NC SC CHAT

[Td5turbo]

HAHA, thanks for the input regardless. It would be funny to see a car with wide *** wheels and then a 135/70/14 donut!!!!

Well tire size for a certain wheel depends on driving style/usage. If your drag racing, then you would want to bubble the tire (put as big of a tire you can and actually a larger contact patch than wheel size...like a 305 on a 9" wheel), if your road racing or autoX your probably going to be using close to R-compounds or higher and they have very stiff sidewall to eliminate flex and so you want a tire that has the same contact patch as the rim width (like a 255 on a 9" wheel). If you still get sidewall flex, then a stretch tire is prefered. Drifters stretch to make the breakaway more predictable and road racers use it to get sharper turn-in be cause your not waiting for the tire to flex before it grips. (like a 205-225 on a 9" wheel). Most say its a waste of wheel to go with such a small tire....but i personally hate sidewall flex because it makes driving at the limits in a corner very sketchy. I only have like 220-230whp so 235's will be PLENTY in straight line traction and still give me a stiff sidewall .

It took me three years to warm up to stretching and i think massive stretches like a 225 on a 10.5" wheel is absolutly retarded looking, but probably functional!!! I have had 225 on all of my wheels (16x7's then 17x7.5 and 17x8 and now 17x9) and the difference is night and day! with the 16x7's the car flet as if it was floating sideways at the turn-in and sloppy as hell on the exit. Sorry for the long pointless post...just had to justify my tire choice!

Back to a meet....is there anything planned as far as dates? events? or anything?

[maxima278]

Hey Brandon, can you post up what offset those wheels are I'm geting from you so I can get suggestions about what size tires to buy and if I need spacers or not? I'm guessing I need the fenders rolled too?

I have the money for the wheels if you're ready to let go of them...

[maxima278]

never mind, I just talked to him on the phone, they are 18x9.5 rear, 18x8.5 front with a +35 offset. Anybody know what size tires I need to start pricing?

[kaChris803]

well, just like austin said, it all depends on your driving style (good post austin!!! you should be a lawyer or something!!!), but i can get you a hell of a deal on tires when you decide which one's your going to go with.

Austin: we are trying to plan a pre-meet meeting so we can go over all the details. that is going to be sometime before thanksgiving in Nov. In a couple of weekends though i'm going to be coming down to charleston to visit my parents, so we should get intouch and hangout or something. don't hate though, i'm still in the project phase with my 240 like some of the other guys on here. feel free to email me at [email protected], that goes for all of you guys too!! we need to get this ball rolling!!

[whitetshirtguy]

what is goin on chris and to the dude that asked about me i have a white s 14 it is about to be on 17 and sportlines with kyb gr2 and 300 brakes . but me im 22 and live in lexington . about tire size when i was lookin online thatt was the recomended size i have mb weapons with nittos neogens they fit the wheel nice .

[kaChris803]

sup dog. you figure out your brake line issue?

[Td5turbo]

Those sizes are pretty weak for a S14. I dont know if ubber flush is your thing, but I would go with some 20mm-25mm spacers to bring the offset to around +15/+10. You will probably need some camber and a slight fender roll (but no pull). And also flushness depends on tire choice.

Ultimatly it comes down to a few factors:What carHow you plan to use the car (drift, road race, drag, daily, etc)How much hp you havehow much your willing to spend

If you give answers to those questions, it will be way easier to pick out tires.

Chris (I am just guessing thats your name, sorry if it isnt!): yea, for sure. When your down here, we will have to get intouch and do a little 240 cruise. Maybe I could get some others (local kids) to make a mini Charleston car meet. Well my weekends are all splotched with sailing regattas and I usually travel along the coast at least one or twice a month so just let me know when your planning on comming down and how long and I will see if it works. It seems like there are quite a few active SC member on here and there is also a club/forum by the name of http://www.charlestonracing.com that has a quite a few domestic and import enthusiasts. Sorry to plug another forum on this forum!

[kaChris803]

yeah, my name is chris(kaCHRIS803, lol), but yeah man that would be cool. if any of you guys would like some custom camber, castor, toe/heel, and alignment adjs. let me know, not to brag, but i'm the ****!!! my with 16" wheels, i had it dropped a whopping 2.4 inches in the front, and 2.6 in the rear with 5 deg. of neg. camber, talking about wide footprint in the corners sideways at 50mph!!!

[Td5turbo]

yea, thats where i got the chris from...hahaha

Well 5* neg camber is quite alot!!! I am running -2* up front and get great traction while cornering. but -5* is CRAZYYYY. If you were to do a standing burn out, your tire marks would be like two bicycle tires! hahahahaha I want to see pictures of this pronto!

[Redemption1978]

What I have on there right now is 245s in the front and 275s in the rear. Anyone want to loan me 1300 so I can get my Works? paid back within a month and a half guarenteed.

[Redemption1978]

James I think a shark face would look good on that coupe.

[maxima278]

Those sizes are pretty weak for a S14. I dont know if ubber flush is your thing, but I would go with some 20mm-25mm spacers to bring the offset to around +15/+10. You will probably need some camber and a slight fender roll (but no pull). And also flushness depends on tire choice.

Ultimatly it comes down to a few factors:What carHow you plan to use the car (drift, road race, drag, daily, etc)How much hp you havehow much your willing to spend

If you give answers to those questions, it will be way easier to pick out tires.

I'm assuming you're talking to me here?

What I want to use the car for?ok, mainly I want this car to be set up for mountain driving, I do not want to lose grip in the corners. I'll probably experiment with drifting a little, but ultimately I'm planning to build an S13 for that sole purpose, plus I'll have plenty of extra wheels and tires around to waste (I have 2 sets of s14 se's, and some 15 inch maxima wheels). I'd like to keep the ride as smooth as possible, but I'm looking for handling.

hp? I'm running a stock SR20 with a gutted cat and catback exhaust, within the near future I plan simply to add a fmic and a boost controller, so not counting on much more than 250 at this time.

how much I want to spend? As little as possible of course. Not necessarily the cheapest thing, but the most bang for the buck.

[maxima278]

well, just like austin said, it all depends on your driving style (good post austin!!! you should be a lawyer or something!!!), but i can get you a hell of a deal on tires when you decide which one's your going to go with.

hook me up man! oh yeah, btw, in case it matters, my car is sitting on Eibach sportline springs and kyb GR2 struts in the rear, front struts are still stock, and I've done nothing to the camber or anything else. I'm open to suggestions on suspension upgrades considering what I told you guys in my previous post. I have not bought front struts, and would not be opposed to suggestions about changing the rears. Do you guys think if I went a little more extreme up front that I would be in need of matching up the rear immediately?

[The Duke]

good news guys. i don't know if you were aware but my car has been running awefully poorly lately. there was an exhaust leak near the engine and this terrible knocking that neither jordan or I could figure out. so i left my car at home this week so my dad could take it to a mechanic which he did today. It turns out my downpipe or turbo mani or something had a huge crack going nearly all the way around the pipe. I'm not exactly sure what piece it was because my dad couldn't describe it very clearly. So the guy just welded it up for $20 bucks and voila, both problems vanished. apparently i was losing power too because the turbo wasn't spooling well. so now it's running perfectly smooth and has all it's power back.

I know, not big news to you guys since most of you didn't even know i was having problems but i just had to tell someone about it. I mean, my car was behaving as if it were very sick and all it took was $20 for a little welding and it's good as new.

so i'm happy. the end.

[gr8bryt]

Well that's GR8 Duke, I'm glad to hear that everything is back to normal with your ride. Every now and again we'll have some minor thing come up and we get it fixed so quickly that it just fades into the background of life. Prime example, I was running very rich for a while and I was thinking that the coolant temp sensor was bad, when actually it turned out that the connector for the MAF sensor was fouled up. Now I'm idling smooth and getting decent gas mileage.

[Black on Gold]

Lets see, my car idles low, burns oil, has an exhaust leak, thermostat doesnt work, speedo doesnt work, frame is still not straight, Mass amounts of rust on the hatch, problems with the valves, auto, body is in terrible terrible condition. SO that pretty much sums it up guys.

[kaChris803]

my dash has cracks, for some reason my HUD doesn't work anymore along with my radio, my rear bumper and finish panel are dented, my seats torn on the side, it needs paint. wow, i guess my problems are that bad after all now that i look at them.

[Td5turbo]

Well in your case, I would sell the staggered setup. The S14 can tuck huge wheels with awesome offsets. The reason I say that is your looking at just over 210whp with a SR with bolt ons and no tune. If you put a staggered setup on that and run 245-255 on the rear and 225-235 on the front, your car is going to push like hell through corners especially with stock struts up front. You could upgrade the rear sway bar to try and solve the problem but your still going to get understeer like crazy (which is not good in the mountains). My suggestion is to go with a different wheel. Possibly a 18x9 +10 or lower all around. You could be like everyone else and buy 5Zigen FN's or you could be a baller and go VIP with some Fabulous or WALDS.

With a 245/35/18 your car will have GREAT handling. It wont be a stretch, the tire will be almost perfectly flush with the wheel and your car will be very neutral. (on the 18x9's)

But if your set of the 18x8.5 and 18x9.5's thats fine. I would look into getting a 235 up front and a 245 out back. You could even go with a 245 all around with those offsets and still probably clear everything but the front, especially with stock struts, it going to wonder more than the rear.

Rule of thumb is if you ubgrade springs you MUST upgrade struts. I know of people blowing stock stuts in under a month because of using RS*R springs (highest spring rates for s-chassis cars right now). Stock struts just cannot hangle the higher spring rates. I would say to go ahead and put the front stuts on ASAP and then look into getting a set of Suspension Techinque's sway bars from Summit Racing for $235 shipped. I have them and they improve handling SO much.

For tires, I would recommend Kumho MX's. I have not personally had them on my S13 but have driven my step dads Boxter with them and they are AMAZING. they are very reasonable also, one of the cheapest performance tire on the market right now. Tirerack.com rates it at the second highest in performance out of all non R-compound/race tires. It beat the BFG KD's...and is about 1/2 the price so.....I had Yokohama AVS ES100's and I have mixed opinions on them. They were sticky at first, then got kinda so-so in performance, then towards the end of thier life they became very sticky...who knows why! They are a great looking and performing tire for the price and also have a rim protestor so even if your want a stretch, you still get curb rash protection!

[kaChris803]

i have to agree with you on some of what you said, but of course since this is my field, i have to argue. anything under a 40 series tire will ride like complete and udder sh**. 235-245 would be great on an 8" wide wheel, and 255-275 on a 9-10.5" wheel. if he wants ride quality with performance atleast. since mountain driving is similar to autoX, same width wheels and offsets all around. i would probably stick with either an 18x8-8.5., and maybe have to use a small spacer if any (7mm). Kuhmo MX's are decent, but there are other tires out there that are just as good for the same cost if not a little cheaper(or more, it goes both ways), kuhmo ast, est, spt are all great!!! when i had my SA3R advans i was running with Falken azenis rt-615's and they were amazing, along with the cheaper tire cooper zeon zpt and zeon sport a/s. if you where going to run a low profile tire with a staggered fitment i would highly recomend the Falken FK-452, they are amazingly still a decent ride quality ex: i was driving a 2003 gs300 with 20x8.5 in the front and 20x10.5 in the rear running a 245/25/20 and 275/25/20 and it handled great and rode smooth. but finaly if you want a good cheap tire that delivers it would be between the falken ziex 512 or the federal 595evo(@ $67/each).

[Td5turbo]

I said a 245/35 just to keep the entire tire diameter somewhat small. If you were to run a 245/45 it would be a very big sidewall and with a 18....it just doesnt look at good on a car that needs to have its front lip kissing the tarmac!!!! I would agree that the federal's are freaking amazing tires.

[Redemption1978]

http://www.my350z.com/forum/sh...y+Bar

There is some good information in that thread concerning swaybars. Just thought I'd throw it out there since I thought it was interesting and was pertanent to the conversation.

[kaChris803]

well....yeah. an s14 does look best with it dropped and low profile tires on it aswell. thats why the fk-412 would be great with this app. because even with the diameter still being 245 it would tuck and be running like a 30 series.

[kaChris803]

What I want to use the car for?ok, mainly I want this car to be set up for mountain driving, I do not want to lose grip in the corners. I'll probably experiment with drifting a little, but ultimately I'm planning to build an S13 for that sole purpose, plus I'll have plenty of extra wheels and tires around to waste (I have 2 sets of s14 se's, and some 15 inch maxima wheels). I'd like to keep the ride as smooth as possible, but I'm looking for handling.

this is why i agrue my point, for ride quality and handling you would want a larger sidewall and a "wider footprint"

[Td5turbo]

I think a stretched tire is good in this application. You could run a 235/40-45 all around and on 18x9.5 and it would still give you good sidewall flex on impacts (like potholes) but laterally it would be stiff.

Honestly, if you want handling, your going to have to give up ride comfort. The only thing that wont really effect ride quality but will imporve handling are strut bars. I have yet to find another suspension piece that wont give you worse ride quality, but ride quality is subjective. I personally love bouncing around and having raw steering and a stiff/noisy chassis...but maybe its just because I am a still a kid?

[gr8bryt]

hook me up man! oh yeah, btw, in case it matters, my car is sitting on Eibach sportline springs and kyb GR2 struts in the rear, front struts are still stock, and I've done nothing to the camber or anything else. I'm open to suggestions on suspension upgrades considering what I told you guys in my previous post. I have not bought front struts, and would not be opposed to suggestions about changing the rears. Do you guys think if I went a little more extreme up front that I would be in need of matching up the rear immediately?

I believe that you definitely need to upgrade your front setup. IMO you should just duplicate your rear setup for now until you decide on something else.

[kaChris803]

good point bryton. that would probably be your best best!! oh.. sup bryton!!

[whitetshirtguy]

im am still waitin on the lines to come in and about the wheels im goin to see wha it looks like when i put them on i was thinkin about a spacer to fattin it out i was just goin to see it when it on and go from there

[kaChris803]

sup steven. yeah, that would be the better way to go about it. i just wanna get my some small rims with a big lip and a crazy offset.

[maxima278]

I believe that you definitely need to upgrade your front setup. IMO you should just duplicate your rear setup for now until you decide on something else.

yeah that was always the plan, I just did the rears because they blew immediately and the front did not seem to do so bad. I didn't have a lot of money at the time so I put the fronts on the backburner. I don't know if the KYB's are really an upgrade over stock, at least they don't really feel like it, that's why I said I was open to other options. What if I went with something adjustable, or at least a different brand up front? Would that adversely affect the rears w/ the kybs?

Well in your case, I would sell the staggered setup. The S14 can tuck huge wheels with awesome offsets. The reason I say that is your looking at just over 210whp with a SR with bolt ons and no tune. If you put a staggered setup on that and run 245-255 on the rear and 225-235 on the front, your car is going to push like hell through corners especially with stock struts up front. You could upgrade the rear sway bar to try and solve the problem but your still going to get understeer like crazy (which is not good in the mountains). My suggestion is to go with a different wheel.

Ok, what if I keep the staggered wheels (which are only an inch different in width), but get the same size tires all around, will that still give me significant understeer? I'm getting a killer deal on these wheels but I don't want to crash and die. That would suck, for me and my car. So, I'm gonna play devils advocate a little bit here and act stubborn so that I can find out if these wheels are going to be ok or not. I wish I could post a pic but the picture posting gallery is down.... I tried just the 18x8.5s on one side of the car just to look at it once when I was up at Brandon's. It looked beautiful with the 245's on it.

Maybe somebody can explain offsets to me, I have no idea what +35 and all that means. Also, why would a plus 10 be better for me than the plus 35?

[maxima278]

Lets see, my car idles low, burns oil, has an exhaust leak, thermostat doesnt work, speedo doesnt work, frame is still not straight, Mass amounts of rust on the hatch, problems with the valves, auto, body is in terrible terrible condition. SO that pretty much sums it up guys.

ok, first take the thermostat out, and throw it away, I did without one on my KA all winter and was fine. The exhaust leak can probably be fixed easily by tightening some bolts or replacing with components from your other car. Low idle... not sure. try swapping the maf sensor over from the other car. Burns oil? Just keep adding oil when it gets low. Speedo, perhaps swap gauge cluster from other car? Hatch is rusty, get it off the other car. Frame still bent? Maybe you should be working with the red car to begin with. just because the black one runs doesn't mean it's the best one to fix up. Don't know what to tell you about the valves.

Well here's a plan I just thought of as I'm writing- Since the black car runs, Use what you can off the red car to make it run better, odds are you have enough parts between the 2 cars and all of us to get it running good enough to drive around. If you can't fix the speedo, get someone to help you in another car to tell you how fast you are going at certain rpms so that you won't get tickets all the time. Leave it auto. put the best cosmetic parts on the red car since it has a better body to begin with. This will be your long term project, so you can go ahead and hock the motor and start saving up for a swap.

If you need parts or advice, just ask. When I first got my 240 I didn't even know what a maf sensor was, much less how a turbo worked, and I was 26 years old. So no question is too stupid.

btw sorry about your friend, it always hurts to lose someone close to you.