Staggered or Square?
 

Ok so now that I've finally decided what wheels I want...

For a DD that will rarely, if ever, see track use, should I go with a staggered or square set up?

My wheels will have a +45 offset and I have the option of either 18x8.5 square or staggered with 18x9.5. The 9.5 would have a concave face, so I'm trying to envision if that will make it look odd at all.

Looking for any pros and cons, suggestions, tips, etc.

Staggered will probably shorten your tire life because you cannot rotate the tires. Some have said the handling of the car is affected also with perhaps more understeer having more grip at the rear.

Square allows you to rotate tires possibly extending their life.


I am going to be installing staggered on mine (8.5/9.5) and see how it goes. If tire life becomes an isue I will sell the staggered and go to square.

Also if you look at the wheel and tires thread you can see many staggered combinations that are fairly flat up front and concave at the rear.

Staggered
Pros:
You can use wider tires in rear for more grip (moot point since you won't be using your car on the track you said)
Stance (if you're into that stuff)

Cons:
You can use wider tires in rear, so if you need to replace tires, you're looking at 2 different sizes of tires
Stance

The only reason to go staggered (unless you're putting out a crapton of power with FI) is for the look. Not that there's anything wrong with that, a lot of us have done stuff to our cars for purely cosmetic reasons. Personally, I have a staggered set up for my summers.

The biggest con: You can't rotate your tires.

Some other things to consider: Depending on your suspension mods and amount of stagger, you change the handling characteristics of the car. Since you are just DD'ing it, this really won't be an issue for you. If you were aggressively driving it for competition, tracking, autox, etc, a staggered set up would normally reduce oversteer. Also, staggered introduces additional expense - the wider rim + wider tire will cost you a few more bucks.

As far as how the look will be regarding the concavity difference between front and rear, it's really going to depend on the wheel choice you make. I have Weds TC105N 17x8+42 in front and 17x9+35 in rear. You can tell a slight concavity difference between the two only if you're really paying attention. I've got 235's in front and 245's in rear so the stagger isn't that drastic as far as the footprint is concerned.

Which wheels were you thinking of?

Square if you like neutral to oversteer and staggered if you like understeer.

Thanks for the answers guys. The practicality of a square set up seems to be the way I'll go.

I'm planning on getting the Eibach R2 springs if they release soon enough, and I am into stance, but not when convenience and practicality is sacrificed too much.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27925

Those are my current wheels of choice. My runner up is a set of bronze Forgestar F14s

You meant the Eibach Multi-pro r2 coilovers, right? (not springs)

good choice, I am waiting for the same (r1 will do for me, r2 is overkill for streets in my opinion)

For a DD, the R1 would be more practical.

Good looking wheels, I considered the Enkeis as well.

The only reason I havent switched to staggered from square is the additional weight would vastly affect how much power I get down to the ground. You should google how wheel weights affect dyno outputs.

Yea i meant the coils, don't know why I said springs lol.

But thanks to both of you for suggesting I get the R1 variant. That should surely save me a couple hundred. (Or free up a couple hundred that I'll spend on the car elsewhere :) )

I've asked this before as well. There was some good answers/discussion.

Thread: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26084

@tdoggy57 did you go through with these? I'm having the exact same dilemma right now with these exact same rims. Not sure if I wanna go square/staggered. Like you, these will be DD and stocks will be track. I prefer oversteer, hence leaning on square 18x19.5 but main qusetion is uneven concavity "normal"? I'm dropped 1.25" too if that helps.

I've got the Enkei Kojins in 18x8.5 square. They are amazing. I get a ton of compliments. The square setup just feels good. I'm sitting pretty low on st coils right now and have a bit on neg camber going and they shit pretty flush without any spacers. Very happy with these wheels.

8.5 square