Hey Philostang,

I have the RS+M's with a 35mm offset and they have lots of room (several inches) from the stock calipers. The wheel spokes are farther toward the outside of the rim giving them tons of clearance. The new FP01's look similar to my RS+M's but come in wider rim sizes and offsets of 45, 35 and 15mm. I may look into to the RFP01 so I can move up to the 275 width NT-01s. I'm going though the 245's in 4-5 track days.

Cheers,

 

Here is shots of the 5Zigens. I only had stock calipers but they do look to have a lot of room:

 

So philo got the wrong offset and didn't even take pictures for us..phooey . j/k man sorry for your tribulations...

 

18 x 9.5 38 mm offset with H&R 25mm hubcentric spacers -

 

Wow! You have a 9.5" wide +38 mm wheel spaced out another 25 mm, bringing your effective offset to +13mm! There's no way that fits under the fender. I've heard an 18x9.5 rim with +35 mm offset should fit w/in 1/4" of flush from the front fender. So the 25 mm spacer on a +38 mm wheel of the same width should be putting you around 5/8" past the fender. Have you seen the set up or just talked to your guy?

Even if you can get away with it using fender mods, I'm not sure I want to stray so far from what the factory geometry was meant to accommodate. I haven't taken exact measurements, but if Ford did right they should have been shooting for close to zero scrub radius within the factory offsets (+45 - +50 mm). The more you deviate from this the more tire scrub you're inducing (along with greater wear on ball joints, etc.). I'm ok with up to +35 mm, but only because I know quite a few folks seriously tracking their cars with this offset and their tires seem to be surviving (ball joints are another matter). But an effective offset of +13 is way past what I would run (at least on track).

At any rate, I don't want to run a spacer. With other options out there, ones that fall roughly within range of the factory offsets (I'm thinking of +35 to +50 as the far ends), I don't see a reason to go with spacers. I don't "have to have" any wheel in particular bad enough to make me go there.

I appreciate all your guys input, I really do. I'm going a bit manic hunting for wheels, but I think I'm very close to settling down. A buddy of mine just lent me two 5Zigen FN01R-C wheels (in matte black) to mount up. I'll try to post pics later, but just lying them beside the car looks pretty mean! They will likely be my track wheels.

Red, thanks for the heads up on the new Enkei PF01 wheels. You're the second person who mentioned them, and they look quite beautiful! I may go with these for my street wheels (which will double as my wet track set up when necessary). It would be nice to have another light set of wheels to run, rather than the heavier ones I was considering for the street.

Alright, enough now...must...be...productive...

Best,
-j

 

Thanks Rub...thanks for "rub"bing it in.

I didn't exactly get the "wrong" offset, I got the right one, it just wont' fit the brakes w/o spacers. They should fit a stock Mustang just fine. In fact, I was even right about the spacer that would be required to clear the brakes - as we saw with 1490140's set up. I was right about everything...except the one thing I couldn't be wrong about.

Did I say I was going to go and do something productive? I did.

 

I got a remote control Mustang you can practice with, in your living room...
The wheels come off and everything, so you can test different tires and rims.
Once you have it down, you can play with the real thing.

 

Philo, like a lot of others, I considered the 5zigens. Nice wheel, nice weight, they do indeed clear the Brembos, and have decent enough looks. When I really dug into it, I realized that in 18x9.5, they weigh the same as the Steeda Ultralights. At that point I realized I would much rather pay $100 less per wheel for a wheel with the same performance, but a look that I thought suited the S197 better...

 

Thanks Pascal...

Slaya, do you have an exact figure? I weighed the wheel/combo set my buddy loaned me yesterday and it came in at 46 lbs with a pretty fresh 275/35 Hoosier R6 mounted to it. TireRack has the spec on this tire coming in at 23 lbs (nice!), but that puts the wheel in the 23 lbs range (incl. weights and such).

I was originally told this was in the 19 lb range...but that seems hard to believe now. My scale is pretty good and I can't imagine the tire specs being that far off. I wonder if the 19 lb spec I was quoted was mistakenly taken from a different size wheel? I'm working with it in the 18x9.5" size. Your thoughts?

FWIW, the new Enkei PF01 is said to be in the 18.5 lb range in this size...sweet looking wheel too. Maybe I just get two sets?

Best,
-j

 

I was just messing with you Philo but wish you'd have taken some pics. We may never see what the 45 offset looks like.

I'm with you on the 38 with 25 spacer. The 24 offset everyone around here love so much (well not in this subforum but the main one ) even stick out too much for my tastes.