17x9" Sportmax 050 wheels ....

CMS-GT4

CMS-GT4

Active member
Its about 5-6 hours from here to downtown Charleston.

Used to date a girl thee and shop at gabes. :doh:

I autox'ed the car till I blew up the engine.

I ran less than stock power on skinny street tires and still made people want to buy my car.

Should have the 205 motor done this weekend.. (I hope)

Then a proper alignment. I know the geometry is way off.

And then when I get this hub thing sorted, I will borrow some ss impalla wheels with R compound for autox. (17x8.5 25et)

I ran the Z in autox this year and one track event. I plan on running the Celica at every event next year. And the cobra club rents tracks and lets others attend. So the car will get some proper use next year.

Hope to get the car down to 3,000lbs this next year as well.
 
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gtfour77

New member
Let us know how the motor project is coming along!!! If you ever come down this way, let me know, you would be more than welcome to stay at my place and go autocrossing the next day....we start new season in January and the only month we don't run is December...

Also, the wheels won't be here till monday, but I'll be posting pictures and review as soon as I get them on....monday...lol Already got the tires, and wow, the 275's are really wide...I know they will be sticking out a bit..oh well...good thing I have coilovers so I can adjust in case it starts rubbing the fender...I think the rear will be ok, but the fronts might require a llittle engineering thinking...(spacers, spring adjustment, citting maybe... :shock: )
 
CMS-GT4

CMS-GT4

Active member
I don't think our ETR scca events start up again till March. I know that Nashville has an event tomorrow.

You need to come down to a cobra event next year. They rent out this oval track and setup cones and make it into a banked autox track.

Some were coming around the bank over 90mph. It tends to be an all day event, you get at least 6 runs and it only costs 35 bucks.

Best bang for buck racing I have ever done. They always limit the slots to 30 some odd cars. But I will keep you posted next year when they pick back up.

I am still working on the car. Hope to see it running the next week. Trust, everyone will know when it its.
 
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gtfour77

New member
Sounds great, definitelly keep us posted about the cobra event. Sounds like a lot of fun...
Well the wheels are going to be here tomorrow so I should have some pics and info about fitment....Going to pick them up at UPS in the morning so should have some info by noon time... :wink:
 
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gtfour77

New member
Ok...here are the pictures....

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gtfour77/ ... /my_photos

Tires are Hoosier 275-40-17 with the Sportmax 17x9 rims....fits like a glove, no bulging of the tire like on the 17x7 rim with 245 45 17 tires....
Offset is 38 and the rim and tire combo fits pefect in the rear with a 1" spacer...which everyone should have anyway...
The fronts almost fit, a 10mm or so(3/8 inch) spacer is required. Really, the 30 offset in the front would be ideal. The 275 series tire sticks out just a bit, but with stiffer springs (like mine...550lb moroso springs) this should not be a problem. The 245 series tire would fit without any problem I suspect...the 275 tire is considerably wider and will provide better performance if someone wants to really get into racing...like myself... :D
Also remember I have a full coilover conversion with koni shocks and 2.5 inch diameter springs...I really don't think this would be even close to fitting on stock suspension...just a friendly warning for those trying to fit big wheels on their stock Alltrac...
Pictures here:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gtfour77/ ... /my_photos[/b]
 
CMS-GT4

CMS-GT4

Active member
Thats fricken awesome. I love it. You got to get some pics of the whole car futher away when you get a chance.

What does the tire hit in the front?

Have you tried to turn the wheels and check the rub?

Test drove it yet?
 
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gtfour77

New member
I only mounted one tire so far....I will have more pics as soon as I get the rest mounted... I did the one in my garage with some diy tools and it really is a pain with the stiff hoosier sidewalls... :doh:
The currect spacer is about 3/8th thick and I am still getting a slight rubbing on the spring....I'll try to get a pic later this evening. It is basically too close to the strut... My springs are 10" long and come down enough to cause clearance problems for the tires....the wheel fits just fine... Should not be a problem with a 10 or 15mm spacer.... I think the fender will be ok, I might lift the car up maybe 1/4 inch and see what kind of rubbing I get in turns....good thing the coilovers are adjustable... :D
I will go for a quick ride this evening and check for the rest of the clearances....
 
CMS-GT4

CMS-GT4

Active member
If I go with 255's maybe when we get together we can test as to how we can affect handling by having wider front or rear tires.
 
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gtfour77

New member
I think keeping all the tires the same would increase the performance level...with our cars being so well balanced. ( and I am not sure how well the AWD would like the diferent tires (diameter or weight) though it should be ok for autocross...
I think the best way to tune a car for any type of racing is through shocks and tire pressures. (cars already equipped with rear swaybar and poly bushings... Oh yeah, I forgot, ALIGNMENT!!!! lol
 
CMS-GT4

CMS-GT4

Active member
How far is the wheel itself from the strut? I am guessing 245s would have a much better time on there.
 
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gtfour77

New member
The wheel has no clearance issues, it's the tire. And yes, the 245 tire would be definitelly a little easier to fi, but for my purposes, the 275 is what needs to go on there for the car to be competitive...
I have two wheel mounted and will finish up tomorrow.....so I should have some test runs tom evening to see what the turning radius is. So far it looks promising, but I did have to remove the fender liners...the 275 is just sooo tight in the wheel well, but it DOES fit...and turns freely without rubbing. Just barely... :shock:
But I don't want to jump ahead as I want to actually make a few sharp turns and see if it really doesn't have any major issues....
 
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gtfour77

New member
I only mounted 2 tires so far, wish I had more time....but hopefully by tomorrow we'll know whether 275 is possible without problems... Stay tuned... :wink:

How's your car coming along? Any progress? Hopefully next year we'll be able to run an autocross or two together...
 
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gtfour77

New member
Well, the tires are 275 40 17... I made me three tire irons....just went to lowes and picked up a longer piece of steel stock...like 1-1/4 or so and about 1/4" thick....the shaped it in a vice to get that "spoon" type end and filed the end so it's smooth and doesn't cause much damage to the wheel...don;t use it much on nice wheels....but it works great on higher profile tires on steel rims....super easy. I use 3 all at once.... Plus I welded together a big "spoon" type thingie to serve as a bead breaker. I'll have to take some pics for it to make sense.... :wink:
I did the two new wheels like that and just came back from a tire shop that would let me use their nice machine....but they're gone for Thanksgiving....so I won;t have any driving tests untill Monday now;...oh well...
 
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gtfour77

New member
Iknow I know... :doh:
Had a little incident in my bimmer over the weekend, so I am fixing that first since that is my daily driver and I can't be driving around with scraped bumpers....I know, ice and exit ramps and more ice don't mix....and rear-wheel drive....even worse.... Plus the tire guy is not there today so I couldn't do much.... I will really try tomorrow!!! I am very anxious to put them on a drive on them too... :wink:
 
CMS-GT4

CMS-GT4

Active member
Ehem.... you got an alltrac for ice driving man. Though driving on ice in a rwd car can be fun, if its not essential to be somewhere on time.
 
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