michelin pilot super sports on wedssport sa-10r 18"
 

I am trying to decide on 235x35 or 245x35 for either a 18x8.5 or 18x9.5 wedssport sa-10r wheels.

which would be a better fit for either the 18x8.5 or 18x9.5?
i'd imagine 40 or 45 would be too much tire or too meaty?
I'd prefer to NOT have the tire stretched or have TOO much tire on the wheel if possible

this would be my daily driver and I am planning on having a dedicated track set of wheels/tires w/o tpms.

I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to all the equipment stuff and am trying to learn everyday so I had some additional questions.

going +1 on my wheels to 18" from the stock 17" will this affect or increase my ground clearance in any way since the wheel/tire diameter is technically larger?

if so, is this the reason why individuals lower their cars to minimize wheel gap? and to make it look better?

question about offset, is it best to keep it close to the stock offset of 48 as possible? the lower the offset number would mean that the tire will stick out more?
being that i am interested in either a 8.5 or 9.5 width for my wheel which is higher than the stock 7 width, i'd imagine keeping it as close to the 48 stock offset would be best to not have the wheel poke out?
the diameter of the wheel doesn't play to the offset as much as it would the width correct?

final question, i plan on running the above setup with everything stock for the time being, will i run into any adverse issues with the car in terms of functionality and reliability? tire wear, wheel/tire rubbing..etc?


thank you everyone in advance, again i am a bit of a novice and trying to learn the best I can.

This is all I have to add here:

STEVE HOLT!

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/pho...9-1280-720.jpg

steve holt!

The car in my sig is running 225 A/S 3s on 18x8.5 wheels, for reference. I think 45s would be pushing it a bit much.

gearing reasons alone you should avoid 235/40 or 245/40 tires

offset is totally dependent upon wheel width. There is a balance factor here.

for 18x8.5 or 18x9.5 you probably need between +38 and +40.

+48 is too much

Lowering the car will help reduce the wheel gap.

You wont have any weird tire wear just from swapping wheels/tires.

Would 45 offset be ok? Or would that sit too far in and rub? Both wheels are offered in 45 offset.


What would an appropriate tire size be for either of the wheels I'm looking at?
I'm looking at the Michelin pilot super sports in 18.

Would 235x35 or 245x35 be ok compared to the 235x40 / 245x40 you wouldn't recommend due to gearing reasons?

+45 might be a bit much for 9.5 on stock suspension. I had 18x9 +40 for a while, and it was REAL close to the strut.

235/35 or 245/35 will work. 245/40/18 could work but gearing will be raised(not good, since our car is slow to begin with) and it might rub when turning wheel all the way left/right.

I had 245/40/18 on 18x9 +40 for a while, and it worked just fine...but ymmv. If I did it over, I would just buy proper size from the start (235 or 245 with 35 sidewall)

I think I can help, maybe a lot. I spent A TON of time (months) choosing these wheels and tires. My factors and goals were the following. Since I'm at work (on lunch) I can't get into as much detail as I would like, but I can tell you my factors and thoughts. I chose to pay special attention to the following.

I run WedsSports SA10-Rs in 18x8.5x45 with 235/40/18 Dunlop Direzza DZ102s on RS*R Sports-i s dropped -1.6" . I run about -2.7 camber in the front and -2.2 in the rear. After install I wanted a more flush look so I added extended studs and 15mm H&R alloy spacers (which are hubcentric and very light weight). If Weds offered the same wheel in a lower offset I would have bought those.


Performance
"European" feel that increased the limits of the stock setup without gaining so much traction that the car was no longer fun on the street.

Comfort
Improved comfort that could work with either the stock suspension or an aftermarket suspension on California's notoriously horrible roads. For this reason I chose 8.5" square wheels that could fit in the front with no clearance issues at full lock. My concern was that 9.5" wide wheels in the front wouldn't clear it.

Budget
Wheel - No more than $400 per wheel (spent about $300 ea.)
Tire - No more than $150 per tire (spent about $125 ea.)
Mounting balancing and lifetime rotations - $100
Alignment - $125 @Lang Racing - Irvine, CA

Tire compound - Newer technologies had to be in there, this nixed many older tires. The Dunlop Direzza DZ102 was a new design for April 2014.
Speed rating - Z speed rated was not necessary for my goals
Tread design - Needed to allot for tire rotation as well as have decent should blocks for at the limit grip. This DQ'd a lot of tires.
Tire weight - Big heavy tires add weight at the place where you don't want it at the edge of the rolling stock.
Tread pattern width - Because I was going with slightly taller tires, the tread width needed to be <= the wheel width (8.5"). Importantly it's been noted that on the track anything wider than 225 starts to see diminishing returns on this car. For AutoX, you want as wide and sticky as you can get and this generally means a seperate set of AutoX duty wheels.
Tire dry feel - In SoCal pure summer tires are generally ok, but they also raise the limits of the car so high that the car would lose some of it's playfulness at lower speeds. Initial bite couldn't be shark like. So this ruled out Michelin PSS, Hankook RS3, Dunlop ZII, and RE-11s
Wheel weight - For 18" they needed to be at or less than OEM. The 8.5 wide version accomplished this. The 9.5 does not (IIRC).
Wheel width - 9.5 wouldn't fit in the front under the stock suspension. Even though I changed the coils, I wanted the flexibility just in case I had to send a coilover in for rebuild because this is my DD.
Wheel mfg technique - Flow formed wheels seem to offer the best of both worlds (lower cast-type cost, with higher forgedesque strength and failure characteristics (bending instead of cracking)) FOR THE PRICE. Yes purely forged wheels are stronger, but the cost was just too high for a car that wasn't going to see the track that often. Also, Weds are a brand I've seen reliably tracked and currently Michele Abbatte is using the exact same wheel (SA10-R) on her NASA car which she beats on.
Overall rolling circumference - I am ok to raise the gearing slightly by slightly increasing the rolling circ to gain more sidewall and thus street comfort. No rubber bands here, but also they don't look "meaty". The are slightly tucked under the fender so it would be hard to tell that they are slightly taller (9mm) than the stock circumference.


Here are pics of the car from today (mostly)

Album link - 8 pics
http://imgur.com/a/ue2Zv

With 15mm spacers and 1.6" drop
http://i.imgur.com/1BRY2F1.jpg?1

Without 15mm spacers and 1.25" drop
http://i.imgur.com/ALzyV4Y.jpg?2

Ps how much would my mpg or fuel economy be affected by going +1 , it would decrease ?

I think I'm gonna go 18x8.5 all around since I plan on staying stock
I should be ok with 18x8.5 stock and not have risks of rubbing and what not?

with wider, sticky tires you'll probably go down 1-3mpg or so. If you want, I can find my fuelly, and you can see the mpg I had from stock to 18's. It wont really be all that noticeable, though.

18x8.5 with the proper tire should be good with no rubbing.

Thank you very much for this post! I've decided on 18x8.5 now. Now for tires...

Ps - are wheel alignments required each time a new set of wheels and tires are put on? My car has about 2200 miles so far and I'm the first and only owner

No problem. I'm very happy with the decision to go 8.5, even though the 9.5s are more concave. Mine are lighter, and can be rotated. Big plusses in my book.

You won't have to align just for wheels and tires. I got mine aligned because I added camber bolts, then again later when I added coilovers.

If you can post the fuel stats that would be greatly appreciated

Thank tou