In stock form, the coupe has an offset configuration of either a 225/50 front and 235/50 rear tire setup on 17" wheels or a 225/45 front and 245/45 rear tire setup on 18" wheels. The fronts are about 25.9" tall and the rears are about 26.6" tall in both cases. So in stock form, the rears are just over half-an-inch taller...(i realize everyone obviously knows this)

But I have noticed many of you (and on other owner's groups) have offset "widths", but yet are running the same heights front and back: ie: 245/40R18 front and 275/35R18 rear.

How does this look? Granted I haven't got under there and measured, but is the rear wheel well larger or the same size as the front? Is there more "space" in the rear wheel?

I think you get the gist of what I am asking.

 

The stock 18s are 8" wide at all four corners. The offset is +30mm. I just put on a set of Nismos, 8.5" front and 9.5" rear. The offsets were +25mm front and +30 mm rear. so the front sits out about .5" more (1/2 of .5" width increase plus the extra 5mm offset). The rears sit out about .75" more (1/2 the 1.25" width increase, no difference in offset). I really wouldn't want them out any further than this. So, the answer is yes, wider tires mean wider rims. BTW, I used 245/40/18 and 275/40/18 Dunlop SP9000s. Great rim tire combo.

It's funny though, wheels and tires use a combination of the metric system or the US customery system (inches, feet, etc) depending upon which measurement your talking about. In the early 80s, Ford tried to measure wheels in the metric system, and fell flat on it's face. No tire maker supported them except Michelin, I believe. That support was only half hearted at best.

Lou

 

Thanks for your comments, you did answer some of my future question, but unfortunately, I'm asking about tire "height" in this question.

As you indicated, you put 245/40 and 275/40 on (which is what I had planned), which keeps the front and rear height differences...

But as I have noticed, MOST people are going to same-height sizing, ie. 245/40 and 275/35...

I was wondering how this looks as in the rear filling the wheel well still since the rear tires are about .5" shorter than stock...

 

It's not how it looks, it's how it behaves. A lot of performance cars (eg. the "G", the "Z", the Vette, to name a few) are designed around the stagger. The car is set up to handle as designed and the VDC is set up with this stagger. I've read enough to know that I don't want to mess with it. As far as looks go, the rear wheel opening is designed for a 26.7" or thereabouts tire. To put a smaller one in would look funny. You could lower the car, but I wont be doing that. As far as I'm concerned, I made the right choice. My "G" looks better than the stock 18s did, handling is better thanks to the wider rubber and wheels, and the wheels are about 12 lbs. each lighter, less unsprung weight. Hope I answered it right this time.

Lou

 

Lou, you answered it right last time too, you just added more info for me the second time. I have to say that from everything I have "read", I completely agree with you, but I'm not "seeing" it in real life. I'm seeing a ton of people running same size height rears (like 245/40 and 275/35 on 18s, or 245/35 and 275/30 rears on19s, etc) and I would think that there would be some indication from them of a problem with VDC, etc>>> But there is none that I have found(???).

I don't like the look of a thicker rear sidewall which is what you get with the height stagger. The rears take on a look of being "meatier" which makes it look "muscle-carish" (just MHO).

The other option I was thinking to get the same size sidewall look, was to stagger wheels too (like the vet). 18s up front with 245/40s and 19s in back with 275/35 - same size sidewalls, but yet keep the taller rear wheels/tires.

 

You certainly could do that, that's why I referenced the Vette. They take a different approach to the stagger. Different size wheels in front, with the same height sidewall all around. I however like the look of the 18" in back, I guess I like the Gumball look. I guess you don't, as you've mentioned. I don't like the rubber band look, it's even worse with a 20". 20s to me look ridiculous. Also, from what I've heard, the 18"s in the back will accelerate faster, because of the give in the side wall that the 19s don't have. You've seen this magnafied on the drag strip. The 18s will also give a more plush ride than the 19s, due to the added sidewall.

To be honest with you, I thought about the same kind of stagger, only with 17s and 18s, like the Vette. But discarded the idea when I thought about clearence with the Brembos, and when I realized it would probably take a long time and be expensive to have a set of custom wheels made for me.

Lou