15" VS 16" rims on the 240

[Billy Green]

Just wanted to get some feedback here. Yes, I am one of those folks that don't like the 14" rims. Sorry. I am looking around for rims now, and can't decide on 15" or 16" ones. Not taking "looks" into consideration, is there anything I need to know regarding these sizes? Is there anything special I should know about these larger sized and any potential problems?

[Mike]

I've got 15" Boyd 5-star rims with Falken 215/50's on my Z. Here's a pic of it at this point with the rims...

Here's a before shot:

Hope this helps...

You'll probably want to bring your car into a wheel/tire shop and ask them to mount a tire and put it on your car.

The only problem I had was some rubbing of the spoiler when turning HARD. It wasn't that big of a deal when I turned normally. Usually only rubbed in parking lots when I was trying to crank it...

[Kyle]

Hey Mikey - don't see the pictures in your post.

Billy - one thing I neglected to mention in our Email - larger diameter wheels will probably have a greater ??? polar moment of inerta ??? vector transcience inhibitor ??? angular momentum ??? or something - IOW, the wheel's rim (and the bulk of its mass) is farther out from the hub centerline. Probably not real significant, especially with just a 1" diameter difference, but something to think about from a performance standpoint... and the wheels are probably heavier too, with longer spokes and a greater circumference, which means a heavier wheel rim.

FWIW

Kyle

[Mike]

Wierd, the picts were there yesterday.

Ahhh.. .ok, I know what happened.

I moved http://www.240z.org to our new server.

If I put the old server name in there, it might fix the graphics.

[Mike]

Yep, that was it. I was linking to pictures from the URL (www.240z.org).. And, last night I pointed www to our new server. After I modified the code to say scarab.240z.org it works fine.

Geek?

[Guycali]

So is 16" the largest rim size we can put on a 240Z? Darn, and I was thinking of putting on either 17" or 18" rims (given that I convert it to use 5-lug hubs). Will the tires rub even with addition of IMSA fender or other wide body kits?

As far as larger wheels weighing more... yes it's true but some weighs even less than smaller diameter rims. For instance, SSR Competition weighs 14.5lbs for a 18x8. Of course, that comes with a hefty price of $450ea.

Do you think 18" rims are too big for a small car like 240Z? With wide fenders? Maybe... Too bad tirerack.com doesn't have a dynamic wheel selector for the 240Z.

-Guycali

[Dan]

Went to look for rims this last weekend and found out what offset is all about. Because the caliper is so close to the wheel on a 240 you must find a wheel with the proper offset. Panasports seem to be a popular wheel but quite pricy at 250 a pop. I can't remeber seeing a 240 with larger than 16in wheels on it, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

[XYZ]

There's a cool site someone posted a little while back, it's a wheel size calculator. Here's the site, WWW.c5-corvette.com/tirecalc.htm FYI, in regard to the cost of the rims, I priced centerlines, billet series (any of them and was quoted $215/rim with the correct offset etc. thru discount tires. There pricy, but I like the look of ceterline better than the panasports. Don't know about weights or anything though. Turns out a 16" rim with 50 series is almost exactly the same diameter as a 14" rim with 70 series (stock) tire. I'm pretty sure this is stock. If it's not someone will let me know.

[Ed]

I believe the correct offset for the Z is 4".

[Dan]

Is that a front wheel drive offset or is that just specific to the 240 or early Z.

[2ManyZs]

Front drive offset would be positive offset, you want negative offset. I have plenty of 7 inch rims with zero offset and they fit great, you might be able to go another 1/2 to a 4 inch backspacing and still be OK.

[zedhead260]

It's not really the diameter of the wheel thats important, it's the offset and width. You could go 17 or bigger providing you can find a low enough profile tyre.

I have 16"x7" wheel with 205/55 tyres on a standard offset. I have no clearance problems at all, and my suspension is very low.