JimBR0

Previous threads have talked about the guys from "Car Creations" and the owner Paul Newman, but I don't believe this has been asked. They recommend when they install the '85-87 style Corvette suspension so as not to have to widen the wheel wells, they they go on to mention suggested wheel dimensions as the following:
17" wheel
7.25" backspace
and then they say an 8" - 8.5" wheel
Do they mean bolt pattern or depth of wheel? I have e-mailed them and have not heard, so I thought I would ask here in the meantime.

While I'm at it, does a Torque Thrust II come in that size?

Thanks for all your help gang!

Jim

Twin_Turbo

They mean negative offset wheels with that much backspacing and rim width (you have the specs right there), this is done to keep things under the stock wheel wells. the spindle to spindle width on the later suspension is quite a bit wider so if you run 0 offset (or close to) wheels you will need flares. Another thing is that the wheels with less backspacing increase the scrub radius, this makes turning the wheel harder, especially on low speeds.

JimBR0

Thanks Twin_Turbo! Can you point me in a direction of a good looking wheel that meets these requirements?

Thanks in advance,
Jim

Twin_Turbo

Look for a wheel thread by monty, I can't remember which wheels they were but he had some good looking neg. offset wheels he was looking at.

JimBR0

Sure enough...
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=399352

Thanks!

Twin_Turbo

Found it :) They were kinesis wheels (just remembered) so I did a search on that (gawd the search function on this forum sucks, searched for a topic title with the word wheels in it by monty in both recent and archived and it found nothing.. duh)
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=509103

spikezz4

The 85-87 Corvette suspensions are the same width (nearly) in the front, and ax. 3" wider in the back than a C3. The 88-96's fronts increase their front widths ax. 3", too.

We shortened each half shaft on the 85 donor suspension by 15/8", which will keep the tires in the wells using P285-40R17's, with I think 75/8" backspacing. We found that if we simply use Corvette wheels from GM, backspacing majically works out. We will use 17x91/2" rims all around to be able to rotate the wheels.

Spike

NHvette

That conversion sounds really cool. I almost wish I hadn't just restored
most of mine. Oh well. Maybe I can be convinced.

Michael - do you have a website or posted pics of your conversion ?

Marck - You're gonna have to change your username to "MrSuspension"


:yesnod: :seeya

JimBR0

Spike if you have any pictures of your "transformation", I would love to see them. Sounds like what I am trying to accomplish. Keeping the body lines of the C3 original but upgrade the handling.

Thanks in advance,
Jim