Opinions? Change From 17in To 18in Or Get Better Tyres?

[Brezza]

hey guys,

just looking for some opinions,

i've got a set of Stern 17inch rims on my R32 GTR. 235/45R17 on the front and 255/40R17 on the rear.

the rims arent nothing special but they kinda suit the car.

i was looking at going for a set of 18in HP Rims (8in front and 9in rear) with tyres for around $2k package with Khumo tyres.

or i am looking at getting a set of Toyo tyres, R1R's for the front and T1R's for the rear.

all up the Toyo tyres will cost $1300.

i know if i go for the 18in rims i'd probably have a nicer looking rim, but the tyres for 18's are a fair bit dearer than for 17's.

my car has 250rwkw @13psi, i got Tein superstreet Jap Spec coilovers, and a solid whiteline rear adjustable sway bar, on the soft setting.

i am currently annoyed with my front tyres not gripping and the rear have let go sometimes around corners. i do a little bit of spirited driving here and there, but it does get its fair share of normal city drive time.

i will eventually be looking at getting more power out of the motor, i got the forged motor and -5's just need and ECU and fuel pump & injectors.

your thoughs?

i've attached a pic of my car with the current rims, and a pic of the HP rims i am thinking of putting on.

[bnr#@]

Do not run different size wheels and/or tires front and rear on a gtr. It's bad for handling and can be bad for attesa. Also it's just stupid, why would you intentionaly opt to have less grip on the front?

[nisskid]

i couldnt consciously reccomend someone to put cheap, low quality rims on a GTR, stick with the sterns.

besides that, id rather have 17's over 18's anyway, so for me it's an obvious choice to go better tyres.

[MrStabby]

+1 for same thing all round on GTRs. If the current rims are all 17x9, i'd just keep them and get the tyres sorted.

Run the 255 R1Rs on 9in rims both ends, get your ride height set to 355 front and 345 rear, car aligned and corner weighted. Of course fix anything that's not up to scratch already, and that will probably include adjustable bushes or arms to get the alignment right.

If you've got understeer make the rear sway bar stiffer.

[Brezza]

yeah might have to look into getting adjustable bushes.

i think i am in bad need for a wheel alignment, i havent had one since my HICAS has gone in.

cheers guys,

most people on here with GTR's run wider tyres on the rear, mainly because its hard to squeze wide ones in the front.

my Stern rims are 9inch wide on the front and 10 inch wide on the rear.

have you guys had any experience with the TOYO R1R's or T1R's?

dont mind R1R's on the front because they are brake and steer wheels, but the rear tyres would wear out really quickly, thats why i thought to go for the cheaper and possibly harder wearing T1R's?

Brez

[astrotristan]

as has been said,

keep with the 17s bro and just spend more cash on tyres

and imo wide 17s with a nice offset look way sexy on r32s - no need for 18s

[Wacky Dee]

I'd stick with the 17s too but I'd swap those for some nicer wheels in any case Just put some really good rubber on it and transform the car .. bigger rims will just give ya a harsher ride and worse handling. Gojira is smaller and lighter than all the other skylines so weighing it down with some cheap 18s would be kinda silly imo.

[zebra]

most people on here with GTR's run wider tyres on the rear, mainly because its hard to squeze wide ones in the front.

Brez

No they dont, and its quite easy to get 265s under the front guards and some people run 285s

[paulR32gtr]

I was having similar problems with understeer on the front was getting really annoying. Also traction in the rear was not great while cornering.

Pretty much everything was shot replaced all the bushes front and back including dropping the entire rear subframe / diff bushes etc, all arms changed over for adjustable and set up, front king pins replaced, sway bars and front strut brace added and it now handles like a dream.

Not a cheap proposition, but if the rest of your suspension is no good you probably wont be happy with the results of more expensive rubber.

And I agree with everyone else, stick with 17's unless you need to fit bigger brakes.

[Brezza]

I was having similar problems with understeer on the front was getting really annoying. Also traction in the rear was not great while cornering.

Pretty much everything was shot replaced all the bushes front and back including dropping the entire rear subframe / diff bushes etc, all arms changed over for adjustable and set up, front king pins replaced, sway bars and front strut brace added and it now handles like a dream.

Not a cheap proposition, but if the rest of your suspension is no good you probably wont be happy with the results of more expensive rubber.

And I agree with everyone else, stick with 17's unless you need to fit bigger brakes.

how much did all this cost you?

i had some doughnuts fitted to the rear subframe when my bushes burst. it tightened the rear up really well.

i used to have pretty crazy over steer when i had my sway bar set to hard, now i got it on the softest setting, just so its not so responsive cos before it would always turn too sharp and the back end would slide out.

on another note, i am sure others have run wider wheels on the rear on their GTR. the AWD system runs off the rolling diameter, and i worked out with 235/45R17 on the front and 265/40R17 on the rear the rolling diameter has a difference of 1mm. so its pretty damn close.

i dont think this would cause any AWD system issues??

you could have more of a difference running the same wheels front and back with one tyre being flatter than the other.

[paulR32gtr]

Not much change from 7k! The things we do for these cars...

You are right different rolling diameter is where the problems occur with ATTESA, however I think the general consensus is to keep widths the same as well. With a bit more camber in the front you can fit wider rubber without rubbing.

[Brezza]

i've just spent $14k on the car in the past 6 months. bought new coilovers for it, then had to replace the turbos, then the motor had to be rebuilt!

my bank account balance is a pretty sorry sight!

the car is running pretty well right now though. still needs a few things to be repaired from wear and tear.

hopefully after i replace the rubber it should make the car handle much better.

i think i'll have to point fingers at my worn Maxxis on the front wheels to be the cause of the car not handling well and no wheel alignment before going and spending $7k on suspension work!

cheers for everyones help though!

[nisskid]

Not much change from 7k! The things we do for these cars...

wow, you got rorted. lol

[paulR32gtr]

wow, you got rorted. lol

There was actually a fair bit more than I listed, whole front steering rack had to come out for reco, harder front springs, all the hicas removed and lock bar, over 2k worth of labour so it all added up.

Edited July 23, 2009 by paulR32gtr

[nisskid]

still, far far away from getting even close to reasonable. ive done everything uve listed there, except for the rack reco, and i would have struggled to pay over 2k for the lot. so even if u had a dipshit mechanic who took 25+ hours to do all that stuff, u still got taken for a ride.

and for the record, if the guy takes 25hrs to do all that then u need to go elsewhere, because you could tape a spanner to the head of a squirrel and it would get done quicker than that.

[paulR32gtr]

Yeah I always knew it was on the expensive side, but its a very reputable workshop plenty of guys on here have used and recommend them, and the prices while a bit over retail still seem ok to me.

List is as follows:

Front & Rear wheel alignment $160

Wheel balancing x4 $80

Front upper adjustable arms $500

Front lower inner ball joints $153.12

Front kingpin & bearing kit $468.74

Front sway bar $252

Front strut brace $250

Front tein 6kg coils $296.60

Front radius rod adjustable arm $300

Reboot and service front drive shafts $270

Service rack pinion new boots $249.65

Rear sway bar $285

Rear hicas lock bar $250

Rear stub axle to rack ball joints $172.22

Rear cross member bushes $250

Rear diff support bushes $150

Rear upper adjustable arms $280

Brake fluid $40

Labour $1955

GST $636

Edited July 24, 2009 by paulR32gtr

[MrStabby]

Yeah I always knew it was on the expensive side, but its a very reputable workshop plenty of guys on here have used and recommend them, and the prices while a bit over retail still seem ok to me.

List is as follows:

Price seems about right to me for a quality shop selling at retail.

[nisskid]

Price seems about right to me for a quality shop selling at retail.

i wanna know who charges $80 to balance tyres so i can setup a store next door and charge $70 and make myself a millionaire. $160 for alignment? bahaha

some of those prices look about right, some seem ok if they were top of the line aftermarket gear (although something makes me think they arent), and some seems rediculous, im talking dearer than genuine nissan rediculous, and a lot of those parts i gaurentee you didnt need replacing at all.

and the labour was once again, too high for a decent workshop, it shouldnt take them that long if they know what they are doing.

overall that was a severe rorting.

what was the shop btw?

[bnr#@]

Seems about right for dropping of a car and having everything done for you...

Ive done a lot of that stuff myself and I know it can takes a good bit of time.

Sure in a perfect world its all easy but nothing ever goes to plan, these are old cars after all..

[nisskid]

yes, dropping ur car off and not having any input it is possible, still gotta question their morals tho. what they are doing is basically robbery by deceit. if someone got u to donate $100 to their child because they have cancer, even though they didnt, what would u say?

getting u to change stuff that didnt really need changing, and charging you costs that they didnt really need to charge you is bs imo.

any decent performance workshop wouldnt do this, go somewhere else.

also any decent performance workshop would reccomend changing a few things at most at a time to isolate the problem. i guarentee you only a small percentage of the things changed would have contributed a noticeable affect to the problem.