I wanted to up my 16" rims to 17's but after looking through the owners manual I see SLP says NOT to put anything larger than 16" rims on the convertible SS. It says they determined that the car, overtime, would not be able to handle it.
This is a "Sunday Drive" car for me. No racing and not a lot of extra horsepower anticipated (maybe headers/hotcam etc... typical buzzwords from this forum). Does any one have 17's on a convertible??
Does anybody have a recommendation??
Thanks in advance,
Brian

 

one of my friends just put 17 inch in the front and 18's in the rear. He managed to get a 335 35 18 under the back of a lowered vert. That is a big freaking tire. Not sure if there would be any damage, dont really see how there could be unless you went to a taller tire.

 

You might want to "search"... I seem to recall a recent thread that came to the conclusion that the 17" wheels were discouraged by the factory (and apparently SLP) because of poorer ride comfort. A buddy of mine had a 30th SS Convert, and he had a set of 17x9 SS wheels on the front and real GS 17x11 wheels on the back, and they fit fine, the car handled fine. I helped him hammer the rear wheel wells for some really huge slicks and there was no real difference that I could spot between his convert wheel wells and my coupe. There is more reinforcing behind the convert inner fenders, but the size of the clearances is the same.

I don't think it caused any problems the car "couldn't handle" since the car eventually ran a 9.04 @ 155mph .
(obviously not with street tires....)

 

I remember early on SLP said the converts had the 16" wheels due to ride harshness compared to the 17". Then when GM took over in 98 all SS's got the 17" no matter what. Must be OK to me...

 

my firend has 17" on conv. the same as the firs 4gen on the pic
http://www.flamingwheels.pl/modules....by=titleA#foto

another one has 18" on 3gen rs

http://www.flamingwheels.pl/modules....by=titleA#foto

(he`s got rear axle from 4gen so thats why the calipers look like this

next week I will have a set of 18" on my `95 z28, theyl`ll look great, but I dont know can O handle them on these road in Poland :/