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Just a quick question because im bored & we have a whole forum to ourselves so...

Ok I was thinking the other day about those wheels that have the rediculous offsets & stick out like 3-4 inches out of the fender. Now my question is, would it be possible to put like a 1 inch spacer on the hub that had holes for the lugnuts, then get some longer wheel studs & some ET lugs like I have to use on my racing wheels( this thread ). Thus giving your car a bigger footprint, without having to get special wheels with that kind of offset.

Does this make since?? Do any companies make these, is this already a normal way of getting extra offset?? Would this even be beneficial at all, or would this kind of thing cause too much stress on the suspension w/o extra modification?? Would it even be legal for STS?? & finally... Would anybody be willing to test this out??

 
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Its not uncommon. Only issue is that you have to make sure your ride height or Spring rates are high enough so that when you turn you dont take out a fender with the wheel.

These are 13X9s on a CRX

 
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Going with too much extra offset to widen the track often upsets the handling. There's a really great explaination of it in the July Sport Compact Car, where Prodrive sent them wheels for the Project STi that had 10mm less offset on them than the factory and they had issues with torque steer and camber limitations due to the fender lips.

 
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also the wheels sticking out to far can mess up your wheel bearings. this guy in the detroit region running in SM has 275's on a focus and after the first race he destroyed his wheel bearings.

 
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^^ all of the above is true, The wider the tire you run the more stress you put on the wheel bearings.. = Earlier Failier. But if we wanted our cars to last forever, we wouldnt be doing the things we do with them...

as far as Sport Compact Car running in to issues with their evo... well I dont really trust "Tuner mags" but heres my take on it. Yes, you can cause some problems if you alter the Offset To much. By making the tires stick out more, you are giving that wheel/tire more leaverage to use against the suspension (which is why the wheel bearings will wear out quicker). This can cause some handling problems. However, you can correct it by running Higher spring rates... (Giving the wheel more leaverage basically equates to lowering your spring rates, so to correct that, you run Higher spring rates). Then you have the issue of clearance of the fender, So you have to run High enough spring rates and anti-roll bars to reduce body roll to the point where even at the cars limits it doesnt contact the fender. For the torque steer, Not sure, it could have been alignment, it could have been them running stickier tires (the torque steer could have allways there but the original tires would just break free rather then griping) it could have been many things, including the change in offset.

 
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So, would doing this be legal for STS, or would it bump you up to Street modified?


Thanks guys

 
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I've heard of NOTHING more true

 
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THey are legal in Stock class, so they are legal in STS...

 
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Hmmmmmm....*rubs chin*

 
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One benifit of widening the track is a reduction in weight transfer...

 
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How long do wheel bearings usually last anyway? Assuming the car is put under "severe driving conditions," but is still on stock tires, etc, how long can you expect the wheel bearings to last? Also, how much of a decrease are we talking about when you use wider tires? Say from a 205 to a 225 (easily from upsizing from 205/55 to 225/45/17)?

Also, this is kinda offtopic, but I was kind of wondering something. I'm thinking of running rear s2k wheels on my RSX which is a 1" increase in width and (the sad part) is a 20mm increase in positive offset. End result would be approximately half an inch less of track width, but the mentioned 1" increase in width. Would this be a lose/lose situation? Not to mention if there is an increase in stress put on the wheel bearings?

Track width vs. contact patch?

BTW: I'm considering this because I have easy access to the rear s2k wheels w/ S03s mounted on them, instead of buying aftermarket, in which I would probably just get 7" w/ same tire size of 205/55 w/ +42 or +40 offset. (money is an issue so aftermarket is outta the picture right now).

 
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You are right, your gaining a bit of traction running wider tires, but you are also Increasing the amount of weight transfered by narowing the track. Best bet would be to run the new wheels with spacers so that you dont lose any trak width.

as far as how long wheel bearings last... Not sure, I've seen them last as long as 200,000 miles or as few as 50,000. and its not really the width of the tire causing extra stress, its the increase in track that allows the Wheel/tire to have more leaverage Vs the suspension.

I just realized, If you run the S2K wheels, your narrowing the track wich will 1. increase weight transfer and 2. Effectivly increase the spring rate of the car. So you'll have a slightly rougher ride because of it.

Like I said, your best bet is to run spacers to adjust the offset to stock spec.

 
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I've thought about spacers w/ the s2k wheels (and even on the stock wheels) but I've heard running spacers also puts more stress on the bearings, which brings me back to the original issue...I want to avoid putting more stress on the wheel bearings. I guess I better stick to stock wheels w/ only 205s.

 
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How bad would the extra stress be if it was only for a few minutes once a month?? And, how much work/money does it take to replace the bearings, i've done it on a 73 dart, but not on a Japanese car.

 
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If you run Falken Azenis or Kumho Exta MX, I believe the width is severly underrated. The 205/50/15, are actually around 218mm(I think).

If you can get some really light 15X7 wheels, with those tires, it would be a really good combo, unless youre in stock class, then slicks would be even better. If youre broke(like me) ebay is great for cheap ****. I bought a set of Kosei wheels, 15X7 @ 12lbs, with 2 Azenies, $300+ shipping, few scratches, but hell theyre race wheels.

 
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I dont think you are going to run in to any wheel bearing issues by running spacers to get the offset back to stock. If you exceeded stock then ya, but not to get back to stock.

 
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The 225 S02's on the s2ks are underrated too.

 
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^^ the Azenis/MX are supprisingly Stickier and have stiffer side walls then the S02s..

 
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One reason I'm interested in running the 7.5" wide s2k wheels, is the ability to run 225/50 tires. They would bulge too severely on the width of the stock RSX wheels and probably rollover too easily. Even though it's 205 vs 225, would 205 Azenis's still be better than 225 tires?

Also, is there an affordable tire out there w/ decent treadwear and stiff sidewalls? I.E. Azenis's vs. ES100s...stiff sidewalls, low treadwear, vs. soft sidewalls and good treadwear. I'm looking for something in between for daily drive use.

 
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Falken Azenis have an amazingly stiff side wall.... Falken put some steel belts in the sidewalls for reniforcement. Its funny to watch the people trying to install them on a wheel... it ushually takes 3 of them. So no mater what wheel you put them on your not going to get any tire deflection out of them. I've seen 205/50-15s mountedn on 8" wheels with no problems, in fact it seems as if the Azenis likes to be mounted on a wider wheel then nomal for the tire width. are the S2000 wheels 16's or 17s? If they are 16s I'd suggest the Azenis in 215/45ZR16 if its a 17 then 225/45ZR17

 
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For daily driving... I wouldnt use the Falkens... the ES100 would be a good choice, as well as the S03. But if you are looking for maximum dry traction and performance then you would be hard pressed to find somethign better then the Kumho MX or Falken Azenis.

 
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Yea I know the Azenis have very stiff sidwalls (that's why us RSXs use them even if we have massive sidewalls w/ our stock size of 205/55).

The S2000 wheels I have access to are 16x6.5" and 16x7.5". I found someone who actually was able to mount the 7.5" wheels on the front of the RSX (I thought only 2 pairs of the 6.5" wheel would fit). If mounting the 6.5" wheel, I would lose 20mm of track width compared to about 15mm w/ the 7.5" wheel. But the main thing would be the extra inch of width. That's why I was thinking if there'd be an advantage of using the 7.5" S2000 wheel, gaining an inch in wheel width and 225 series over 205, but losing track width.

So I'm thinking if I could benefit from using 225/50 over 205/55, comparing 205 Azenis vs. a good 225 tire....if one would have an upper hand anyway due to tire size availability, etc.

Also, if I do end up w/ the Falkens, I wouldn't daily drive them...that's why I'm looking for a cheap daily driver tire. Falkens are about the same price as the ES100s which I've heard are a great all around tire, but lacks sidewall strength. So I'm wondering if there is a compromise between both...a cheap tire w/ decent treadwear and decent sidwalls.