Widened front rims

Cougar_Marauder

Cougar_Marauder

Member
Hi all,

I plan on having my rims widened soon but there is not much info on the front rims. I plan to have the rear rims widened to 9.5-10" with 295/45 18 and the fronts to 9.0-9.5" with 275/40 18. The rears are well documented but the only real info on the fronts I could find was Motown running 10s all around with no issues but there is no detailed info on that. I know I would need a 0.5" spacer (all around) if I go 10"rear and 9.5"fronts. Does anybody have any experience/knowledge if this will work without any problems or additional modifications?
 
I run 2007-2009 Shelby GT500 wheels on my Marauder when I run Auto-Cross events. They are 18x9.5" wide and I run Falken Azenis RT660's in 294/40-18 with no rubbing on the front or rear.

However, the offset of the GT500 wheels makes them stick out a little more than the stock Marauder wheel.

So, if you widen the front, you may have to run a spacer.

You could probably run the 275 on the stock Marauder wheel. I run a Nitto NT555 in 265/50-18 on the rear and they look and work just fine. I looked up a 275/40 tire and it shows a rim width range of 9-11". I've heard of some here running a 295 on the stock Marauder wheel. Some tire stores will not mount tires on wheels wider than what the tire manufacturer recommends.
 
Upon further research I have decided to go with a 20" rim setup instead of widening the stockers (even though I love the stock look).

From what I can find for the rear 20x10 +40mm offset with 305/35-20 should work (or 20x11 but that is hard to find a match with a skinnier front). For the front most people seem to go with 20x8.5 with 255/35-20 which is OK but I still keep finding posts by Motown that say he ran 20x10 +40 all around but can't find what tire size he ran.

Looking at crouse's setup I would think I should be able to do a 20x10 +40 with 295/30-20 up front, it's nearly the same size, a bit smaller even.

Any words of wisdom or insight would be welcome on this. I should mention I do auto-cross (and occasional drag) so I am really trying to optimize cornering/handling as far as tires go.
 
And Motown needed to run 1" and 1.5" hubcentric spacers to fit those wide wheels and larger tires. 10" on rear depending offset may rub on rear shock boot.
 
From what I gather, the spacers are only needed for the stock rims or stock offset of +50 on 8" wide wheels. No spacers needed with 10-11" rim at +40.
The biggest problem now is finding a set that wont break the bank. Ideally I want 20x10 +35-40 in front and 20x11-11.5 +40 in the rear.
 
It's been a while. I did more research and ran my own calculations and came up with very different numbers than I found on here previously. An OEM Marauder rim has an offset of +50.8mm(2") on 8" ID; making it a pretty damn high offset. Increasing the rim width toward the shock increases the offset even more. Luckily our cars have a bit of leeway in both directions. I found Porsche uses high offset rims on many of there models. I pulled the trigger on some Porsche Panamera Turbo rims that come in at 9.5x20 +65mm in the front and 11x20 + 68mm in the rear. I used 15mm spacer/adaptors to mount them. The adaptor mounts to a 5x4.5" lug 70.6mm center bore (Ford) and converts to a 5x130mm lug 71.5mm center bore (Porsche). The Porsche rims are even hollowed-out between each lug hole so I didn't have to cut down the OEM studs. The tires that came on the rims were 255/40 in the front and 295/35 in the rear. The fronts stick out just a bit more than I wanted but not too far and clear everything just fine. The rears stay tucked inside the fender and have about 1/4" clearance to the shock. I wanted to go with 305/35 for the rear but since I'm so close with the 295 I think I'll stick with it. Maybe with a 20mm spacer in the back 305 would be just right. The 5th pic shows the rear wheel after the car was set down with air ride off; there is still 1/4-1/2" gap to fender.
sidebyside.jpgspacers.jpgspacer_on.jpgrim_back.jpgnoairride.jpgoverfender.jpgfullside.jpg
 
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