case ace

HEY 2007,

please post some pics of yours when you get them mounted. I'd like to see them. My brother has a black '08 on order and is looking for nice black wheels, and I think the wieght is great too. Also post any mounting info you may have.
thanks

2007GT/CS

I have to wash it first [:'(] but I promise I'll get some up.

I ended up going with the BFG KDW2s in 275/35Z18. Makes the wheel well look a little emptier again <shrug>. I went 275 on the advice of a friend I trust on such matters instead of the 285s. Saying that though, the 285s would fit.

The stock lugs will not fit the 5zigen wheels. You'll need some of the bulk after market chrome 'no names'. The tire shop threw those in for nothin'.

Something I don't like is the gunmetal (bronze?) center caps that come in exactly one color. Gotta figure out what to do about those. Also, those nice 5 spokes now expose the fugly stock calipers....

Bought them from racinglab.com.

F1Fan

Hi steelcomp,

Who'd thunk it? Not me that's for sure. Ibought the 19" wheels because I liked the old Trans-Am style wheelsand I founda new set at an excellent price. Who knew the tires I wanted would be hard to find? I've just been waiting for them to come back in stock at Tire Rack but at this pace I may just try to find a set locally and pay the higher price. I didn't buy them for their lightweight because they are not very light but they are O.E. quality and meet TUV specs. I'm all forlightweight wheels on the track but on the street they have to be reasonably strong to survivethe routinepothole here and there.

But anyway I had the car up on the stands last night and was looking at the suspension (what else) to tinkerwith a front anti-roll bar noise I have been fighting with. It seems that my early Steeda front anti-roll bar has these beautifully finished holes whichsome niceperson at Steeda deburred and the spacers that Steeda uses as standoffs for the Steeda Adjustable StreetLinksjust manage to just fit inside these 45 degree recesses which causes them to deform under torque and normal loads making them a bit loose and noisy. So while simultainiously scratching my head while wondering what the heck they were thinkingwhile tring to figure out how I was going to solve this littleproblemI was looking atmy prettyblue Steeda coilover strut and my favoritelittlechunks of green modeling clay sitting touched but not compressed or missing on top of the strut bodies.Ialsochecked the rear axle for marks (I use strips ofcandle wax stuck on theframe rails where the bumpstops hit the body). The rear axletelltales showed some wear, maybe a bit more than the front (which was basically none)but not a lot. Whatthe greenclay and candle waxtold me isthat I'mbasically O.K. at this ride height and spring rate at leastin terms of bottoming out as they were still there and not smashed to bits as I though they should have been given the spring rates I knew you said you were running on your coilovers.

So I'm thinking that I'm going to try changing the springs to thesame rates as Steeda Sport springs in front and go 10lbs. lighter thanSteeda'sSportsprings in backand see what this does. I know it will be riding softer andI want to raise the spring seats anyway with the taller 27.7" tall PJ wheels and tires so I'll recoupe some ride height to compensate for the softer spring rates but the tires will still be pretty much crammed in the wheel wells. And while these thoughts had crossed my mind I figured out that I could usenice little hardened and flat ground 7/16"washers under the anti-roll bar stand-offs on both ends of the links that I had sitting in my roll-a-way to solve the problem.So just about the time the new springs show up I'll know if the washers fixed the problem or not but so far so good!

You know I was thinking (I know not a good idea)that maybe one of the reasons your coilovers need such high spring rates to stay off the bumpstops is that your strut bearing assemblyheight is taller than the stock dimensions. Did you measure your coilovers before installing them? This would leave you less useable travel than whatSteedaused whichappears to have beenbased on stock dimensions for strut tube height, maximum piston travel, freestrut rod lengthand strut mountstack heightdimensions. I measured the SteedaHD strut mounts that I reused when I installed the Steeda coilovers and they are actually a tiny bit shorter than the stock strut mounts when assembled. The Steeda coilover tube is based on the D-Spec strut body and is identical in all of the major structural dimensions with muchthicker material used forthe anti-roll bar mounting tabs (3x as thick) and hub mounting ears. The assembledcoilovers are identical to an assembled stock strut in overall length as measuredfrom the upper mounting tab holes to the top of the strut mount in the strut tower well. Steeda uses 2.5" I.D.10"free heightHyper Coil coilover springs. Anyway just a thought.

I don't have agood feeling about a 18x9.5 ET38 wheel all around on an S197 chassis. It sounds like it's either too wide or not enough offset to really fit even marginally.Some people even claim to like the "redneck pickup truck" look and I see an awfullot of the Shelby Razors on stock height Mustangs complete with the wheels sticking out look driving around. But to aguy who knows what they "should" look like in terms of O.E. fit quality they just look like the wrong wheels to me. I mean I've never seen a Porsche, Audi, BMW, Aston Martin, Jag, TVRor Ferrari with this look and those are nice cars all of them.

HTH!

F1Fan

Pictures Please!