18x9 Tire Recommendations

[Tim83]

I'm going to be putting new tires on my 89GT and I wanted to see what you guys thought about sizes before I did. As you can see from the picture the car is lowered but I'm not sure how much lower than stock. Presently I have 245/40s in all four corners with no rubbing. The car is set up for handling so I'd like to make sure I'm getting the most out of if when I buy new tires (Pilot super sports). From what I've read on the forums I can probably go as wide as 265/35 or 275/35 in the rear but given how low the car is I'm not sure I could go much wider in the front. Ride quality is not a concern since the car is already incredibly stiff, and having them staggered doesn't matter because I don't put a lot of miles on the car anyway. I have not measured the offset but there is some positive offset with those wheels.

If I could go wider in the front, how much and would it matter in terms of performance?
How wide do you think I could go in the rear?

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

I'm going to be putting new tires on my 89GT and I wanted to see what you guys thought about sizes before I did. As you can see from the picture the car is lowered but I'm not sure how much lower than stock. Presently I have 245/40s in all four corners with no rubbing. The car is set up for handling so I'd like to make sure I'm getting the most out of if when I buy new tires (Pilot super sports). From what I've read on the forums I can probably go as wide as 265/35 or 275/35 in the rear but given how low the car is I'm not sure I could go much wider in the front. Ride quality is not a concern since the car is already incredibly stiff, and having them staggered doesn't matter because I don't put a lot of miles on the car anyway. I have not measured the offset but there is some positive offset with those wheels.

If I could go wider in the front, how much and would it matter in terms of performance?
How wide do you think I could go in the rear?

For the rear about 275/35 is close to maximizing the size. The front is a bit more tricky. You really need to look under your car with the suspension compressed and see what clearance you have between the tire and strut. I doubt you'll get more than a 255 tire up there and may need rack limiters.

Do you autoX or road race the car? If not, then going wider up front will not be noticeable on the street IMO.

 

[Tim83]

For the rear about 275/35 is close to maximizing the size. The front is a bit more tricky. You really need to look under your car with the suspension compressed and see what clearance you have between the tire and strut. I doubt you'll get more than a 255 tire up there and may need rack limiters.

Do you autoX or road race the car? If not, then going wider up front will not be noticeable on the street IMO.

Thank you for your input. I'd like to get into auto-x out in Hartford, CT this year but I mainly use the car on weekends for back road driving.

Looking at the front wheel with the car on the ground it appears like I've got an inch of space between the current sidewall and the strut. I may just keep the 245 size in the front and go to a 275 in the rear to avoid any clearance issues.