Wheel width, diameter and weight

I'm looking at a Mustang GT. It comes with 18 inch wheels and a 235 tire. The performance pack comes with 19 inch wheels, with 255 in the front and 275 in the rear. Everyone will tell you that Mustangs should be run square stance, but that's besides the point.

My concern is this. The performance pack wheels make no attempt to keep weight down. I'm having a hard time finding exact figures, but I've seen some in person and they're fucking heavy. I get that the PP comes with other stuff, but why put such heavy wheels on the car?

What exactly do you get going from a 235 to a 275? Skidpad is a little too complex for me to work through, but you'd thing a wider tire would help you hook up and put more power down sooner, allowing for faster acceleration. But I feel like that might be killed by the weight of the wheels. What's your take on it?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=nE2F2wPUrcw&t=3m19s
youtube.com/watch?v=oLs72VIo-JA&t=0m58s
youtube.com/watch?v=nE2F2wPUrcw&t=11m28s
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

>what do I get going from 235 to 275?
17% more contact patch on the ground and a stickier compound. The stock setup for the Perf Pack is fine, and OEM alloys are heavy because they're strong as shit (unlike some cheap aftermarket shit you can buy).

bump

Well to be fair, I've bent both of my passenger side wheels hitting a pothole in my S550 Mustang. But they were the 18 inch black foundry wheels, not the PP wheels.

What do you want the car to do? Stick with your 18s if possible. Even if you want a wider tire, as long as you have a 4 piston brembos stick with an 18in wheel. The stock tires ok but aren't great at anything so consider that as well.

PP wheelz are 9.5" in the back to match the Too-Sendde-Fah' tires.

As is, I felt a lotta tramlining when driving over those re-paved froiways with the notched pattern etched into them. Also saves you munny to be able to rotate dem tyahz.

Would stick wit 255 all 'round or whatever option it was from Fort.

15-17 or 18+?

>OEM PP Model 19" GT Wheel w/ Tire: F-60.6lbs / R-64.3lbs

Even without the wheels the PP is worth it for a 15-17 because you will buy most of the parts at some point anyway. To put Brembos on a non PP you will need to buy new wheels anyway

I don't think 18+s and the highest end options (i.e. Magneride) are worth what Ford is asking, if you want to learn more about this check Mustang forums. A fully optioned 18 is now over $60k might as well get a GT350

You're not a good enough driver for wheel weight to matter. More contact patch is pretty much always better.

Performance Pack has
>larger (Brembo) rotors and calipers
>strut tower brace
>stiffer springs, bushings, shocks, and a rear sway bar
>3.73 rear end gearing and a Torsen differential
>19x9.5” wheels combined with 255/40R19 and 275/40R19 inch tires
>splitter with ducts for brake cooling
>larger radiator
And you're hung up on the weight of the wheels? Get real

I'm upgrading from a V6 Mustang to a 2018 GT. I'm no physics major, but I feel like going from 300 to 460 HP, I should have wider tires on the car. It just makes sense to me, just I can't really justify why. So perhaps it's a foolish thought, but I'm trying to figure it out.

Hmm...I just assumed you go with the wider size and take that to all 4 corners...because wider.

>buys heaviest Mustang produced to date
>Worried about weight

You're going to be able to get much better tires for your car with wheels capable of 275. Weight means fuck all.

The rears need to be wider to put all those ponies to the ground. If you need winter tires, buy some cheap wheels and throw those in the the same size all around so you can rotate.

I'm in a 17, trading into an 18. The contention is this: As much as I'd love to say I'm some track expert, I'm not. Not even close. In fact I've never driven on one. But, I intend to take courses and take it up as a hobby. BUT, the car will be on public roads 95+% of the time. It's going to be a road car. As much as I like to have fun on public roads, I'm not a maniac or an expert, so I don't know if the PP is just going to be a waste of money. Not just because of the initial cost, but because of the increased cost of the tires, fuel economy because of the 3.73 and the more expensive brake pads that will be brunt through faster.

>You're not a good enough driver for wheel weight to matter.

That is true. But I'd like to get there with this car.

I'm hung up on a lot of things. But the OP is a bit of a misnomer. I'm just trying to figure out that specific design choice. And how much of a difference that single aspect makes.

That's sort of what I was thinking. Either buy the PP and buy base wheels, or buy the base car and also buy wider wheels and summer tires. I already have a set of 18 in 235 Blizzaks for my current Mustang.

This hobby is going to be expensive if you take it beyond a japbox and go to autocross everynow and then. With a mustang you'll go to dynos, meets, autocross, tracks, and drags. And still be able to drive it comfortably home.

With tires the best thing to do is 2 sets. One set is your real nice "staggered" set, the ones with wider rears. This is for show or for track days. Then your equal size wheels, put performance all seasons on them. For daily driving or winter. Theyll be good enough for highway pulls and other normie things. And you can rotate them and make them last longer.

I have 245's all the way around and staggered wheels ordered. At 420hp it's already difficult to not spin the tires.

I'm the same way user. I was thinking of getting the '18 with the Black Accents package (only 1k vs 5k) since it comes with wider wheels than stock (fits 255 instead of 235), and then just getting stickier tires/stronger pads/high temp fluids after 20k miles. That combination should be decent enough for occasional trackday, and be more affordable in the long run for a daily driver. You can also rotate tires on a square setup which is nice.

nah brah, you got it wrong, go with the early foxbody and strip it to the weight of a miata. Thats the only mustang worth driving.

>I'm hung up on a lot of things. But the OP is a bit of a misnomer. I'm just trying to figure out that specific design choice. And how much of a difference that single aspect makes.

The weight difference is miniscule. All weight addictions are all performance related anyway. Makes no noticable difference. For example they have heavier brakes but you stop quicker and they won't overheat as fast.

It's just hard to give a recommendation when I don't know what you want the car to do. Drag racing, road courses, just an upgrade so you don't spin at wot on summer tires?

I run 19x10 up front and 19x11 in the rear. 285 and 305s. I've had a 275 square which was no where near as good but not bad either and much more practical. Depends on what you want out of it. At least the 18 has better stock tires available for it.

why don't you get something with some M E A T

Is 295 square doable?

I'd think so but really 285 grips and talks to you. The steering isn't numb anymore. Might need a little camber though to not rub, I had to throw in at 1/8 spacer to get my tire to not contact my shock but when I get my camber plates I hope dial it in.

What wheels are you running?

Not the OP, but I have a 2016 GT with the stock 18" wheels. I'm looking for a wider wheel so I won't peel out all the time, but I'm not interested in cheap reproduction wheels.

I was thinking of a 19" wheel in 285 all around. Right now the car is used as my daily driver, but I figured when it's older and has more miles (only 17,000 miles now, I don't drive much) and the warranty is out I would take it to autocross and track events and have another daily driver.

I'm running basically gt350 rip offs, but they are nice enough and fairly light for the size. The 305 rear I think is the sweet spot to hook at wot personally. You can probably find a non staggered set easily enough. A couple different brands make them at different levels of budget friendly.

That's why the car would spend 95+% of the time on public roads. I can't afford to take the track seriously. But I'd still make the most of the time I can get. And use it to learn as much as possible and improve as much as I can. I appreciate the advice. I'll take it to heart.

I've been tinkering around with the 2018 "build your car" and I didn't even realize the black package wheels were wider. Good to know. Thanks! That does seem like a cost effective idea. I just really don't like the black roof or the black out emblems. I'm going from the grabber blue car to a race red, since they're not bringing the color back in 2018 for some reason. I love the color and I'd hate to mute it with black parts.

>The weight difference is miniscule. All weight addictions are all performance related anyway. Makes no noticable difference.

Fair enough. I do tend to excrutiate over minor details while overlooking the more relevant ones. Misplaced attention, maybe.

I guess in many ways, I don't know what I want either. I've always liked Mustangs because of the performance value. Not as nimble as a Miata, but sure is a hell of a lot faster around most circuits. I guess I'm trying to squeeze the most amount of performance out, for the most reasonable amount of money. What key areas can I spend reasonable money in, to get the most out of the car? And my mind naturally went to "wider tires".

I've looked at those. Better performer stock to stock, but it also costs $9,000 more here in Canada. As comical as it is to squeeze people into the back of my Mustang once every 2 months, I still like being able to fit people back there. I really don't think I could do that with the Camaro.

I've seen Matt Farah drive a 2015 GT with 295's all the way around. The owner said there was no rubbing. Look up "Track Mustang one take".

What rear valance is that? How is the wing mounted?

>trading up to one model year newer
nigger wtf are you doing? it's not any better. save your money for something responsible.

V6 to a V8.

I watched 3 Matt Farah 2015 Mustang GT videos and none mentioned 295 wheels.

295 in the front is a total waste of weight and also drag since they don't put any power down. Keep in mind this is the first Mustang to have a 4 banger turbo(inb4 autism) and IRS so it's attracting a lot of faggotry.

If you can buy a new mustang GT but too worried about costs. Then this isn't for you. If it we're me, just get the performance pack and leave it as is. You'll learn what it needs down the road.

>anything less than 20"
Cucks

Right here buddy: youtube.com/watch?v=nE2F2wPUrcw&t=3m19s

Something something wider rear wheels cause understeer. Seems to be a common thread through every Mustang GT track build.

These too. Just to mention a few:

youtube.com/watch?v=oLs72VIo-JA&t=0m58s

youtube.com/watch?v=nE2F2wPUrcw&t=11m28s

>OP says he's not tracking it
>Links track built non daily mustang

Wider rear wheels don't cause understeer. Understeer happens when front tires loose traction.

>Wider rear wheels don't cause understeer. Understeer happens when front tires loose traction.
You're kinda flipping what I said the other way around. With a track build, why downsize the rear when you could make the front larger?

>OP says he's not tracking it
>Links track built non daily mustang

Perfectly valid points.

I didn't say anything about downsizing the rear. But it sounds like from that last linked video that these Mustangs need meaty tires in the front as well as the back.

Wider rear tires isn't causing under steer. It's that the front tires aren't wide enough to keep traction apparently. A 275 rear/255 front will still perform better than 255 all the way around.

My point had nothing to do with rear wheel causing understeer. It only meant that having more narrow front wheels causes understeer, when you have more push from the rear. It's inherently an issue with the front end because of the big fuck that is the Coyote 5.0L.

...which is basically what you just said. We've been on the same page the whole time.

Coming from somebody with an IRS stang and a decent knowledge of wheels/tires, the extra weight of a wider wheel and tire is nothing compared to the benefits.

You get more contact with the ground as previous posters have stated. This results in more grip, in every way. Technically worse for snow, ice, or even rain and standing water.

To be specific for your situation, I'd say 100% go for the PP wheels unless you want to runs 10s in front and 10s or 11s out back. They are a good deal used, and are the best looking wheel for S550s imo. Plus if youre worried about the detriments of a wide wheel/tire combo, this is the perfect inbetween.

Btw, just because you picked one up and it was heavy doesnt mean much. For instance, I have 315 MTs on some VERY light wheels. They still "feel" heavy. Cause fucking 11 inch wide wheels with a massive meaty tire are going to weigh more than a honda wheel and tire that looks like a spare

The valance is from anderson composites. Probably better more functional ones out by now, it looks great in person anyhow.

The wing is steeda's "functional race wing". It's mounted to the trunk, it did make the front feel noticeably light at freeway speeds. Adding the apr front splitter balanced out the car very well.

I found my swaybars settings changed the cars dynamics more than the tires as far as over and understeer. I'm on adjustable links and bars.