I am interested in changinging wheels on my 02 coupe. I have stock size tires and Polished Narrow spokes. I am looking at the ZO6 Black Motorsports, 17x9.5 & 18x10.5


My front tires need replacing soon, rears are fairly new and will be okay for quite awhile.


Question 1. Rear - Will my still good NITTO 555 275x40x18 fit SAFELY on the 18x10.5 rims? (Plan to go bigger 295 or 305 when they wear out) NITTO Tire specs say 9 - 11" with 9.5" being optimum.

Question 2. Front - Looking at 265 or 275x40x17 for fronts. Is the 275 too wide?

Question 3. What is the Minimum stagger to keep the handling system happy? The 275x40x18 I have on rear now are about and inch larger diameter than the 275x40x17 I propose for the front.

Ultimately will go with 295 or 305's on the rear.

Thanks,

Phil

 

Question 1. Rear - Will my still good NITTO 555 275x40x18 fit SAFELY on the 18x10.5 rims? (Plan to go bigger 295 or 305 when they wear out) NITTO Tire specs say 9 - 11" with 9.5" being optimum.

A 275 on a 10.5 inch wheel will be ok for now and does fall within manufacturer range.

Question 2. Front - Looking at 265 or 275x40x17 for fronts. Is the 275 too wide?

A 275 front isn't to wide, it will fit. One thing to keep in mind is that the wheel offset needs to be right, I'm not sure what that offset is maybe someone will chime in, so the tire doesn't come out past the top of the wheel opening. I may be over stating this point but I have seen a few cars with 275 fronts that do stick out a bit, less than half inch, maybe about a quarter. Also this comes down to personal preference, you may like the look.

Question 3. What is the Minimum stagger to keep the handling system happy? The 275x40x18 I have on rear now are about and inch larger diameter than the 275x40x17 I propose for the front.

What you want is about a 3% difference front to rear, rear being bigger. Your combo comes in at 3.76%, so your good. You can use this calc to figure all this out,
http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCal...?action=submit

Also, Do a search on the tire size and you will find pictures so you can see what the 275 front looks like. You will also find lots of information to help you make up your mind. As for me I am about to get a wheel tire combe with 275/30-19 fronts and 305/30-19 rears so I really don't see an issue.

Hope this helps,

Darion

 

Thanks for the quick reply and the great info. Will do some looking. Don't want the tires out past the edge - throws up to much dirt etc.

Phil