Track Width Front & Rear, Should they be the same?

[Tincup]

Should they be the same? wider front? Wider Rear?

[Chad-1stGen]

All other things being equal, for balanced handling, yes. But all things are never equal. You can use track width changes as a tuning tool. I know some folks who will use spacers for this purpose. Even going as far as to run wheels with slightly more backspacing than necessary to provide more room for spacers.

[stab6902]

That's a very broad (but good) question. From a pure physics standpoint, a properly set up wider car will go around a corner faster than a narrower one. As with everything else, there's trade-offs though. A wider car will have more drag, be tougher to weave through an autocross, etc. As far as the relationship between front and rear track widths, in my opinion it's impractical to try to make general statements due to the number of vehicle specific factors affecting what's "best."

Some good discussion on the topic here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=135&t=1270391

[CSG]

I personally would not go wider rear on a typical car that the weight is biased to the front. I have done the above mentioned slightly narrower rear (than the front) in the past and then had 1/8" spacers for tuning.

[cornfedbill]

The short answer is no. Many production cars over the years have had differences in track front to rear. As previously stated, it can be used to help tune the the vehicle.

[Shawn0331]

look at Post #7 from the legend himself. "I typically don’t want to see the track width difference more than 1” on either end. Even that can be a challenge if it the difference is the wrong direction. There are exceptions to almost every rule ... this one too."
https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/111964-Rear-Suspension-amp-Geometry-for-Track-Performance

[sccacuda]

If your in the planning stages of your car, then you can have the rear made a 1/2" per side narrower than equal track width. This allows the use of spacers to adjust the rear track width. I wouldn't run anything less than 5/8" studs if using spacers and the spacer needs to have a way to keep the wheel hub centric. I'm using a floater rear, so I modified the drive plate for a sleeve that allows the spacers and wheel to remain hub centric, regardless of the spacer stack.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/10/fullsizeoutput_1258_zpsfjp42nep-1.jpeg (http://s1060.photobucket.com/user/340cuda/media/fullsizeoutput_1258_zpsfjp42nep.jpeg.html)
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2018/10/fullsizeoutput_125a_zpslcbx4jrx-1.jpeg (http://s1060.photobucket.com/user/340cuda/media/fullsizeoutput_125a_zpslcbx4jrx.jpeg.html)

[Tincup]

Thank you everyone for the comments. I do have a couple inches left to play with on the rear, I'll have to wait and see where the front ends up, then adjust the rear accordingly...