Tire/Wheel help for my 17 base GT

[2panther]

I'm running dedicated winter tires and stock GT wheels right now and I'm starting to look at summer tire packages on American Muscle. I came across these wheels which I have loved on the older GT500 cars.

https://www.americanmuscle.com/matte-gt500-2015.html

According to AM they will fit no problem but there is only one photo of them on the S550 in the customer photos section, anybody out there running them that can share a photo or two?

Also, I can get them bundled with Sumitomo tires for a good price that uses 245/45R19 tires. My last car was a Honda Accord so I've never bought "performance" tires before and I think the OEM width tires of the P Zero's were 235. Is the 245 a good width or should I look at going wider like a 255?

It's my daily driver and I don't currently and have no plans to track the car or do anything other than maybe some spirited highway driving in mexico.

Just looking for a little guidance here before I pull the trigger, thank you!

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[Labradog]

Personally, I wouldn't get anything narrower than a 9" wheel and 255 tire. That's what I have now, but I'm looking to eventually upgrade to a 10" wheel and 275 or 285 all around.

 

[2panther]

Personally, I wouldn't get anything narrower than a 9" wheel and 255 tire. That's what I have now, but I'm looking to eventually upgrade to a 10" wheel and 275 or 285 all around.

I've never had a car like this before and only ever bought OEM tires for my other cars when they needed them.

I'm looking at these two now. First set has a satin finish and second is flat.

First set is a 19x10 wheel and fitted with 285/35/19 tires and the second set is a 19x9.5 wheel but also fitted with 285/35/19 tires. I don't track the car, I don't drag it or do autox events, it's just my daily driver and the occasional spirited take off when a local S4 driver (there are a million in my area) wants to give me a go from a stop light.

A coworker who drives an STi told me 285 would be too wide for the front , any truth to that?

I've spent the last hour reading threads on here and I'm even more confused about wheels and tires. Between, offsets, poke, spacers and tucking I can't seem to wrap my head around it.

 

[Labradog]

Lots of people run 285 on the front. Between those two I’d go with the GT7 option you have listed first.

 

[NightmareMoon]

You can get a 305 on the front if you get the offset and camber right. 285 requires almost no effort. Most of the 10" wide wheels designed for the S550 work easily are plug and play with 285s

Smaller offsets push the wheel away from the strut towards 'poke'. Backspace increases when offset decreases. Spacers subtract offset and add backspace.
So a 45mm offset wheel, with a 10mm spacer, is effectively the same position as a 35mm offset wheel with no spacer.

You can only run about a thin <=5mm spacer with stock studs before you get too lug nut little thread engagement on the last few threads of the stud.
Bolt on spacers can be made in 25mm or wider (they need to be wide to make space for the extra nuts they use).
If you want to run a slip on spacer >5mm or if you want any sort of spacer between 5mm and 25mm you can do so but you'll need to replace your stock length studs with longer studs. Slip on spacers sandwitched between your hub and wheel on longer than stock studs are always preferred to bolt on spacers. The bolt on spacers introduce new weak links because your wheel is effectively held on with 10 nuts instead of the usual 5, with 5 spacer nuts holding the spacer to the hub and 5 lug nuts holding the wheel to the spacer.

 

[2panther]

You can get a 305 on the front if you get the offset and camber right. 285 requires almost no effort. Most of the 10" wide wheels designed for the S550 work easily are plug and play with 285s

Smaller offsets push the wheel away from the strut towards 'poke'. Backspace increases when offset decreases. Spacers subtract offset and add backspace.
So a 45mm offset wheel, with a 10mm spacer, is effectively the same position as a 35mm offset wheel with no spacer.

You can only run about a thin <=5mm spacer with stock studs before you get too lug nut little thread engagement on the last few threads of the stud.
Bolt on spacers can be made in 25mm or wider (they need to be wide to make space for the extra nuts they use).
If you want to run a slip on spacer >5mm or if you want any sort of spacer between 5mm and 25mm you can do so but you'll need to replace your stock length studs with longer studs. Slip on spacers sandwitched between your hub and wheel on longer than stock studs are always preferred to bolt on spacers. The bolt on spacers introduce new weak links because your wheel is effectively held on with 10 nuts instead of the usual 5, with 5 spacer nuts holding the spacer to the hub and 5 lug nuts holding the wheel to the spacer.

So with either of the sets I was looking at above require any spacers or need camber adjustment anything to look right?

Thank you for the explanation btw

 

[NightmareMoon]

So with either of the sets I was looking at above require any spacers or need camber adjustment anything to look right?

Thank you for the explanation btw

If you can provide a link to the sets, I'd be happy to check the offsets real quick.

 

[2panther]

If you can provide a link to the sets, I'd be happy to check the offsets real quick.

Opps, my apologies.

First set
https://lmr.com/item/WTK-122902H/mustang-sve-gt7-wheel-tire-kit-19x10-black-15-18-ohtsu

Second set
https://lmr.com/item/WTK-1007DES2/mustang-flat-black-sve-drift-wheel-achilles-tire-kit-19X9-5

 

[NightmareMoon]

First set GT7 19x10 ET35 is a nice flush offset and a good match for 285 tires. I'd pass on the Ohtsu mystery budget tires for a better tire which maybe doesn't offer quite so high of a profit margin to LMR, perhaps.

The 19x9.5" SVE drift wheel is a more perfect match for 275/40 tires in most cases, but 285/35 is fine, really. Slight bulge usually, but not very noticeable. The SVE drift is like 1/4" more inset at the wheel than the 35 offset 10" wide GT7s, which is at less risk of poke in the rear with stock camber settings. A 35 offset 19x10 will be slightly poked out in the rear with stock camber. With a bit of extra camber they can be very flush. The front with either will be be tucked in some (less so than a stock Ford wheel, but not as flush as you can get it with a dedicated non-square setup for with spacers).

So you're good to go with either, but I'd honestly recommend shopping around for better all-season tires.

 

[poncho@home]

You can get a 305 on the front if you get the offset and camber right. 285 requires almost no effort. Most of the 10" wide wheels designed for the S550 work easily are plug and play with 285s

Smaller offsets push the wheel away from the strut towards 'poke'. Backspace increases when offset decreases. Spacers subtract offset and add backspace.
So a 45mm offset wheel, with a 10mm spacer, is effectively the same position as a 35mm offset wheel with no spacer.

You can only run about a thin <=5mm spacer with stock studs before you get too lug nut little thread engagement on the last few threads of the stud.
Bolt on spacers can be made in 25mm or wider (they need to be wide to make space for the extra nuts they use).
If you want to run a slip on spacer >5mm or if you want any sort of spacer between 5mm and 25mm you can do so but you'll need to replace your stock length studs with longer studs. Slip on spacers sandwitched between your hub and wheel on longer than stock studs are always preferred to bolt on spacers. The bolt on spacers introduce new weak links because your wheel is effectively held on with 10 nuts instead of the usual 5, with 5 spacer nuts holding the spacer to the hub and 5 lug nuts holding the wheel to the spacer.

Great ELI5 here. Take your time and read this until you fully understand. It will make you almost completely literate in wheel fitment in terms of offsets, spacers and such.

For a daily driver like you mention, you also have to choose if you prefer the look of staggered or square. Staggered is wider rear tires, square is the same size front and rear.

Personally I am considering going to a 9.5"-10" wheel with a 285/35/19 all around. If I where to go staggered, I'd do smaller on the front, 255/40/19 on a 9" wheel. I'd get an offset that is about 15mm more aggressive than my stock setup, and to see how to calculate that you can http://willtheyfit.com to visualise the different sizes and offsets

 

[2panther]

First set GT7 19x10 ET35 is a nice flush offset and a good match for 285 tires. I'd pass on the Ohtsu mystery budget tires for a better tire which maybe doesn't offer quite so high of a profit margin to LMR, perhaps.

The 19x9.5" SVE drift wheel is a more perfect match for 275/40 tires in most cases, but 285/35 is fine, really. Slight bulge usually, but not very noticeable. The SVE drift is like 1/4" more inset at the wheel than the 35 offset 10" wide GT7s, which is at less risk of poke in the rear with stock camber settings. A 35 offset 19x10 will be slightly poked out in the rear with stock camber. With a bit of extra camber they can be very flush. The front with either will be be tucked in some (less so than a stock Ford wheel, but not as flush as you can get it with a dedicated non-square setup for with spacers).

So you're good to go with either, but I'd honestly recommend shopping around for better all-season tires.

Awesome, thank you for taking a look and the explanation for each set.

If I decided to go with the SVE Drift wheel, being 19.9x5", I'd be better off buying the wheels alone and shopping for a 275/40R19 tire for a better fit and not need to mess around with spacers or camber, right?

It almost brings me back to my original wheel choice based on looks alone.
https://www.americanmuscle.com/matte-gt500-2015.html

19x8.5 is a whole inch thinner but if I went staggered I can get it in 19x10 for the rear tire. I don't see the offset numbers on that page for them. How do you feel about these wheels in a square or staggered setup?

 

[NightmareMoon]

Personally, I'm not a fan of a staggered 8.5/10" combo. Its too much of a delta between rear grip and front grip, and you loose the ability to rotate the wheels to even out tire wear. I'm much prefer a square 9.5 or 10" wide set which I can rotate semi-regularly. 10" gives you the flexibility of running anything from a 255 to a 285 wide tire, so its hard to go wrong with a 19x10" wheel, even if you're starting with a narrower tire option.

When shopping for aftermarket wheels, its best to choose what tire width you want to run (255, 275, 285, 305) almost as a first step, and then pick the wheel width to fit your chosen tire (9", 9.5", 10", 11"). Then consider the wheel construction method (machined/cast, flow formed barrels with cast faces, or forged). The last thing I want is weak construction on a heavy wheel that is too narrow to allow me to run a nice tire width.

Factory wheels are not flow formed (or flow formed). They're cheaper to produce, but the bend barrels relatively easily. Often these wheels are quite heavy (added mass to increase strength).

However, the aftermarket is full of LOTS of good wheel offerings from SVE, MRR and others are Flow Formed aka Spun Forged, where the barrels of the wheel are basically spun forged, which makes them light and durable, and the wheel face remains cast/machined.. Beyond that a few wheels are entirely forged, including the wheel face. These are often the most expensive, but the strongest and lightest.

A good Flow formed wheel is probably 5-10 lbs lighter than factory or cheap aftermarket cast/machined wheels. They cost only a little more, but IMHO the lighter weight and resistance to pothole damage is well worth it. Anecdotally, I've bent two factory PP 19x9" cast front wheels. I've bent zero flow formed 19x10" wheels, despite being nearly 10 lbs lighter than the stock wheels.

So if you like those AM wheels, I'd call and ask them 1) are they flow formed or cast? (they're likely cast), 2) How much do they actually weight? Are they boat anchors? 3) what is the offset (which we can calculate from the backspace, but I don't have that in front of me right now). and do they fit on the front, even tho they are advertised for the rear. A ton of good flow formed 19x10" wheels will fit on the front of our cars, whats funny about these that they don't? Wheels cost hundreds if now thousands of dollars. Might as well get a little info before you buy.

 

[MidwayJ]

Those 19x10 AM wheels are +48 offset. That makes them more appropriate for rear than front. For a square setup stick with offsets in the 35-40 range.

 

[2panther]

Personally, I'm not a fan of a staggered 8.5/10" combo. Its too much of a delta between rear grip and front grip, and you loose the ability to rotate the wheels to even out tire wear. I'm much prefer a square 9.5 or 10" wide set which I can rotate semi-regularly. 10" gives you the flexibility of running anything from a 255 to a 285 wide tire, so its hard to go wrong with a 19x10" wheel, even if you're starting with a narrower tire option.

When shopping for aftermarket wheels, its best to choose what tire width you want to run (255, 275, 285, 305) almost as a first step, and then pick the wheel width to fit your chosen tire (9", 9.5", 10", 11"). Then consider the wheel construction method (machined/cast, flow formed barrels with cast faces, or forged). The last thing I want is weak construction on a heavy wheel that is too narrow to allow me to run a nice tire width.

Factory wheels are not flow formed (or flow formed). They're cheaper to produce, but the bend barrels relatively easily. Often these wheels are quite heavy (added mass to increase strength).

However, the aftermarket is full of LOTS of good wheel offerings from SVE, MRR and others are Flow Formed aka Spun Forged, where the barrels of the wheel are basically spun forged, which makes them light and durable, and the wheel face remains cast/machined.. Beyond that a few wheels are entirely forged, including the wheel face. These are often the most expensive, but the strongest and lightest.

A good Flow formed wheel is probably 5-10 lbs lighter than factory or cheap aftermarket cast/machined wheels. They cost only a little more, but IMHO the lighter weight and resistance to pothole damage is well worth it. Anecdotally, I've bent two factory PP 19x9" cast front wheels. I've bent zero flow formed 19x10" wheels, despite being nearly 10 lbs lighter than the stock wheels.

So if you like those AM wheels, I'd call and ask them 1) are they flow formed or cast? (they're likely cast), 2) How much do they actually weight? Are they boat anchors? 3) what is the offset (which we can calculate from the backspace, but I don't have that in front of me right now). and do they fit on the front, even tho they are advertised for the rear. A ton of good flow formed 19x10" wheels will fit on the front of our cars, whats funny about these that they don't? Wheels cost hundreds if now thousands of dollars. Might as well get a little info before you buy.

MidwayJ is correct, the offset for the rear 19x10 for the AM wheel is +48mm and the backspacing is 187mm. The front 19x8.5 wheel offset is +30mm with 150mm backspacing and they are cast wheels.

Trying to think of what I really want out of my new warm weather wheels and tires is just a good look (I know that is subjective) I've been ripping around here in NY on 235/50R-18 Cooper Discoverer True North dedicated winters on my stock base GT wheels with no problem so maybe I'm overthinking this? I'm not racing on a track or drag strip and don't plan on doing so.

Really just want/desire a set of matte or satin finish black wheels and a set of tires that fit and remove some of the stock look from my vehicle, does that make sense?

 

[MidwayJ]

MidwayJ is correct, the offset for the rear 19x10 for the AM wheel is +48mm and the backspacing is 187mm. The front 19x8.5 wheel offset is +30mm with 150mm backspacing and they are cast wheels.

Trying to think of what I really want out of my new warm weather wheels and tires is just a good look (I know that is subjective) I've been ripping around here in NY on 235/50R-18 Cooper Discoverer True North dedicated winters on my stock base GT wheels with no problem so maybe I'm overthinking this? I'm not racing on a track or drag strip and don't plan on doing so.

Really just want/desire a set of matte or satin finish black wheels and a set of tires that fit and remove some of the stock look from my vehicle, does that make sense?

Based on this, you don't need to spend big bucks on ultra lightweight, forged wheels. You could go with 19 x 8.5 all the way around if that exact style AM wheel is your highest priority. My .02 is wider wheels and tires will enhance your goal of "removing the stock look." Those SVE GT7s or something similar that's 9.5-10 inch wide with 35-40 offset would be the direction I would go.

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