Good Morning,

I was wondering for those that are running staggered wheel sizes in which the front rim is 17" and the rear wheel one is an 18" how is your handling compared to a stock set up?

The reason I am asking is I am looking for new wheels and was looking into these:
http://www.wheelstudio.com/...ice-all/vehicle-all#

I was thinking of a set up like this:

17X7 in the front (42 offset) and 18X8 (35 or 38 offset) or 18X9 (35 offset) in the rear

What do you think?

Do you have tire sizes you would recommend?

I like the look of the deeper lip on the 18X9 but am not sure having a 7" for the front wheel and a 9" for the rear wheel will make the car handle badly. I am also not sure the 18X9 w/ a 35 offset would fit.

I eventually want to lower the vehicle as well.

Thanks

The weight distribution of a V6 Fiero is around 45/55 front to rear. Keep the same ratio for your wheel and tire widths. 45/55 reduces to ~0.8:1. If you have an 8" rear, try a 6.5" front. A 9" wide rear you have a 7.2" wide front. Since that's an odd size, try a 7" if you want a little understeer, or 7.5" if you want a little more aggressive lift-throttle reaction.

I run 17x7, 48 offset on the front, 215/45-17; and 17x8, 35 offset on the rear, 235/45-17. (88s like more front offset than the earlier cars, due to suspension design.)
The tire sizes were chosen to match the diameters of the stock tires.

I've had good luck with those sizes. The same sizes on a different (but very similar) car provided very neutral handling around a track. (Track day event.)

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 01-06-2016).]

quote Originally posted by Raydar: I run 17x7, 48 offset on the front, 215/45-17; and 17x8, 35 offset on the rear, 235/45-17. (88s like more front offset than the earlier cars, due to suspension design.) The tire sizes were chosen to match the diameters of the stock tires.

Very similar setup - 17x7 et50 with 225/45 and 17x8 et45 with 245/45... just a little more tire and a little less stagger. I do a lot of no-holds-barred driving up the mountain to Lake Tahoe and the car is incredibly neutral... I could honestly stand a little more action out back, but at the same time it's a nice easy setup for the street. Highly satisfied.

Going to a 9" rear (assuming you can make it fit) wouldn't be inherently a problem, but I don't think I'd go any bigger than 225s up front (steering effort concerns) nor would I have any more than a 20mm stagger as understeer would start to be annoying. Well, I guess fine for just driving around, but not great for actual performance. 245s on a 9" wheel are pushing it a little, especially on an 18" wheel where your sidewall is going to be pretty short. So, none of the pieces are individually a problem, but the package might not be much fun.

[This message has been edited by thesameguy (edited 01-06-2016).]

I have always thought that the front tires need to be relatively tight on the rim(Wide rim for tire width) while the rears can stand a little more.....slop; On my first car I had 8" wide rims with 235 up front and 245 out back.....On my Fiero I have 16 x 7s with 205/55 up front and 225/55 out back- the car handles very well- Wheel AND tire weight have a huge affect on the feel and the performance of the car.....before I went to the 16s, I had some crappy old 15 x 7s with 215 & 225/60s...the change took off 6 lbs on each corner up front and 3 lbs off each out back.....The difference was amazing!

No matter what wheel/tire package you go with, you can adjust the handling a bit with suspension tuning; Different stabilizer bar sizes, alignment changes, etc. I also did some odd things with how my stabilizer bars work- better turn-in with less DTO....But some people think I'm wrong on that front!

Thanks for the help. So I guess I could go with the 17x7 front and 18x8 rear then?

You can do it, but make sure you keep the rear tire at less than 26" diameter- I just checked and you could go with a 245/40-18. For me, the sidewall is a bit low, but I like to keep over 4" sidewall for durability- A friend, years ago, won a Shelby Charger...It had 195/50-15s on it and he hit a 2x4 on a freeway off-ramp; stripped the tire off the rim, destroyed the rim(And tire) and he went in the bushes.....The 245/40-18s come out to 3.7" approx' calculated, but remember that the wheel lip projects farther than the mounting surface, so these are going to be down around 3" functionally. The off set on the front is good, but I'm not sure of the 245mm wide rear with the 35-38mm offset- you may want to check the tire offset diagram- they have it somewhere on here, but just do a google search for "Fiero tire offset diagram" and you should find it.

This is my other car.
17x7 38mm on the front. 17x8 35mm on the rear.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 05-31-2017).]