wheel info needed

[gosborne]

What are the specs on the 18” wheels in terms of backspace and offset? I’ve seen that some of you are running 11x18 front and 12x18 rear but, if I were to call CCW to buy wheels, what other info do I need??

[panozracing]

i run those wheel sizes. Talk to John @ CCW and tell him you want the same wheels that Milestone MotorWorx (Brian Goldburg) has. Squerly also bought those rims recently and he might know the exact specs. I never wrote it down and I just call CCW and they have the info on file!

Enjoy the BIG rubber!

[boothkc]

John at CCW can advise you. Basically you can get 10, 11, or 12" wide wheels. The GTS cars to be legal SCCA GT2 run 10's in the front and 11's rear. That is a lot of wheel for a school car unless you are planning something pretty wicked. Also Panoz used to run 18x10 BBS wheels and some of those are around.

I run the CCW 10 and 11s on my GTS and they are very nice, but expensive.

Kevin
GTS
GTRA

[jmimac351]

Originally Posted by boothkc

That is a lot of wheel for a school car unless you are planning something pretty wicked.

Are you saying it would have a negative performance impact on a school car?

[boothkc]

Negative impact........
Certainly you can have too much grip in a school car and run slower than a properly balanced car. The GTS cars have a lot more HP (450) and better shocks/springs than the school cars (about 250HP) and can make use of the larger tires and slicks. Fast lap times require proper set up to get the tire temps up for example. Also most of the school cars lack the frame bracing to support the extra loads of slicks or high grip tires (search this site and there is a good pictorial on how to check your car). You need to be able to "toss the car" around a bit and I think for example 18x11 and 18x12 slicks would not be ballanced for the car.
So unless you are putting a 500HP monster in the car not sure you need to go max on the tires.

For perspective my GTS will do 1:59s at our local track. The GTRA (stock engine 17" Hoosier R6s) will do 2:06s but is every bit as fun to drive and "feels" nearly as fast. A well driven Miata will do 2:09s, Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car 1:53s.

I assume you have 17" wheels now? Before you sink some $$$$ into CCW wheels try a set of R6s and see what you think. If you have already grown out of these shoes hang on! The original Pirelli street tires that came on the cars are totally worthless junk.

Just some thoughs!

Kevin

[gosborne]

Thanks for the feedback, Kevin. My car is a WC car that is undergoing a complete rebuild/restore at the moment. As part of that process well take care to be sure it is sprung properly and we'll have a reasonably stout SBF supplying power. At least that of the factory GTS create motors. Being that I'm not planning to race with SCCA, I have a little flexibility all the way around.

The car has the factory 9 1/2 x 18" BBS wheels but they are in pretty rough shape. I did speak to the guys at BBS and they have a few sets of the original 9 1/2 - 18 at just under $600/ea. Pricing for the CCW wheels that I was considering was $550/ea so, less money and I have flexibility on available widths.

I agree with your comments about being able to overdo it on tire sizes. My 944 cup car turned best lap times with 225 front 245 rears (Hoosier R6) but only by small margin over 225's all the way around. Both of those combinations were faster than running 245s all around. Running 245s all around felt sort of like running in big boots.

[jmimac351]

I have Penskes, springs, scales, and frame mods - just not much power. HP is for sissies. I'm pretty sure I could make use of more grip... I think the question is whether the money spent is worth it. I'm very familiar with CCW wheels. Good stuff.

[Cobra4B]

Actually... most of the cars on here have the chassis updates. We also istalled the larger rear trailing arms from the GTS and are running R6s on the stock 17x9s. Have 550 front springs and 350 rears w/ new konis and the GTS rear swaybar too.

Hard to beat wheels that are $500-$600 a set and cheap 275/17" tires.

That said... some CCW T-10s would look killer on the panoz and some 18x10 and 18x11 rubber would be awesome.