I currently have FD rims on my FC. I am using 25mm H&R spacers all around. The fronts rub the fenders over heavy bumps. I was told people are using 205's on the front with this setup. Any problems putting 205's on the 8" FD rim?

Thanks,

Matt

 

It depends on what the tire manufacturer specs their 205 max rim width to be. 205 mm is ~8.1 inches of section width. Note that an FD rim is 8-inches wide from tire bead-to-tire bead. You will be stretching the 205-mm section width tire considerably. I question the safety of doing this...may lead to premature failure. Your best bet is to look up the rim width range of a 205 mm tire. If 8 inches is the max, then you're ok, if not, I wouldn't try it...

 

You shouldn't have any major problems. You probably will have to run more air in the tire to keep even pressure in the center. The sides will cause the center to dip in just a little, so you'll have to compensate for that. How do they rub? Are they rubbing the fender on the lib or just the plastic liner? What part of the tire is it rubbing? Is it gouging the sidewall or more to the center? Have you dialed in an extra half degree of camber (do a search on this in the 2nd gen section - it's easy to do)? With a bit more camber it will bring in the top of the wheel. This might help a bit.

jerk_racer@hotmail.com

 

It's rubbing the fender lip..... hitting the sidewall of the tire..... some nice slices in the sidewall of the tire.

I have new 225 Dunlop SP8000's on the rear...... the 205's have sectional width of 8.1" and recommended to 7.5" rim....

 

 

So, is rolling the fenders out of the question? Or getting narrower spacers up front? If you could get that wheel tucked in there you could then take advantage of the best reason to have wider wheels - wider tires. Hmmm, that's odd. Most people with the FD rims on the FC say that the front is good with approximately 23mm~25mm spacers. Since you know how wide your front spacers are you should be able to make an educated guess as to how much narrower you should have them made if you want to get some custom made. Have you dialed in an extra .5 degree of camber yet. It helped me quite a bit with my car and it's rubbing issues. With the way I drive I could have over 3 degrees of camber and still not worry about wearing out the inside tread on my fronts.

jerk_racer@hotmail.com

 

I haven't tried adding an additional camber yet.... presently my car is in the shop....... needed a new driveshaft (bad u-joints).... anyway... i was initially thinking of rolling the fenders, or having the H&R spacers machined to take an 1/8" of an inch off..... i don't need much to prevent them from hitting..... it was the mechanic who suggested putting the 205s on....... while he still has the car, i'll tell him to adjust the camber a bit and see what happens...... what setup are you running? You have FD rims on your 2nd Gen? How's the car handling? My car handles like crap...... but my front tires are outright shot..... hopefully new front tires will help, since everything else is fine with the steering and suspension....

Thanks,

Matt

 

Yes you could if you wanted to. I know a guy with a Turbo Diesel Rabbit running 225's on 10" wide rims. But he uses it for auto-x only. The sidewalls stretch out to fit over the rim. Its makes it so you will have very little sidewall flex which is good for racing, but might not handle so well on the road. It will make your car seem pretty twitchy with small movements of the wheel.

 

I've got R32 Skyline GTR rims (16x8) with 225/50R16 all around. I didn't need any spacers with these. My fronts stick out about 1/4" or so. I rolled my fenders with a wooden baseball bat. Don't waste your money to get that bit of camber. It takes about 20~30 minutes to do it yourself. The mechanic probably wouldn't even know how to do it anyway unless they already know quite a bit about FC's. 205 on an 8" rim is nothing like 225 on a 10". You should be OK with 205. They aren't stretched that much are they? People seem to like to go wider before they go narrower thinking that wider is better even at the expense of wiggly wheel/tire combos. 205 on an 8" should feel pretty tight but not too darty on the road.

jerk_racer@hotmail.com