SN95 Wheels & Tires, Recommendations?

90sblue

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Aug 11, 2019
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Hi All,
About 4 months ago I bought a '94 Cobra and got some real good input here with some questions I had at the time, now I'm back hoping for more. Bad news is I haven't much time to spend on it, lent my "practical" car to a family member so the 'stang has been my daily driver. Good news is it's running great and with the holiday season over I'm gearing up to throw some money at it. I bought it from a guy who didn't know jack about it and it must've been an owner before him that did the modifications, so I'm piecing it together as things go along.

First order of business: It's got 18x10 inch rims with 245/40/18 all the way around so the tires have a slight stretch. The rims in the front are too wide and scrape on tight turns, which is what I'm hoping to eliminate. I plan to keep the rims on the back but get tires with a decent sidewall - any recommendations on what size would work well?

My concern in the front is that the car is lowered slightly and if I move to 18x9 with a decent sidewall I might scrape the tire against the inside of the wheel well on turns. So I was thinking about going to 17x8 on the front with 245/45/17... Any recommendations on how I can make sure that will fit? This weekend or next I'll be able to pull them off and do some measurements in the well, I'm pretty sure the current wheels have a +24mm offset, but would need to verify. How concerned should I be about scrub radius? Anything else I should definitely look out for? Added a picture of the wheel, because why not.
Thanks in advance.
 

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10in on the front is pretty damn wide. How much is the car lowered? I ran 10.5in wheel with a 315/35r17 in the rear of my 95 and I didn’t have any issues - along with a 9in wide in the front. Had to pull off the quad shock (no biggie), and do a little hammering for clearance in the inner wheel well on the rears. It fit like it was meant to be there though

I can take some measurements of the wheels tomorrow for backspace if you’d like.

Ride height plays a pretty big role in if you’re going to rub or not though.
 
Yea, the 10" is definitely too wide in the front, I assume a previous owner wanted to be able to rotate the wheels or just wanted to offload these wheels as he was selling it.
I'm not sure exactly how much it was lowered, tomorrow I'll bust out a ruler and measure how far off the ground the front bumper is, and how much clearance I have above the tire. Maybe take some pictures of the suspension and try to figure out what it's actually sitting on.

If you could provide measurements on your set up, I'd really appreciate that.
 
I took some measurements today, I've got 1.25" clearance from tire to fender at the top, closer to 1.5" on the front/back. It only has 3" of sidewall due to the stretch, so if I move to a non-stretched 245/40 on a 17x8" rim, having the real side wall will probably add 3/4" to overall tire diameter. Cutting it close, but I'm thinking that's my best option...
 
Let’s see some pictures of the full car. We can probably make judgement calls from there based on the ride height. Vast majority of SN owners run 18x9s up front and 18x10s in rear. I had 17s on my SN because the tires were much cheaper and I was young, but 18s are the best look in many’s opinions.
 
For reference, I run 18x9" and 18x10" Saleen replica wheels with 265/35 and 295/35 tires, respectively. This is with H&R Super Sport springs that give about a 1.5 to 1.7" drop up front. I've never had any issues with inadequate tire clearance.

DSC_0192.JPG
 
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I had 03 Cobra's in chrome on my 94GT, looked fantastic.

275-45-17's all around. However after I sold it the new owner had the rears cut in half and welded in some material. Then he added a 315-35's out back.

With 275's

48591577811_fd08d787da_z.jpg
Untitled by jpjr50, on Flickr

Here are the 315's.

48463246987_d68ec32b17_c.jpg
Untitled by jpjr50, on Flickr
 
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These are what I ran in a 95 with just quad shock removal and a little bit of hammering on the inner wheel well. No rubbing whatsoever, unless I was fully turning on the stops, but even then it was extremely minor.

The fronts are up top and rears at the bottom.


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E137A15F-286E-421D-BB82-02143DA9DDBC.jpeg


Sorry I didn’t have a straight edge to measure. I had 275/40r17 on the front and 315/35r17 on the rear.
 

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