Help With Tire Height

dakota

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I recently bought a 2000 Mustang GT (Black, not relevant except Black looks so good). The guy before me cut one coil off each spring and the ride was so rough and it bottomed out all the time so I put some used stock coli springs and new shocks/struts....it now rides great but I have the gap between the tires and the fenders. My mustang wears 18" Cobra R wheels with 275X35-18 tires so with the low profile it looks bad. What size 18" tires will best fill the gap with out slowing it down too much and staying away from Light Truck tires. Maybe something like 255/55-18-----
I appreciate any suggestions.
 

justinschmidt1

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a 275/35/18 is a 25.6 inch tall tire...stock tire height is 25.7 inch FYI.

Our cars have huge amounts of fender gap in stock form and the ride gets rougher and rougher the lower you go to close the fender gap.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

That site will help you figure out tire heights.

A 255/55/18 would be 29 inches tall...you dont want that. a 255/45/18 would be nice ay 27.0

You could just jump up to a 275/40/18?....that would be a 26.7 inch tall tire.

Looks like they make all kinds of high performance tires in that size too


Heres an example of a car with 27.3 and 27.0 tall in the front

295/40/18 on the rear and 255/45/18 on front

105_0517.jpg
 
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dakota

dakota

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Thanks for your response, is that mustang riding on stock springs. Since my springs are newly installed I've been told the springs will settle in some and the height will drop some as they break in.
 

Jnicho

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I believe the stock tire size for an 00 GT was 245/45-17 (unless it had 16" wheels). 245/45-17 is 25.7" tall...your 275/35-18 is 25.6" tall so you have the same height as came stock on that car but on an 18" wheel and about 1" wider. On 18's I'm sure you could go with more sidewall and eat up some of the space...personally I prefer the look of our cars lowered...good lowering springs can give you that lowered stance without too much sacrifice in ride...but lowered cars will always ride stiffer I think.
 

justinschmidt1

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Thanks for your response, is that mustang riding on stock springs. Since my springs are newly installed I've been told the springs will settle in some and the height will drop some as they break in.

Im not sure to be honest...looks like it has a small drop to me.
 
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dakota

dakota

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I Agree lowered mustangs look great but I travel for my job and the 2000 is going to take some miles off my F150 so I can't take 400 miles of rough ride at a time....LOL
I just want to fill in the gap somhankse and get on the road.......Thanks
 

justinschmidt1

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I Agree lowered mustangs look great but I travel for my job and the 2000 is going to take some miles off my F150 so I can't take 400 miles of rough ride at a time....LOL
I just want to fill in the gap somhankse and get on the road.......Thanks


I understand completely. My mustangs ride was terrible after I lowered it 2 inches.

Throw some taller tires on there...should help it out and maybe even soften the ride up a little with the bigger sidewall
 

02GT

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I lowered mine around an inch and a half, I put some 245/25/18's on there with some decent all season tread and it really helped the ride out a lot. It took up any extra fenderwell space too.

I lowered mine around an inch and a half, I put some 245/25/18's on there with some decent all season tread and it really helped the ride out a lot. It took up any extra fenderwell space too.
 

Tony

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275/35/18 is a perfect sized tire dude. trying to do a taller tire to rid wheel gap kinda sucks. drop it, get some adjustable shocks, cut the bumpstop in the rear in half...and ride will be awesome :) trust me...i ran QA1's out back for a long tome and i was slammed...cut my bumpstop in half and it rode pretty good.
 

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