you had to go through such a hassle with the brakes not fitting the CCW's but, then again you were unaware of this, since the car came with them already. Apparently, the previous owner opted not to, or wasn't asked if he wanted the potential to have C6Z brakes in the future. I know when I ordered my fronts a few years ago, John asked me that specifically. That's why I stayed with 18x9.5 for the front.

Your car looks great, and you have some nice enhancements planned. Kudos!!

USAZR1

Brushed with Dark Smoke Clear

USAZR1

Some people don't care about adding bigger brakes and do want the widest lip. When I ordered my new fronts from CCW/Weld, this year, I had to specify I wanted to run C6Z-size front calipers because I wasn't asked.
You can fit C6 Z51 brakes with the standard C5 fitment but the C6 Z06 calipers require a diffrent offset and lip width.

C5R USA

I understand that Clint, about having a bigger lip over bigger brakes. It doesn't surprise me though that you had to specify wanting the option to run C6Z brakes. CCW hasn't been the same, since it was taken over by Weld. I've heard the customer service isn't as personalized, and just for reference. I too ordered another CCW wheel set for my 1986 some months ago, and the order got screwed up a couple times with either someone punching in a wrong number on a credit card or something else. I'm just glad that was to be the last time I order a brand new set of wheels from them. Great wheels and well constructed but, the customer service this go round, left a bad taste in my mouth.

USAZR1

Thomas, I haven't had any issues with CCW, yet. My contact there is Andrew Birkenfeld and he's always been good to deal with. However, to get much better pricing than buying directly from the factory, I ordered my SP500's from P Kop Motorsports, in MA. Peter Kopolous, the owner, is a great guy to deal with and I have referred many members his way. Something else I should mention, is that I don't depend on the manufacturer for correct wheel specs for my cars but instead, I try to do the research into what will fit, or won't. That way, if they don't fit, I only have myself to blame. Have been doing this stuff, for a very long time, so it's kinda become second-nature for me and a passion, if you will.

C5R USA

Truly, I am happy to hear that CCW for you has been all good experiences. I dealt with Andrew last go around, and there was a big difference between dealing with John and then Andrew. I don't know if I caught him on a bad day but, just talking to him, it seemed like a bother to him that I wanted to order. Obviously, he doesn't have any control over the accounting department or production but, the whole experience was vastly different. I will say this about CCW, once they got everything cleared up. They processed my order smartly. I do believe, I had those wheels within 5-6 weeks tops, when the projection was 8-10 weeks. So, I give them kudos for that.