Track width alignment

[Fuelie Fan]

We're insane about finding the fastest kart when we go to Speedzone. There is ALWAYS a ringer, for whatever reason. We fight each other for it.



One time, we went early in the morning for an all-day jaunt, and it was sprinkling outside, but we hung around and ended up with the place pretty much all to ourselves when it let up.

For the question at hand, when we built the formula sae car in college, the front was wider than the rear, but it was also designed for really tight courses. As others have said, the front track is "pretty much" fixed by the geometry of the front suspension.

[JohnUlaszek]

Katz,
Thanks for the detailed response. I am going to see about a 8.5" wheel. I am starting to think I need to buy the wheels that give me the offset I need and to hell with the look for track use at least. I can always do a 315 rear and 235 front if I want to do the car show thing.

You mention longer arms, what do you think about moving the ball joing out a 1/4 inch further on the stock arms?

[Salt Racer]

Yes, if you're serious about track use, you're better off giving up looks. I personally prefer the look of light/rigid flat-faced front wheels that screams "F'ck hot rod looks, function first!!", like on JP's car. I can't afford a set of Kinesis right now, so I'm eye-balling at a set of AFS 18x9.5 C5 replicas (21ish pounds and plenty of room for big calipers).

My philosophy is every little bit counts (at least for production-based cars). If you can move the LBJs out 0.25" w/o too much trouble, I'd go for it. But the gain is minimal. I'd leave it alone if that requires significant amount of fab work.

[JohnUlaszek]

Moving the ball joint out is not that big a deal as I am converting over to screw-ins on the bottom anyway.

The only problem I see with the C5 and 4th gen wheels is they are 9.5". BBS's would be nice too I just don't see how I can package a 9.5" up front with the stock subframe.

[Salt Racer]

You can get C5 rims in 17x8.5, but it probably wouldn't work unless you make the hub width wider by fair amount. +0.375" offset, 8" wide rims fit good on my car, and non-Z06 C5 front rims have +56ish mm offset (~+2.205"). Assuming the section width of tire stays the same, 2.205-0.375 = 1.83" per side.

[Salt Racer]

Just some additional info about C5 replica rims...

There was a set of 18x9.5s with cosmetic blems on e-bay for $495. I wasn't sure what kind of load rating these things have, so I sent e-mail to the manufacturer. I hadn't received the reply but I bought them anyway thinking they'd at least make good mockup wheels.

I got the reply a day after I bought them. The rims are rated at 1400lb. Marginal at best for my car, as each front wheel carry 1200lb or so. Not too many people here have cars as heavy as mine, but it's another thing that shouldn't be overlooked if you intend to run your car at the track.

I think I'll live with my billet wheels until I can afford a set of Kinesis K18s.