Well looks like I will be running a 5mm spacer all around for now. Perhaps when I put the Hankook RS3, which are almost an inch narrower than these Hoosiers then I will have more breathing room.

For some reason on my car the back of the spokes was touching the piston bulges in the front caliper with no spacer, so I just threw a 5mm on there to be safe. I have heard of other cars using these with no spacer in front, but not sure why my car has less clearance. Perhaps the rotor hats are a few mm out of spec (short) thus causing the wheel to sit further inboard.

 

When I heard Hoosier you scared me, I thought you had jumped off the deep end and went straight to some purple crack...glad that you're still using a street tire. It looks like the rims fit fairly well, you shouldn't have any issues running spacers, it's fairly common for us to use spacers on the Honda Challenge cars for rim/caliper clearance.

 

Amazing. Can we get a pic of the whole car with these wheels? I have been looking at a set of 15x8s but wanted to see what they looked like first.

 

Austin:

Hahah no I still remember what you and the NASA instructor told me years ago. Street tires until I can outdrive them. These tires came with the wheels and I decided to do a test fit. They rub the rear trailing arm pretty good, but with the 0.9" narrower 225 RS3 it should be okay maybe even without a spacer. The previous owner was using 5mm spacer to clear with these tires, so I should be okay.

How much room is considered "safe" distance between the trailing arm and the tire? 1 inch?

I'm more concerned with how much camber I'll have to run, even with a rolled fender in the rear. I'm running about 2 degrees up front and maybe a little over 1 in the rear. Again hopefully the skinnier Hankook will help a bit there as well. Under full compression I don't want to whack my fenders.

White Death:

15x8 is certainly a tight fit. Not something I would run on the street or on a daily driver. These TE are discontinued, but I know a lot of folks are running the 949 wheels now.

 

Funny you mention 949. I am actually considering going 4 lug just so I can run a set of those.

 

are you running extended studs?!?

 

Not at the moment. It's only a 5mm spacer, so technically its fine but I might put em in on my next brake job just for peace of mind.

 

ive always been told its unsafe to run more than a 3mm on stock studs... just letting you know what ive heard

 

I've actually been running a 5mm on the stock ITR wheels and studs for a few months. Perfectly fine as long as the lug is threaded down the stud further than the width of the stud itself. I hear lots of different theories on the topic as well.

 

alright, i was just lietting you know. if it seems to work for you im sure youre probably ok. me, im actually content with my +42 offset (+45 rega with a 3mm looks good enough to me)

but you TE's look pretty dope!

 

Yah I have to give the caliper some clearance since the TE spokes are pretty thick.

 

i don't think the rs3's are an inch narrower than the hoosiers....i have both and will measure....

 

Let's keep this clean, eh? If you have a problem, take it to PM or be civil about it.

 

^^HUH? What did I miss? LOL

Anyway I am going off Tirerack's measurements. They say that the tread width and section width are about a 0.9" difference. I'm just going off that. Arghhh well crap just got off the phone with TireRack and the Hankooks delivery date is being pushed back again....not really many extreme performance street tires in this size. Not looking forward to trying R1R after all the reviews.

I actually tried a 3mm spacer up front and it looks like there is good clearance still, so I'll stick with the 3 up front. The back I put a 5mm on and it's got maybe 3-5mm of clearance on the trailing arm.

 

 

Yah after I put them on I checked how much of the stud the lug was threading. And I guess because the wheel is so thick I actually get less turns than when I was running the same spacer on the stock wheel. Looks like TL studs will be going on soon, but I have time to kill since the tires aren't even ready.

 

Meanwhile, I recently got a chance to ride in student's cars with the RE01Rs, RE-11s, R1Rs, and Z1 Star Specs. They are all GREAT tires, even in 205 width. As a noob, the extra 20mm in width won't be the end of the world for you.

 

Right, but that still means I need a tire for these 15x8 LOL. I am okay running my stock wheels or my comp lites for now. And maybe I can just store these until I am ready for Rcomps in which case I would have plenty to choose from.

 

yea definitely, there are so many trolls that get off on starting crap. Its really unnecessary and immature. If you disagree with someone, dont say anything, or state your opinion in a respectful way.

 

Bingo.

 

Booo hahaha. Was hoping to play around with it a bit. 225 up front and 205 w/ comp lites in the back to see what I like. And then try the all 225 setup. Oh well.

 

Until you're a consistent driver, it won't matter, seriously.

 

Well specifically I wanted to see if I could get rid of the rear slow "wagging" feeling under hard braking when the car gets really light in the back.

 

My experience with a staggered set-up (on EG) was that it really promoted rotation.... so make sure you're prepared for that (experience).

I also found that the same tire on a wider rim required less camber for even temps (in the front). Not necessarily yeilding maximum grip, but it did prolong tire life which is fine if you are just logging seat time.

Have fun!

 

Try less camber and a little toe in.

Edit... actually you should really try to figure out where the camber is at under full breaking event. Have somone take a profile picture of the car when you are in the brake zone. From the picture you should be able to estiamte how much the rear is raising up. Put your car on a flat surface and raise the rear with a jack to same approximate amount. Measure the camber... should give you a good idea of what is going on.