When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I think 17's and 18's are perfect for these cars and if the right wheel I think 19's look great to. I like other wheels and have a set of 17 inch deep lug ZR1's to put on one day down the road but for now I really dig my rear 19x12 oem Z06's.
I think a key is to put a slightly taller tire on the car, similar to the vette size, that why they don't look like rubber bands.
This. I think the tiny sidewall is what makes some bigger wheels look "off" some how.
Now obviously the correct answer to all of your wheel questions is that the factory almost nailed it with the 17 inch speedline design, they just weren't quiiiiite shiny enough. Well I fixed that and now have THE perfect 4th gen f-body wheels.
I think a key is to put a slightly taller tire on the car, similar to the vette size, that why they don't look like rubber bands.
That definitely helps, in fact I mentioned that as well earlier in the thread. The only thing that looks worse than a rubber band sidewall is a stretched rubber band sidewall. Having said that, 17s or 18s still always look better on these cars IMO.
Originally Posted by AnotherWs6
Now obviously the correct answer to all of your wheel questions is that the factory almost nailed it with the 17 inch speedline design, they just weren't quiiiiite shiny enough. Well I fixed that and now have THE perfect 4th gen f-body wheels.
I've never been a Speedline fan myself. When I had a WS6, I much preferred the QF6 ('96-'00 style) wheels, though I agree that the polished version of those was also not nearly shiny enough. I fixed this the same way you did - with chrome. That's how they should have come.
^^^^^^Obviously agree. No matter how clean and shiny I would get my car, the wheels always stuck out to me. Just a dull sheen over the polished aluminum. I actually prefer the speedline wheels but do think I am in the minority. Either way the wheel and tire SIZE look just about perfect to me. A 275 is a pretty beefy tire width and there is enough sidewall without there being too much sidewall. GM DID nail it in that regard IMO. Only difference I'd make in size would be width. Would love to have 315's.
not sure the direction the thread is going since its 5 pages but heres my take on 19's.
I had a 14' 5.0 with stock 19's, I purchased some saleen's and they looked good and I went with 19 to keep tire size. I upgraded to a vortech SC and I started looking at drag tire options for 19's, immediately hated the 19's as I couldn't get any decent tire and it really held me back, but I felt bad because the GF got me the rims for xmas. Morla of the story id stick with 17's for anyone thinking of the swap, I love the nitto 555R and other sizes available with much more meat in the sidewall than i could run on my 19's.
^^^^^^Obviously agree. No matter how clean and shiny I would get my car, the wheels always stuck out to me. Just a dull sheen over the polished aluminum. I actually prefer the speedline wheels but do think I am in the minority. Either way the wheel and tire SIZE look just about perfect to me. A 275 is a pretty beefy tire width and there is enough sidewall without there being too much sidewall. GM DID nail it in that regard IMO. Only difference I'd make in size would be width. Would love to have 315's.
I definitely agree on the wheel/tire size being just about perfect. There have been times in the past when I've used a 285/40 tire in the rear. This looks even better IMO, and will fit just fine on a 9" wide factory wheel with a bit of sidewall bulge - which I like. The problem now is, there are so few 285/40/17 tires on the market. This was a stock rear size on later C4s that were non-Z51 cars, but otherwise it has no demand. I think the Goodyear GS D3 and Continental DW are the only ones made that also have a matching 275/40 size to use in the front (you can sometimes get away with the 285/40 up front as well, but often they will rub on the wheel well liner and/or catch on the bumper cover lip where it wraps around into the wheel well.)
NTO5R's look good in the stock 275 size, plenty of beef. Wouldn't mind the slight increase in width and height of a 285 but yeah, that sounds like an oddball size, at least nowadys.
Cool, I really like them. I'm not making any real power but they are much stickier than the previous BFG whatevers that were on when I bought the car. I got the NTO5's for the front. I saw a bad review/test on them which kind of bummed me out but I've pulled some serious-for-me G's with them and my springs and shocks. They are more than I will ever need for playing on a back road every now and then. I have a couple of nice, big, clean on and off ramps near my home. I've crept up on speed a few of times since the new setup with no issue and ran out of *****. Pretty impressive to me at least.
Last edited by AnotherWs6; 10-04-2016 at 11:37 AM.
As its not my WS6 (mine has 17 inch Torque thrusts on it) I only have the one photo of my friends with the 19's.
I'll ask him to send me some more
Did you ever get more pics from your friend? Thinking of this exact setup, but nervous about the idea of going with 19's. That picture makes it look perfect (and I have a 1.25" drop on mine, so should look similar) but would love some additional angles.
The reason that larger wheels look so out of proportion on our cars, is the short wheel base--remember that the wheelbase is shorter than that of the Corvette! I do agree that 20" and up looks ridiculous, but 19" works with decent designs that match the car. My ride actually got smoother when going from 17" WS-6 wheels to the below 19" wheels. I suspect, that was due to the switch from BFG G-Force Sport (I) tires to Continental ExtremeContact DW hoops.
I have seen XXR 962s on a couple other F-bodies, but never in the 19"x9.5" size like mine. Because of the deep dish, they almost look like 18" in person (and the 18" look like 17" on the other cars).
10-02-2016, 06:55 PM
