What could be in the box?!

[dnick454]

So much for the teaser, like an idiot I snapped a picture of the side of the box with all the details

Oh well, it'll still be a mystery to those with bad eyesight!!! MWAHAHA





I bet Drizzoh knows what's in the box

[lax22pearl]

rotas

[dnick454]

They aren't forged, but they ain't Rota's either. 17x9 TR Motorsports C3 in Carbon Grey. I'm not sure I can even slide a piece of paper between the rim and strut... spacers will be a necessity.

[drizzoh]

Hey I had those. Def a nice wheel. Rumors are they're manufactured by Enkei.

[dnick454]

Yup! ^^^ Very lightweight for a cast wheel of its size. I kept debating back and forth if they would clear the front struts or not based on my measurements (aka guestimates feeling around behind the wheel) and finally decided to pull the trigger on a wheel and just buy it for fitting purposes. By far the funniest reaction was by the guy behind the desk at TireRack (I live in NW Indiana and South Bend is a gigantic distribution/installation/testing facility so I just drove on over there to check out some wheels).

I asked the guy, "Hey, could you check and see if you have a specific wheel in stock in this warehouse currently" and as many of you are aware, you can't simply browse by wheel size. It's all categorized by which vehicle it fits... so I told him to look up wheels for an 08 Mazda RX8 (same bolt pattern, hub, but more aggressive sizes offered) to find the the one I was looking for. After finding it, he made a call to someone else in the facility and asked me what it was going on. I almost didn't even want to tell him because I knew they'd hassle me but I told him it was for a 2010 MZ3 iTouring and after talking to this guy for a minute, he puts down the phone, turns to me and says, "Yeah, that's not going to fit..." I almost wanted to tell him to STFU and sell me the wheel but instead told him that I understood what I was getting myself into. He still insisted that it was going to rub the strut, poke an inch and a half more than my stock wheel, and need a gigantic tire which "wasn't suited for my vehicle". I reassured him I was aware of all of the above and proceeded on my way. Pretty funny what some consider a rather conservative fitment (you guys), the guys at Tire Rack looked at me like I was high on PCP

Enough with the chit chat, picture time!

[dnick454]

FACK!!! I think even a credit card is too thick to fit between wheel and strut. Spacers will be mandatory

[lax22pearl]

shit. sorry. lol. i saw TRM and thought tarmacs, buuuut yeah a 3 or 5mm spacer will do and i think it'll look great

[dnick454]

Update, went to a towing place and found a used 245/40-17 for 45 bucks and grabbed it for some test fitting. Seems to be on the wider side of 245's because it looks pretty square on the 17x9 yet my dads 245/40 Continental DWS looks almost a wee bit stretched on a standard 17x8.5. It's a Cooper Zeon something or other.

Rubs the dirt right off the strut with the tire on and makes this beautiful humming noise. It only barely doesn't clear though. 3mm spacers should solve it. I'll upload a few pictures later of the fitment. It only slightly pokes.

[lax22pearl]

planning on 245's? for what? will you be autoxing or something? I don't see the need for that much tire on a street car. just my thought. I think you would be fine with a minor stretch 225

[dnick454]

I thought about doing some stretch but I feel like it would look pretty ridiculous at my stock ride height. Not to mention, the same diameter tire, a 225/45-R17 I feel would just look goofy with stretch and that big of a sidewall. I'm not really willing to go a smaller diameter tire because ride quality would suffer and it'd just increase wheel gap. I saw the 245/40-R17 tire and went for it because it would be pretty much the max size I'd want to run and have to check clearances for and since it ended up fitting, I figure why not.

If a 245 fits, why run something smaller, would be my mindset. I don't have a low enough offset to get any amount of significant poke to pull off the stretched look so I'm going with sortaflush/track-ready haha

Here's what the tire looks like. Fit's more like a 255 :wow:


Rollin fat!

[drizzoh]

I fit 255/40 hankook rs3's on those wheels and it was a sick combo. I probably wouldn't run a 255 for dd though unless you wanted to install some mud flaps. IMO a 245/45 would be best for dd if you're not into stretched tires... which I'm not sure this style of wheel could pull off anyway. The way I see it, if you're running a stretch, you better have some dish. Since you do want some proper fitting tires, I'd say you shouldn't go with anything less than a 5mm spacer up front to clear the strut since the tires might stick out from the wheels a bit.

[dnick454]

Check out my above post. I just updated it with how the tire fits. That's a 245/40-R17 Cooper Zeon 2XS or something like that.

[dnick454]

Stock 205/55-16






245/40-17







I'd tell you it's a tight fit, but a picture is worth 1000 words in this case rofl...

[lax22pearl]

wow that is close. and yeah i get your point and that does look good. if i could fit 245's i would since i like to race lol but there is no way i can unless i raise my car up

[dnick454]

You could easily pull off 245's, except it'd be like 18x9 +45 and I don't think offsets that high interest you haha. You could still probably go somewhere in the middle with like 235/35-18 on a 18x9.5+38 ish

In the meantime... MOAR PIX!

Sunken like the Titanic...






FIXED!!!






Front pokes a bit more and this is WITHOUT spacers
Will definitely need a bit of camber (will handle awesome anyways) and little "persuasion" with the front fenders.





Enjoy!