Hey everyone... today i got some new tires for my c5 wheels... theyre 295/45/18's on the rear... when i floor it or take a turn hard they rub hardcore... do i have to get smaller tires or can i just beat the crap outta the inner wheel wheel to make em fit? Thanks!

 

That's kind a jump in tire size. Most of us run 25.6" to 26.0" tires. Yours come out to around 28.4". There's another user on the board who's in a similar situation. He's running 28" wheels and what he did was get adjustable LCAs to move the wheels for clearance. His user name is L.O. Green95Z or something like that..I bought his old non-adjustable LCAs from him. He could give you some tips about running 28" wheels in the rear.

 

I'm amazed that you could even fit a tire more than 28" diameter in the wheel opening. I run 28.1" ET Drags and the edges of the rear bumper cover needed major surgery. The entire rear axle was moved backwards to make more clearance between the front/sheet metal edge of the wheel openings. You realize that you have a 10% speedo error, and you have made your 4.10's feel like 3.70's.

What part rubs? You are pushing the top edge of the tire about 1.5" further up into the wheel wells. Is it worse on one side than the other?

And, which C5 wheels are you using... width and offset? Some of the C5 wheels have an excessive offset that is enough to put even "normal" diameter tires hard into the inner fender liner.

 

im running the c5 fat spokes... it looks like its really close to the rear bumper but doesnt rub at all there... it all looks like it runs on the inner wheel well...

 

I'm pretty sure the 97-99 wide-spokes are 18x9.5" with a 61mm offset. That works out to about a 7.60" backspace, which shouldn't be a big problem. I've got 315 street tires, with a 7.93" backspace, and they took quite a bit of hammering on the inner fender. Also check the corner of the jounce bumper bracket, to make sure it doesn't catch the inside of the wheel when you jack the car and the axle drops.... that bracket corner needs to be cut off on some setups.

If you are using the 28" tires at the track, make sure you check them for signs of rubbing on the wheel openings. I was running 28.0" QTP's for a while, and they grew enough at 125+ MPH trap speeds to rub on the front of the wheel opening. That's why I moved the axle back. Then with the 28.1" ET Drags (which I think are actually closer to 28.4"), even after cutting about 1.5" off the rear bumper cover, and hammering the metal corner of the fender that is behind the bumper, I had a small groove in the tread of the tire after a 7,000rpm (=131mph) dyno pull. The metal fender needed to be hammered even more.

28.1" ET Drag, with about 3/4" off rear bumper cover - eventually went to 1.5" cut off.