New to the forum and was planning a purchase of a spyder with an immediate swap of the wheels. Looking at aftermarket wheels I see 19" are a popular fitment, was hoping someone could post widths of their 19 inch wheels front and rear. A few members may have also received PMs from me regarding the same. Also looked at the dimex-group brochure another member pointed to in another thread and see they offer the following setups: Front: Rear: ------------------ 8.0x19 10.5x19 ------------------ 8.5x19 11.0x19 ------------------ 8.5x20 10.0x20 ------------------ 8.5x20 11.0x20 ------------------ 9.0x20 11.0x20 ------------------ Anyone have any suggestions or comments on those fitments above - safe to presume they are staggered for the vehicle and should not have any issues with rubbing. I am leaning towards the larger sizes for a more aggressive look. At the same time don't want to make it look like a rice-racer. Thanks in advance for your feedback and comments.
I have no comments on +1 or +2 fitments as I think 18" diameter is a reasonable dimension for this car and for the widest selection of tires. I think you should add an extra data set to your question though: Weight. Heavy wheels are never better than light wheels, assuming that both offer sufficient strength for the application.
Then stay away from the 19s and 20s. How to choose wheels: A) find the tire you want {PS2s, RE11,....} B) find the fitment of the tire you want that has the same rolling radius as the current tires on the car. RR = WS + 2*AR*TW / 25.4 Where RR = Rolling Raidus, WS = Wheel size in inches, AR = Aspect Ratio 40% = 0.4, TW = Tire Width in millimeters. An F355 comes with 225/40-ZR18s:: RR = 18 + 2*0.40*225/25.4 = 25.08" C) Find a set of tires that has the same front rear aspect ratio as your cuurrent tires An F355 with 225/40ZR18s and 265/40ZR18 has a width ratio of 265/225 = 1.178 When you do the above math, you will find a few set of tires that are close enough, more due to C than due to B. You can compensate for overly wide rears by raising the rear end (compensating fro the added width with a little oversteer) a turn or two on the shock collars. You can ultimately compensate for rolling radius at the shock collars, also. D) get under the car while the rear is still holding its weight and measure how much clearance you have to go wider in the wheel department (wheel to sub-frame). You WILL have to pull the diffuser to get an accurate measurement. You will also see how tight it all is. Also measure how much clearance you have on the outside of the tire and see how little clearance you have out there. At the front turn the wheel all the way to lock in both directions and measure clearance of the wheel to the A-Arms and steering linkage. E) AFTER you have figured out what tires you want, what sizes of that fit the car, then and only then its it appropriate to buy wheels to fit those tires to that car. Now, of course, you can short cirtuit this whole process by sticking with the same tire size as stock, and just buy wheels of the same width and offsets.
I've thought about this in the past but haven't seen any discussion on it. What about an 18 in the front and 19 in the back? If you maintain the same rolling diameters I think the sidewall heights would look closer to the same. But since I've never seen it I don't know how balanced the combination would look on the car as a whole. btw I think weight should always be carefully considered. Weight with respect to rotating masses is much more important than equal weight on a non-rotating mass. I forget by how much but even if it were not rotating, the fact that it's connected to the suspension is reason enough.
I have seen 19" in the front, and 20" in the back. I don't know how the handling is, but the appearance looked fine to me.
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=295342&page=3 Go to post #43. One of the best looking 355's out there IMO but you need to upgrade the brakes to go with it so the wheels don't look silly.
rather than opening up yet another thtread. I tought I would post this here since we are talking wheels... I was wondering if anyone recognizes this aftermarket wheel. I having trouble sourcing it so I can replace this center cap. It's just another little detail I get to iron out. Theses wheels were on the car when I bought it and the PO didn't know anything about the wheels either. Thanks so much! ps. I am trying to source the center cap because its cracked. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
That looks to be a factory oem cap that snaps into that cover. You would release it from the back. Unfortunately that style of cap is no longer made. The replacements should work fine, but look slightly different and are of a darker shade of yellow, so you will probably want to simply buy a complete, new set of four. Or at least two, for one side. You might get lucky finding a used older style one on Ebay or something...but dealers are charging a premium for new old stock, of that exact cap...so most just get four new ones. Not sure how it comes apart...whether you need to remove all the Allen bolts or not...but once you get the cover off and can see the back side, you should be able to figure out how the cap pops out from the back, and then snap in a new replacement.
Awesome. So, could you point me in the right direction on where to get a replacemnet set please kind sir? :>)
Contact HRE Wheels - they do lots of Ferrari wheels and will give you good advice. I had a set on my 95 vette and they were cool but $5K about 8 years ago... For me, I plan to keep the stock wheels on the Ferrari I find, but that's just me.
Steve, Ricambi has them for about $135.00/140.00 for a set. They are a little brighter yellow but if you do the whole set it is not an issue.
Steve, the wheel that you have posted a picture of is called the Axis Se7en and it is no longer in production. However the owner of the company is a friend of mine and I will send him an email to see what else he can recommend for a replacement center cap. As others have already said, that is not the original center cap (with the Ferrari emblem) supplied with the wheel, but he may recall the likely sources.
Well, thanks very much for that. Small world! I am really just wanting a nice new clean set of center caps in there. Two bad that one busted. An earlier poster suggested ricambi to get a set of center caps. Do you or does you friend know if those Ricambi center caps will go in the Axis wheels I have? Thanks very much! I now know what I have....