Noel Carboni

The dismal tire choices in 15" have finally pushed me to look for wheels that will accept actual performance tires. Seems a little silly to build a car that can exceed the tire rating in about 10 seconds. Only tires I can find nowadays are BFG Radial/TA.

I'm thinking along the lines of something deep dish in 17" x 8"ish or 9"ish that will fit. I already have offset Van Steel trailing arms and run 275 tires in the back; with those I still have some 3/4" clearance. Wider tires would stick out too much, I think. The tires should end up about the same diameter as stock: 27". 275-50-17 would get pretty close.

My preference is for a 5 spoke design that's very clean and elegant. At one time I digitally dummied up a photo of my car with some Impala SS wheels, which I know don't actually bolt up, but give the idea of the look I'm hoping for:



So... What wheels do you know about that will fit a C3?

Can custom wheels be ordered? Yes, I know that would be expen$ive.

SmokedTires

American Racing TT II's are a direct bolt on, and you can mount 17"x9.5" in the back with your offset t-arms. I think you'll have to go to their custom wheels though to get the correct backspacing. :cheers:

1979toy

My Summit catalog lists a Centerline Star that is avaiable in 17 inch with the correct backspacing and style that you are looking for.

flynhi

Take a look at American Racing Torque Thrust D's in 17". Also PS Engineering Halibrand look alikes in 17" Both will REALLY change the appearance of your CE. (which, IMHO, looks great as is).

tommelton

Welcome Noel. About time you got serious!

Tom Melton
82 CE
86 Z51 Coupe

MassVette

AR TT II's are a bolt on..........
There are also 17" rallye wheels available.


[Modified by MassVette, 7:30 AM 2/6/2002]

gkull

What ever you buy IMO 4.5 bs front is the max for shorter tires 26 or less and 4 inches for 26 + dia. Right now I have 17X9 fronts 4.5 bs with 255/50/17's and they touch the front 1 1/8 sway on lock on both sides with 550 LBS one inch shorter springs.

To me it's not a big deal I never push it over to lock in slow going parking lots anyway. But with a shorter tire it was fine.

The rear stay with max of 10 inch wheel with 5 inch bs without spacers.

gkull

Someone IM 'ed me about my take on why only 5 inch year BS. MY take on the whole thing is the weaker your rear spring and the more camber negative you have cuts down on max amount of Back Spacing.

Many many years ago. When I first felt the need for larger wheels. I ordered HD trailing arms with the E-brake moved with 5 inch bs wheels The first thing that i noticed is that the trailing arm was not the limitation. The frame rail at the top of the tire was only a fingers width from my sidewall with 27 inch tall tires and less than one degree of negative camber. You can crank the camber back out to less than 1/2 degree on my smart struts, but it only gained maybe anothe 1/4 inch.

This is my 79. You need to go out and just put your fingers between the sidewalls and the frame rails or any other close point. Then add your present back spacing and see what you max number is.

I'm running a spacers with my 17X11 rears.

terryrudy

Hey Noel, here are a couple 17" wheels that fit without spacers: http://www.bokonon.net/corvette/unused/PIC00016.JPG

-terry

Stingy74

I agree with almost everything Gkull has had to say. I'll also post my experiences. I wanted 9.5" wheels. The least amount of backspace I could get in a 9.5" wheel from Centerline was 5" (factory is 4"). My 17x9.5" 5" backspace Centerline wheels will not fit on the back of my car without one 3/8 spacer. This gives the necessary clearance for the calipers. One 3/8 spacer was also used on the front to clear the tie rods, but after further investigation I found that when we mounted my wheels on a completely stock 80 Corvette we didn't need the spacers up front. Infact, we had no choice. The stock studs were too short for use with a spacer.

The only thing modified on my rear suspension was the replacing of the park brake cable to the top of the trailing arm, which again, we found out we didn't have to do. The retaining clip that holds the cable in place just barley rubbed the wheels when they were mounted on the 80. We rotated the clip to a different location and proceded to drive the car for three days without problems. The only thing that scared me was the fact that we barley had enough stud grab on the lug nuts due to the shortness. This will cause alot of flex and i'd highly reccommend not doing this when the car will be driven in abusive applications. Before I got my 74 it allready had extended length studs.

The other thing that bothered me when the wheels were on my car was the fact that they inside of the wheel/tire came very close to the end of my 360lb monospring. I won't lie, I actually did some damage to the wheel (where it can't be seen) because of this. The only fix was to add another 3/8 spacer and tweak a little bit of negetive camber into the back. I totally didn't want the negetive camber with the way my IRS is setup but I had no choice. By now your probably thinking i'm crazy for running two seperate 3/8 spacers on the back, but I left on a two week holiday to the U.S. where I went to the drags, autocrossed, and drove 900 miles either way. I never once checked the torque on the wheels until I got back home. They were as tight as when I left. I'm not sure where the myth/rumor came from with regards to spacers. Maybe i'm just lucky, but I was never once worried about that. If my car wasn't so low in the back I would have never had this problem. The 10" adjustment bolts are what caused the problem. They brought the ends of the spring too close to the tire/wheel. If I had stayed with a 7" or 8" bolt the ends would have been riding inside of the wheel.

On my 74, the 17"x9.5" 5" backspace wheels with 245-45-17 (and all spacers installed) tires netted a perfect fit. They don't stick out in the back or the front and only rub the sway bar in the front in situations where you have to make full tilt u-turns and the like. This was done with completely stock trailing arms (other than the park brake thing) in the rear and there is still some clearance to be had. Enough that I feel confident about mounting 275 tires on the back. As Gkull said before, the frame is the real limiting factor in the back.

Now the only thing I can do about the two 3/8 spacers in the back (and the - camber) is to get Vette Brakes to make me a custom shorter spring. My measurements tell me that if they take 1.5"-2" out of the center I will have all the clearance I will ever need. The issue this brings up is that the springs end bolts will have to have a new location slot on either trailing arms so they will line up straight with the corresponding holes in the spring. I'm still thinking about this one, as Toms Differential's hompage lists some offset trailing arms, but they also say it requires a shorter spring. I'm going to get busy on this idea...


[Modified by Stingy74, 11:12 AM 2/6/2002]

Stingy74

I forgot to add that I also had to buy special acorn style lug nuts.

mrvette

Noel, I think a vette wheel looks best on a vette, not necessarily because of cost, but that is a consideration....IMHO....
for about a grand total....'92 turbine style wheels and adaptors from Vette Brakes and a set of tires is possible....modifying if necessary the ebrake cable location...I don't know anyting about the offset arms you have...missed that opportunity when I did mine some 5-6 years ago...

GENE

SuperFast80

I am going to risk sounding stupid and say keep the CE wheels. They are great and truly complete the CE look.

However, I will not cry if you change them for performance reasons. :lol:

Noel Carboni

I would, of course, put those beautiful CE wheels in the corner of the garage, next to the spare one I've accumulated, but I just came from the BFGoodrich G-Force TA/KD tire page. Let's see... BFG TA/KDW (I'm in Florida where it RAINS!) front 255/45ZR17, rear 285/40ZR17 seem like a good choice. :yesnod:

-Noel


[Modified by Noel Carboni, 2:56 AM 2/7/2002]

jdunne

Noel,I have 5spoke 17"Koenig Monsoons on my 74r with 255.50.17 nittos all round...I can't post a picture at the moment as the home pages aren't working....virtually any modern lower profile V/Z rated tire will be a significant handling improvement......proper shocks(ie Koni or similar)add to the result......john :chevy

Noel Carboni

Hey Terry,

>http://www.bokonon.net/corvette/unused/PIC00016.JPG

What are the wheels on the red car in the photo? They seem similar to C5 wheels, but look deeper dish. They're right on line with what I'm looking for.

By the way, can someone confirm the stock bolt C3 bolt pattern? Is it 5 x 4-3/4"?

-Noel


[Modified by Noel Carboni, 2:35 PM 2/7/2002]

terryrudy

Hey Noel, I replied to your email yesterday. Sorry if you didn't receive. :(

Anyway, that car is 71roadster's and the wheels are Boyd Coddington Timeless 5. You can email Chris about his wheels at stopher@pacbell.net.

good luck!
-terry

Noel Carboni

Thanks, Terry. Sorry to have made you type it twice; I didn't get the E-mail for some reason.

I've E-mailed Chris.

I found the look I want: Boyd's Genesis 5 wheels:


-Noel


[Modified by Noel Carboni, 9:33 PM 2/8/2002]

Casper

Does that mean you'll be selling your turbin wheels? 'Ol blue would look pretty good with them instead of stock '82s.

Noel Carboni

Sorry, Casper. I think I'll hold on to 'em for the day that an all-original CE sells for $150,000. :D

-Noel