R33 Gtr Wheels On Gts-t

[Astro Bear]

I'm thinking of getting some r33 gtr wheels for my r33 gts-t.

Is there anything I should be worried about re: fitting, offset, rubbing etc.

Does anyone have any photos of an r33 gts-t with gtr wheels?

Thanks

Adam.

[pistol-pete]

they should fit find. theyre 17x9 +30

[Kinks]

It looks terrible, don't do it...

My ride height is just a tad lower than factory (front is 360mm centre of wheel to guard and rear is 350mm). No clearance issues, rubbing etc but my suspension is quite stiff. Depending on how low yours is you may need to roll the lip on the rear guards but that's not a big drama.

I've got 235/45/17 on the front and 255/40/17 on the rear.

[3LGODZILA]

im thinking of doin the same with my silver series 2 aswell, paint them black IMO

[subliminal]

A mate of mine has a R33 GTS-t with R33 GTR wheels running 235/45 all around and its sits very nice. Do it.

[benro2]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but not much point in creating my own about the same thing!

I'm thinking of doing the same thing with my car. I've just measured the ride height and it's about 360mm from centre of wheel to guard all around. Is that stock ride height?

My car is charcoal and I was just going to go with the stock coloured GTR rims with 245 tyres, which is the same width the GTR uses from factory, and I assume that lines up exactly with the width of the wheel? Do you think mine would still look half decent in that colour at my ride height?

Kinks, just wondering why you went with 2 different tyre widths? I'd ideally like to stick with the same tyre widths all around so I can still rotate, and by my calculations, a 245/40R17 should be within a couple of mm of the radius of the stock GTS-T tyres. Would 245's scrape on the front with 40 profile tyres?

Also, Kinks or anyone else, did you notice any improvement in handling when you went to the GTR rims? What about ride quality - significantly worse? Tyre noise? Much difference? Rear end grip under acceleration improved by any reasonable margin?

Edited December 19, 2010 by benro2

[mystery_kid]

they only look good on r32 gts-t

you really need 18's to fill out the guard of the barge r33

[Muff]

I have an r33 gtst with gtr wheels. worst thing i ever did.....

after lowereing it ripped out all the plastics and its not even that low.

stick with correct offset set of 18"

look heeps better and they wont rip the shit out of your car.

GL

[benro2]

The thing is, my car isn't lowered (I don't think) and I don't really want to modify the suspension. I think if I go with 18's I'll need to lower it a bit, whereas with 17's it *should* look OK.

So if I leave the car at stock height will the GTR rims still rip the crap out of my guards?

The other issue is, unless there are some quality JDM 17's around that are nice and lightweight, I don't want to go with a cheap Tempe Tyre style wheel as all that will do is add weight and significantly reduce traction, handling and ride quality. AFAIK the GTR rims are forged and *should* be decent quality...?

[Muff]

Yeah there good quality. i found that even with stock height it scrubbed the inner guards. i was using 245 40 17. but if you swap 2 a 235 35 17 they scrub a lot less. Im not against them - otherwise i would have changed them- but bear in mind you will have 2 roll guards and drop inner guards if you drop any hight. mine is now 3.5 inches lower than standard with 245 35 17 and 265 35 17 no inner guards and rear rolled

[benro2]

Yeah there good quality. i found that even with stock height it scrubbed the inner guards. i was using 245 40 17. but if you swap 2 a 235 35 17 they scrub a lot less. Im not against them - otherwise i would have changed them- but bear in mind you will have 2 roll guards and drop inner guards if you drop any hight. mine is now 3.5 inches lower than standard with 245 35 17 and 265 35 17 no inner guards and rear rolled

Hmmm. I'd like to stick with the 245/40R17 just so I get the outer rolling diameter fairly close to stock. So if I leave mine at stock height, you're saying the front guards are fine, but I'll just need to roll the rear guards? And would I need to completely roll them or just into a "V" shape so they retain most of their strength? I have someone who can do that for me so it's not too much of a problem. I wouldn't do it if I had to lose the inner guards though.

[Muff]

can try it. but like i said mine scrubbed the inner guards with stock height. mainly the front bar liner but the inner guards also.

[benro2]

can try it. but like i said mine scrubbed the inner guards with stock height. mainly the front bar liner but the inner guards also.

Oh yeah sorry about that, wasn't paying attention to your reply

I've got a friend who has these wheels, I'm gonna try a test fit if I can.

Alternatively, are there any other 17 x 9's out there that fit better that are cheap, good quality, and look half decent? Any suggs?

[Muff]

The offset is the killer . but if you go a more shallow rim in 9 inch wide it will hit the hub assembly. try the Gtr wheels. might be ok 4 you.

[ssxRicho]

rota g-force...

these are 18x9 +30

[Kinks]

I'm thinking of doing the same thing with my car. I've just measured the ride height and it's about 360mm from centre of wheel to guard all around. Is that stock ride height?

My car is charcoal and I was just going to go with the stock coloured GTR rims with 245 tyres, which is the same width the GTR uses from factory, and I assume that lines up exactly with the width of the wheel? Do you think mine would still look half decent in that colour at my ride height?

Kinks, just wondering why you went with 2 different tyre widths? I'd ideally like to stick with the same tyre widths all around so I can still rotate, and by my calculations, a 245/40R17 should be within a couple of mm of the radius of the stock GTS-T tyres. Would 245's scrape on the front with 40 profile tyres?

Also, Kinks or anyone else, did you notice any improvement in handling when you went to the GTR rims? What about ride quality - significantly worse? Tyre noise? Much difference? Rear end grip under acceleration improved by any reasonable margin?

Yep 360mm centre of wheel to guard is standard height. I dropped around 10mm front and rear with stiffer springs, and there are no scrubbing issues whatsoever with 235/45 on the front and 255/40 on the rear. If you lower the car and use a camber kit on the rear you will need to lip the guards.

245/40 is not the same rolling diameter, it's close..ish.. but I'd rather have an accurate speedo. Also might be an unusual size??

The reason most people go staggered is because on stock rims the car is VERY taily. If you simply add more rubber front and rear you'll get more overall grip but the handling characteristics don't change. It will still be taily it'll just let go at a higher speed. Staggered tyres achieves 2 things - it means less scrubbing in the front (a mate with same setup said 245s scrubbed, 235s were much better) and it means you can get some fatter rubber under the rear to help with traction and balance out the handling. I really like having the extra traction at the back (although the taily part was fun, it gets annoying if you want acceleration!).

I upgraded my suspension and then about 3 weeks later did the wheels, and each step made a massive, massive improvement to handling. I'm picky about ride quality and it's stiff but not unreasonably so, and the tyres are perfect there's no issue there. Tyre noise depends on the specific tyre and tread pattern, I had ancient rubber on the wheels when I bought them and it sounded like my wheel bearings were gone (I only tried them briefly, they were totally unsafe). With fresh rubber they're no noisier than the stockies.

[benro2]

rota g-force...

these are 18x9 +30

They look really nice - do they scrub? They look awfully close to the guards!

Also, how are Rota for quality? I came across those the other night during my searches and checked some of their weights - not bad! They also say they've been going for a few years now too.

Yep 360mm centre of wheel to guard is standard height. I dropped around 10mm front and rear with stiffer springs, and there are no scrubbing issues whatsoever with 235/45 on the front and 255/40 on the rear. If you lower the car and use a camber kit on the rear you will need to lip the guards.

OK, so to be clear here, with your 10mm ride height drop all round, without a camber kit, it's all good, but lowering any further will result in scrubbing? Also, do you still clear all speed bumps and driveways without any troubles? Mine does right now but I've noticed that the stops they put at the end of car spots are *just* under my front bar now, so even a 10mm drop will likely make it start to hit - another reason why I'd like to keep it at stock height!

Are you on 18's? I was considering these but I though I would have to lower the car too much to get it to "sit right", whereas on 17's I figured that I could leave it at stock height and it should look OK? Do you have any pics of your car, preferably side on?

245/40 is not the same rolling diameter, it's close..ish.. but I'd rather have an accurate speedo. Also might be an unusual size??

Yep, 245/40 isn't right. 235's are much closer. Not sure about availability, haven't looked yet!

The reason most people go staggered is because on stock rims the car is VERY taily. If you simply add more rubber front and rear you'll get more overall grip but the handling characteristics don't change. It will still be taily it'll just let go at a higher speed. Staggered tyres achieves 2 things - it means less scrubbing in the front (a mate with same setup said 245s scrubbed, 235s were much better) and it means you can get some fatter rubber under the rear to help with traction and balance out the handling. I really like having the extra traction at the back (although the taily part was fun, it gets annoying if you want acceleration!).

I've found the 255/35R18's are very expensive and hard to find, but 245/35 or 265/30 are much easier to find and cheaper. Are both your tyre sizes readily available and cheap? Also, how is tyre wear? Is it fairly even front/rear and across each tyre?

I have found mine to be pretty taily in the wet, but I thought it was purely the crappy tyres (BF Goodrich, probably 30% tread left). How does yours grip in the wet? I didn't want to increase width too much because of tramlining/aquaplaning.

I upgraded my suspension and then about 3 weeks later did the wheels, and each step made a massive, massive improvement to handling. I'm picky about ride quality and it's stiff but not unreasonably so, and the tyres are perfect there's no issue there. Tyre noise depends on the specific tyre and tread pattern, I had ancient rubber on the wheels when I bought them and it sounded like my wheel bearings were gone (I only tried them briefly, they were totally unsafe). With fresh rubber they're no noisier than the stockies.

I've had my car for > 5 years now and it's still pretty much bone stock, however I'm not sure if the shocks are stock or not (I could probably just stick a camera under there and post the pics up - which I may do sometime in the future ) - but I don't think they are, as I have read in multiple places that the stock shocks are only good for 60-80k. I bought my car with an indicated 49k on it (pretty sure it was wound back although 2 different garages thought they were genuine) and it's now almost hit 134k and the shocks are still just as stiff as when I first got the car! If I push down on the car it simply returns back to the original height, no bouncing whatsoever. It's quite stiff, and not that comfortable, even on 16's, which is another reason why I think they may be aftermarket.

So with this in mind, if I were to go with 18's, and if you think that I need to drop ride height by a few mm to make it sit right, would it stuff the shocks if I just used lowering springs? I'm really getting wheels more for if I wanted to sell the car, which I will most likely do before these next set of tyres run out, so I am really trying to do this on the cheap, while avoiding the typical Tempe Tyre crap that will only make ride/handling/grip worse. Those Rotas that ssxRicho mentioned look really nice but I just think that 17's will look too small, and 18's will make the car appear to sit too high.

After doing a LOT of research the other night I kinda gave up on getting aftermarket wheels at all, but if I can go 18's with a small drop in ride height for cheap, with cheap but good quality wheels (Rota or Speedy?), I would reconsider.

One more thing: when going from 16's to 18's, did you notice less lean in the corners? My car seems to roll a bit in corners but I'm not sure if it's due to the high profile tyres or needing stiffer sway bars! This is one other thing I'd like to fix.

Thanks to everyone for their replies!

[mystery_kid]

your car rolls in corners because it's riding higher than ben cousins

you definitely sound like someone that should just leave their car alone

Edited January 1, 2011 by mystery_kid

[mystery_kid]

accidental duplicate post

Edited January 1, 2011 by mystery_kid

[The Bogan]

your car rolls in corners because it's riding higher than ben cousins

you definitely sound like someone that should just leave their car alone

Nice attitude mate.

Set the ride height so your happy with it, mine sits at about 355 front and 350 rear, it handles great and I can drive over most speed humps, it also handles better at the track because the geometry is better than when it was lower, my track rims are 17x9 +30 with 265/40 R compound tyres, fronts fit well but the rear need at least 1.5 deg negitive camber to clear the guard when the spring compresses.

Only problem I have is at full lock the tyre just touches the whiteline sway bar up front.

To overcome the tyre hitting the inner guards all you need to do is use a heat gun to soften the plastic then you can use something like a cricket ball as a tool to create some more room by rubbing it against the softened plastic.

Marks 2 cents.