Sc2DD117

My Mustang is basically all stock besides exhaust. I'm looking into starting to slowly upgrade the handling side of the car. My idea is upgrade the wheels/tires so that I can do brakes eventually. Which are the two things I really need.

Right now my car has the 17x8 inch stock rims and I'm thinking about going in between 18x9 to 18x10 or 19x9 to 19x10. I'm ONLY going to do standard fitting. I know that x10s can rub a little on the front and because of my INSANE driveway I think that x10s could be an issue (driveway is at a 90 degree angle haha) So I guess that puts me at x9.5s or 9s.

My question, is how do I find rims that will fit the car right? I've heard things like offset being important but I dont know what a Mustang has, or what will fit on one. I don't like rims that stick out more than a TINY bit past the fender, so I'm assuming I need the stock offset? Any help would be appreciated, especially if you have a handling setup that works well.

chrumck

I understand you want to upgrade to GT500 Brembo calipers.

The stock 07 GT500 rim has these dimensions: 7.125" backspacing, 45 mm offset, 18" x 9.5" wide

One thing you have to be very careful about is the horizontal spoke clearance. The spokes have to bulged out and close to the outer edge of the rim in order to clear the Brembo caliper, these calipers are really wide bastards. There are limited options if it comes to rim choice and you either have to have an option to return the rims or be damn sure they clear Brembos.

FR500GT

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jdmcbride

I have a steep incline on my driveway too, so lowering springs for me were out of the question - plus I really didn't want to compromise my ride quality. I did some research and found out that 95% of the handling improvement comes from adding good shocks/struts anyway. So I only replaced the OEM shocks/struts with Koni STR.Ts and WOW, what an improvement!

Since I didn't lower, I wanted to get wheels that would balance out the car and reduce the infamous 4x4 look that many have after adding wheels without lowering. After measuring front and rear wheel gap with my factory wheels and 255/45/18s, I determined that I would need a taller tire for the rear than my front tire. I had seen many that simply ordered a taller tire for the rear, but still had it on the same diameter wheel as the front (ex. 295/45/18 rear vs 255/45/18 front). I didn't like the look as it gave the car a jacked-up stance, but it did fill the rear gap as expected. So I decided to go a different route.

I went with the following setup:
Front 18x9 with 255/45/18s -> 27.0" diameter
Rear 19x10 with 275/40/19s -> 27.7" diameter



I figured if I am going to lose the ability to rotate by staggering, might as well go big... I did look at the staggered 19" wheel package, but the 19x8.5s with the 245/45/19s for the front increased the front diameter to 27.7". Having the same diameter tire in the front makes the rear tire have a larger gap which goes back to the 4x4 look (plus I like the look of the wider wheel/tire in the front).

My tire to wheel well gap now is only 1/2" more in the rear than the front, which I can live with - I think it looks great for OEM springs! My sidewall height from the wheel to the tread patch is 4.50" in the front and 4.35" in the rear, so there is no real decrease in ride quality from the larger rim on the rear. I do have more traction and spin less when really getting on the throttle (where my 255/45/18 Goodyear F1 Supercar tires would slip easily with my performance mods). Part of this additional traction comes from the wider tire and some comes from the larger diameter of the tire, but it handles much better in the twisties than I expected.



I can't take credit for this coming up with this setup though, I saw two brand-new 2011 GT500s side by side at my dealership one Saturday while getting my car serviced. I noticed that one really looked balanced and one had the 4x4 look. After looking at the sticker, the balanced looking one had the Performance Package. This performance package included 19s with 265/40/19s on the front and 20s with 285/35/20s on the rear. This set up had a larger overall diameter in the rear than the front and looked great -actually I had to verify that the front and rear wheels were different diameters as my eye could not detect the difference.

I got my wheels from American Muscle. They have several styles that have 18" and 19" options, so you have options (I like their new AMR wheels too!). And you just can't beat AM's customer service! Happy hunting!

BTW, here is a before with my factory OEM wheels with 255/45/18s...



It's amazing what 7 tenths of an inch will do! LOL

Sc2DD117

Right now I'm lookin at a set of 19x9.5 BBS LMs.

Unfortunately I forgot to ask the guy what the offset was... I wanted to see if anyone knew what the stock offset was and if they would work and look right.

I am also still curious as to if 19x9.5s is a good choice... It seems like it would be fine... I've read on several threads that a 10 inch tire on the front won't rub and I know that usually having relatively close tire/wheel widths helps handling. I also wonder if I lower the car down the road, if that will be an issue...

Overall I have to point out, this is a daily driver and although I (like everyone else with a half decent performance car) have a "Master Plan" for my car, many and most of mods are years away and I need to remind myself to be realistic... aahhhaha...

jsimmonstx

I was going to get the same wheels (in black), but I was going to go same size all around, and then lower the car with FRPP N springs.

It's really hard to judge height on a black car with black tires.

157dB

Here are the 05-10 OEM rim offsets:
16x7" rims - 39mm offset
17x8" rims - 45mm offset
18x8.5" rims - 50mm offset
Stay away from the earlier pre 05 OEM mustang
rims that only have 24mm of offset.

19" rims are a biatch to find 19" tires for and you will be
paying a premium if you find some you actually like.

iceguyb14

if i upgrade from the track package wheels (brembo wheels) ill most likely get the 19x9.5 SVE Drift Wheels. I love the style and it's very inexpensive.

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/...VE-Drift-19X95

Norm Peterson

Just to add to what 157db listed, the '07 - '08 GT500 wheels are 18 x 9.5 with +45mm offset.

255/45, 275/40, and 285/40 are probably the most common sizes fitted to these rims.

If you must have some visual 'stagger', you might be able to fit 295/45's on the rear on those rims (but you'll have to get a separate opinion on whether or not there would be any clearance issues especially if/when the car gets lowered).


Norm

mayo

Bolt Pattern: 5x114.3 or 5x4.5
Offset Range: +35 thru +45...if you have that, your in like sin man.

I'm all about visual stagger
18x9 255/45/18
18x10 295/45/18



If I do the stagger again it will be 275/45/18's in the rear, with the 255/45/18's up front. Imo the perfect stagger setup, but the 295's sure look purty meaty if that's the look your after