86 Noob looking for spec help with 18x9.5 +38

[JoeT86]

Hey guys,

I am a noob to cars, modding, and the FT86 scene. I recently got my first car (86) and have always wanted to have my own car with a set of gold rims, so I'm starting to mod my 86 gradually. I am a casual daily driver - no track, nothing intense, and also have to deal with heavy snow in the winter

I currently have a set of 57CRs 18x9.5 +38 sitting at home. My friend will be selling me his used BC BR coilovers soon. From asking and looking around, I learned that I need to get a new set of tires and lower my car for the rims' 9.5 width. I have settled for lowering 20mm/0.78 inches – 25.4mm/1 inch with the winter weather in mind.

I have no idea where to go from here:
Do I look at how much I lower my car first then get the appropriate tire size? Or do I get the right tire size then adjust the coils accordingly?
I also don’t have a go-to person or spot / garage for these yet so I’ve come to this forum I'm hoping when I do go somewhere for installations, they'll know the right specs to go for.

Can you guys give me some insight to:
- what size tires work (235/30-40, 245/30-40);
- how low I should go (3/4 inch, 20 mm, not sure which unit to use because people go back and forth);
- advantages and disadvantages of larger / smaller tires (rubbing or offset clearance issues with wider tires);
- what camber to go with them;
- etc.?

Thanks!

[churchx]

1) don't mod for sake of moding
2) decide clearly on result/change you want to get different from current stock.
3) do homework digging around forum for info from those that did that first.

BTW, dealing with heavy snow AND wide tires don't mix well together. Nor is lowering car. Rather opposite. Or at very least different wheel/tire sets for summer & winter.

[tyler_win_photo]

Originally Posted by JoeT86

Hey guys,
Can you guys give me some insight to:
- what size tires work (235/30-40, 245/30-40);
- how low I should go (3/4 inch, 20 mm, not sure which unit to use because people go back and forth);
- advantages and disadvantages of larger / smaller tires (rubbing or offset clearance issues with wider tires);
- what camber to go with them;
- etc.?

Thanks!

255/35 to 265/35 would be the ideal tire size. Of course you can always go skinnier for more stretch if that's what you want.

You really could go as low as you want. Depends how comfortable you are. Suspension geometry goes a bit wacky when you lower more than 1.5 inches.

Stock you're not going to have camber adjustment in the rear without aftermarket LCAs.

[wparsons]

It's already been asked... but what are you actually hoping to achieve? To fit those wheels you'll need a bunch of camber, and a 20mm drop isn't going to close the gap.


Wheel size choice IMO says you want the flush look, but 20mm drop says you still want handling. That wheel size, with those coilovers, isn't going to be the best setup for handling.

[Leonardo]

Read post 213 and 214.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...=28017&page=16

Read page one of the Meaty tire thread.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41083 __________________

[Greenbean]

Originally Posted by JoeT86

Hey guys,

I am a noob to cars, modding, and the FT86 scene. I recently got my first car (86) and have always wanted to have my own car with a set of gold rims, so I'm starting to mod my 86 gradually. I am a casual daily driver - no track, nothing intense, and also have to deal with heavy snow in the winter

I currently have a set of 57CRs 18x9.5 +38 sitting at home. My friend will be selling me his used BC BR coilovers soon. From asking and looking around, I learned that I need to get a new set of tires and lower my car for the rims' 9.5 width. I have settled for lowering 20mm/0.78 inches – 25.4mm/1 inch with the winter weather in mind.

I have no idea where to go from here:
Do I look at how much I lower my car first then get the appropriate tire size? Or do I get the right tire size then adjust the coils accordingly?
I also don’t have a go-to person or spot / garage for these yet so I’ve come to this forum I'm hoping when I do go somewhere for installations, they'll know the right specs to go for.

Can you guys give me some insight to:
- what size tires work (235/30-40, 245/30-40);
- how low I should go (3/4 inch, 20 mm, not sure which unit to use because people go back and forth);
- advantages and disadvantages of larger / smaller tires (rubbing or offset clearance issues with wider tires);
- what camber to go with them;
- etc.?

Thanks!

Do you want stretched look?? more form, more function whats the goal with how you want your car to look. I run 255/35 on my car in all four corners with the exact same wheels and I dont have any type of rubbing issues. I can go full lock both ways and be fine. I have pictures of my car on my build page if you want to check it out. With a 255 SOME people do end up rubbing because either they are lower than me or the tire is slightly wider which knowing some brand tires are wider than others it is something you must keep in mind. 245/35 is a very popular option amongst the community because it clears very well but I believe the stretch is a little to much for my taste.

[Greenbean]

Originally Posted by wparsons

It's already been asked... but what are you actually hoping to achieve? To fit those wheels you'll need a bunch of camber, and a 20mm drop isn't going to close the gap.


Wheel size choice IMO says you want the flush look, but 20mm drop says you still want handling. That wheel size, with those coilovers, isn't going to be the best setup for handling.

about -2.5 to -3 degrees of camber for flush.

[JoeT86]

Originally Posted by tyler_win_photo

255/35 to 265/35 would be the ideal tire size. Of course you can always go skinnier for more stretch if that's what you want.

You really could go as low as you want. Depends how comfortable you are. Suspension geometry goes a bit wacky when you lower more than 1.5 inches.

Stock you're not going to have camber adjustment in the rear without aftermarket LCAs.

I saw that 255+ fell under a "meaty" category but I want like a safe average that's not too stretched nor too meaty to avoid changing too much function (for the worse) with the car.

As for lowering, yeah, I would like to avoid things going wacky (eg. suspension geometry), so I'll probably keep it above 1.5 inches.

Thanks for the advice.

It's already been asked... but what are you actually hoping to achieve? To fit those wheels you'll need a bunch of camber, and a 20mm drop isn't going to close the gap.


Wheel size choice IMO says you want the flush look, but 20mm drop says you still want handling. That wheel size, with those coilovers, isn't going to be the best setup for handling.

Yeah I looked around a lot, but many posts are out of my understanding with the technicalities and I can't grasp what I'm looking for that applies to me. I'm hoping to achieve:

1) the least loss of function for driving my car around
2) the least impact to other core features of my car that require more tinkering with via more parts to align and accommodate for another mod (i buy x, x changed a so i need to buy y, y changed b so i need to buy z)

Read post 213 and 214.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...=28017&page=16

Read page one of the Meaty tire thread.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4108

Great threads, thank you. I've seen the meaty tire one, but I haven't seen the first thread and it's exactly what I could use.

Do you want stretched look?? more form, more function whats the goal with how you want your car to look. I run 255/35 on my car in all four corners with the exact same wheels and I dont have any type of rubbing issues. I can go full lock both ways and be fine. I have pictures of my car on my build page if you want to check it out. With a 255 SOME people do end up rubbing because either they are lower than me or the tire is slightly wider which knowing some brand tires are wider than others it is something you must keep in mind. 245/35 is a very popular option amongst the community because it clears very well but I believe the stretch is a little to much for my taste.

The goal with what I want with my car is to fit my rims in the meantime. I plan to gradually change it overtime but for now, I want to avoid losing too much function:

1) the least loss of function for driving my car around
2) the least impact to other core features of my car that require more tinkering with via more parts to align and accommodate for another mod (i buy x, x changed a so i need to buy y, y changed b so i need to buy z)

Perfect, thanks for the info on the tires. However, I was told that I NEED to lower my car for it to fit 18x9.5 and that it wouldn't fit on stock suspension. Sweet car btw, how much did you lower it?

about -2.5 to -3 degrees of camber for flush.

Thanks

[tyler_win_photo]

Originally Posted by JoeT86

I saw that 255+ fell under a "meaty" category but I want like a safe average that's not too stretched nor too meaty to avoid changing too much function (for the worse) with the car.

As for lowering, yeah, I would like to avoid things going wacky (eg. suspension geometry), so I'll probably keep it above 1.5 inches.

Thanks for the advice.

Meaty is a relative term for large tires, it has no relation to the actual size of the tire to the wheel. 255 section tires are the recommended width for a 9.5 inch wheel.

[churchx]

Least loss of function for driving around = not lower
Least impact to other core features that may require more parts = if among core features you count also handling feel as of now, then don't go overboard with too grippy tires and also not too wide ones.
At least i enjoyed liveliness of car and ease of tire chirp here and there even and slower speeds and even with relatively low stock NA power. With going for wide tires there will be more grip. Car will be more tramlining and imho - less fun. Do you want that for looks only? For some it's what they want, for car to almost never loose any grip and handle like on rails. To me that would be boring.