anybody running a "reverse stagger" wheel combo?

[HiBoost]

I don't know if that's even what you'd call it, I think I just made that term up... Basically what I'm talking about is something like 17" rims in the front with a low profile, good handling radial like a 275/40-17, and then 15" rims in the rear with a "decent" handling radial, but much better for acceleration, like a 325/50-15. This would give an overall tire height of 25.7" in the front and 27.8" in the rear which should give the car a good stance. My idea is to allow a bigger sidewall in the rear to aid traction yet keep a better performing tire up front for quick braking and steering (i.e. no skinnies on 15" rims!!). Everywhere I look, though, I see guys talking about running larger diameter rims on the rear, which is the opposite of what I'm thinking. Has anybody tried or seen something like this? I see that Weld and others make rims that you can get the same style in 15" - 18" so I was thinking about giving it a shot. Car would be a 2nd gen camaro. Anybody got any pics of something similar?

Thanks!
Jeff

[MikeDVC]

Don't know if this helps, but I remember this car featured in Super Chevy last year. This nomad has 20's on the front and 18's on the rear

http://www.superchevy-web.com/features/0309sc_nomad/index.html

[HiBoost]

Thanks man, that is at least in the same realm of what I was thinking. The main difference being that both his fronts and rears are pretty low profile, I'm looking to do a low profile front and a regular profile rear. Just trying to visualize how this would all look on a 2nd gen camaro. I'm not a photoshop wizard so I'm still searching for the real thing :-)

[Travis B]

It would look like you could only afford front wheels.......I guess I understand your idea but I just don't think it would look good at all.....plus you can get an R rated 17 in a 40 or 45 series sidewall do you realll need more than that?

[Derek69SS]

I really doubt this will help you, but 1909-1918 Model T's came that way from the factory. :lmao: 24" wheels in front and 23" wheels in the rear with 30" rubber on all 4... so if someone starts giving you crap about it, just say you got the idea from Ford. :)

[79T/Aman]

I see where you are going with it it is not a bad Idea the only problem will be that the back will feel very loose and could be dangerous if pushed hard, the front will react much faster than the rear.

[HiBoost]

the issue here is that I'm going to have a 1500hp turbo small block under the hood so I *need* a real tire on the back to help with straight line traction... I realize I'm giving up some cornering ability, but it would still have to be worlds better than having a 15" rim and "skinnies" on the front in terms of terrible braking and steering. So I was thinking that the 17's in the front and 15's in the rear might be a nice combo... If I had 18's or 19's in the front, I think it would start looking weird, but do you think 17's to 15's would even stand out as being all that different?

[Travis B]

you won't hook 1500hp on the street anyway will you????? maybe you just need two sets of wheels???? just my .02cents

[HiBoost]

with 345/50-15 drag radials and a similar motor (but small block ford) we run 1.3x 60' times tripping the lights with the back tires (i.e. wheelie time)... 8.20's @ 173... and, it hooks like crazy on the street... Obviously at 10mph I won't be able to make use of the full 1500hp, but my electronics allow the boost to increase as vehicle speed increases which always keeps the car on the edge of traction throughout the speed range... On my last camaro I had the two sets of wheels and tires thing, but that never fully achieved what I wanted. I needed the slicks in the rear even for street driving but I hated the way the skinnies felt up front. I didn't have a single style of rims where I could run big in the front and small in the rear so I always had to choose one complete set or another (back then weld, centerline, etc. didn't make 17" rims in styles that were also available in 15" sizes, or if they did I never saw them).

[Travis B]

ya I guess if you can control the boost you could make some use of it....

do you have pics of the car...if so post them in multimedia and ask someone to photo chop it for you?

[6'9"Witha69]

I have 15" Daggers with drag radials for the drag strip, but I run 17"s on all four corners the rest of the time.

[Ralph LoGrasso]

I think I would search for pics of guys who normally run 17s or 18s on the street because of large brakes, and switch to 15s in the rear for the drag strip. I know Andrew Borodin had some pics of his GTO like this from when he hit to the strip. IMHO, it's going to look, well...odd. I would go with one or the other, either run some wide 15s up front and the 15s out back, or run 17s all the way around with a large sidewall in the rear.

[MikeDVC]

Consider running 16's up front; you can still get a lower profile tire, but will be less of a visual difference. I'm running 16's on my 2nd gen camaro (front and rear) because I didn't want to go with the big wheel look, but wanted to improve the handling and to make room for 12" rotors.

[USAZR1]

I've seen 325/50/15 drag radials but who makes a 345/50/15?

[HiBoost]

sorry, i fat fingered that, they are BFG comp t/a drag radials in 345/55-15 size...


http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/assets/pdf/comp_ta_drag_radial.pdf

[USAZR1]

sorry, i fat fingered that, they are BFG comp t/a drag radials in 345/55-15 size...

No problem. Do you have room to fit a 14.6" wide x 30" tall tire?
Has your Camaro been backhalved?

[HiBoost]

nothing has been done to the camaro yet, i'm trying to get the "whole game plan" together before I do anything... I'm thinking that some kind of 4-link w/mini tubs in the rear and a modern front suspension with coilovers and good brakes up front is where I want to be...

As far as that 345/55 tire, I wouldn't necessarily be running that tire, that's just what's on the mustang and it works well on the street... MT's new ET radials are supposed to hook much better than the bfg's, the world's fastest drag radial car ran 7.80's in the 1/4 on M/T 295 tires and 7.60's on M/T 315 tires!! The drag radials are definitely no joke...

[Travis B]

the DSE 4 link would work nice for the car and some dse deep tubs....the tubs will hold a 335/30-18 with no problem so they should hold a big R15 tire as well....

[WS6]

i believe mickey thompson is now making a 17 or 16 in drag radial. this could allow you to run a 16 or 17 in the rear with a 17 on the front. i think that would look better than the 15s on the back with 17s on the front. the only thing to still worry about is if you can get enough sidewall to allow good flexing for drag launches without making it too thick and giving you a prostreet stance. just a thought

[JV69z/28]

Remember Bumongus (I think that's how you speel it)? It was that hugh Buick that Troy built way back when. That had 17s on the front and hugh Pro Street 15s in the rear. If you go to his web site there may be a picture there. The car was in every magazine in the free world when he did it. Maybe someone can find some pictures and post them. Troy did it and nobody complained - but not my taste. Find some of those new M/Ts in 17s or 18s and be done with it.

[HiBoost]

I hadn't ever seen bumongous before, but I found this: http://www.radrides.com/photogallery.php?sub=bumongous

With those wheel wells being halfway covered over it's kind of hard to get the full effect, but its still about the only pic I've found that shows what I'm considering.

I talked to Mickey Thompson the other day... they say a 315/35-17 is coming in '06... something like that might be more workable... I just can't see trying to put down anything close to 1500hp on a 275/40-17 which is currently the biggest 17 that they make...

[HiBoost]

ok, so i did a hack job in photoshop... here's a 2nd gen with 17's on the front and 15's on the rear... i don't like these rims to begin with, but this at least gives an idea of what this stagger would look like... I don't think it looks terrible, but it's definitely not the g-machine look...

[ProStreet R/T]

Many road race cars run 18's front and 17 rear, mainly to fit over the huge front brakes.

But why do you want to run at 15" rear? There are MANY 17 and 18" drag radials available? M&H makes a 390 width DR for 17" wheel, which is probably equal to a true 12-13" tread pattern.

But suffice it to say you'll never hook 1500hp on the street anyway. What EFI system are you using? Get a good DR and tune up the AEM traction control and it should still be stupid fast.

[HiBoost]

a few years back I built my '94 camaro into a fairly wild street car. It had a supercharged 396 and it ran 9.56 @ 143. I had 17" wheels with Nitto 275/40 "drag radials" but without having the taller sidewall, the tires just didn't hook at all. the first time I went to the track I though, I'll try making a pass first with these drag radials: 13.05 @ xxx... went back to the pits and put the 15" wheels with 28x10.5" M/T's on and boom, 10.7 @ xxx.

my buddy's mustang runs 345/55-15 BFG drag radials and makes right at 1500hp and it hooks like crazy on the street. We've run 1.34 60' times and pulled wheelies at the track on these things. A true slick might hook up better, but actually our best pass to date (8.24 @ 173) was on drag radials. So I guess the bottom line for me is, it's a little silly to spend $25k+ on a bulletproof drivetrain just to only be able to use 1/3 of its potential because of tires. I basically want 3 things:

a) ideal rear suspension/tires for drag racing
b) ideal front suspension/tires for handling and braking
c) a combined front/rear package that looks "uniform"

as for EFI, I'm sold on the AEM for imports (I run one on my supra and love it) but haven't been too impressed with the results on domestics. BigStuff3 looks to be the top candidate at the moment. As far as traction control, I have a racelogic unit that does a way better job than the AEM because it actually monitors wheel speeds. The AEM just uses programmed acceleration rates, which of course will change with road type and grade, atmospheric conditions, tire air pressure, etc.