'03 Cobra Wheel Fitment On My 1994 GT???

[Paul94gt]

Just curious who here is or has run a set of factory '03 Cobra Wheels on their SN95? I have a 1994 GT and a set of Cobra wheels that I want to skin up and put on. Did you guys run spacers on the front and/or rear of the car? What size tires were you running with them? I don't plan on running anything huge. Honestly, I could be happy with a full set of 245/45-17s'. Maybe something a little bit bigger in the rear.

Thanks!!!

 

[lutter94]

I have factory 03 cobras up front, 10.5 repops out back. I got them with tires on them already 275 in the front, 285 in the rear. Only problem with the front is rubbing the inside wheel lip on the sway bar, all hard right turns, some hard left turns. Initially assumed iit was the tires, so I put 255's on when they wore out. Rubbing remained, lol. So I bought steering rack limiters (pic below). One on each side, worked like a charm. Still have 4 left from my kit, it was $20 for 6 from LMR. Would send the 4 to ya for $10 shipped if ya wanted.

edit, I wouldn't go narrower than 255's. as these are 9" wide wheels vs the 17x8's you're prob taking off the car. I really liked how the 275 tires protected the rim, with these 255's the widest points is the wheel lip.

 

[lutter94]

Front 17x9 w/ 255/40-R17

Rear 17x10.5 w/ 285/40-R17

 

[Paul94gt]

I have factory 03 cobras up front, 10.5 repops out back. I got them with tires on them already 275 in the front, 285 in the rear. Only problem with the front is rubbing the inside wheel lip on the sway bar, all hard right turns, some hard left turns. Initially assumed iit was the tires, so I put 255's on when they wore out. Rubbing remained, lol. So I bought steering rack limiters (pic below). One on each side, worked like a charm. Still have 4 left from my kit, it was $20 for 6 from LMR. Would send the 4 to ya for $10 shipped if ya wanted.

edit, I wouldn't go narrower than 255's. as these are 9" wide wheels vs the 17x8's you're prob taking off the car. I really liked how the 275 tires protected the rim, with these 255's the widest points is the wheel lip.

Thanks for the input guys!!!

How much do the rack limiters limit the range? What do you do, keep stacking them until the rub goes away?

I've read a lot of conflicting info on these factory '03 Wheels. Some folks even suggest using lower control arms from a "03 Cobra. Others say it's just a matter of something like a 3/16" wheel spacer. It's been hard to find any concrete info.

Thanks again.

 

[lutter94]

I only used one on each side, thats not my pic, just stole it from the interwebs. I doubt you'd notice the steering range. I've never used spacers, but dislike the idea of them, they'd shove the wheel outside the bodyline i think. These clips are easy, peasy.

 

[Paul94gt]

Yeah, I have been debating the whole spacer thing. I need to mount one of the Cobra wheels and see how things look before I move on them or not.

 

[lutter94]

I can take a pic outside in the morning, it was dark in the garage when i snapped these pics.

 

[Paul94gt]

I just noticed your sig. Is that teal? My '94 is.

Your car looks sweet.

 

[lutter94]

Yep it's teal. All black interior, came with tribars originally.

 

[lutter94]

 

[Paul94gt]

Nice. Black interior is sexy.

Although I hate those Tri-Bars

Had them on a Fox Body I had and they just look wrong, haha.

So those rears are 10.5s'? Looks pretty much perfect in how it sits in the wheel well. Is the backspacing the same as the factory 9" rim?

 

[lutter94]

Honestly, I don't know the offset/backspacing. I could measure it. But bought them used on ebay w/ tires mounted already. They shipped from SE Iowa to NW Iowa, lol.

 

[Paul94gt]

Gotcha. I have a hunch that with my factory 9" wheels, I will need a 1" spacer to achieve that look. Or get close to it. I will be doing rotors, pads and PBR calipers in a few weeks. At that point, I will bolt up one of the Cobra wheels and see how it looks/measures out.

 

[lutter94]

Gotcha. I have a hunch that with my factory 9" wheels, I will need a 1" spacer to achieve that look. Or get close to it. I will be doing rotors, pads and PBR calipers in a few weeks. At that point, I will bolt up one of the Cobra wheels and see how it looks/measures out.

Assuming my 17x10.5's have a +20mm offset (AM & LMR both sell 10.5 at this depth). And stock 03/04 Cobras are +26mm offset. Here's the dimensions. If you want the 17x9 face to sit where the 17x10.5 is at, you would need a 1" rear spacer (as you expected, lol).

 

[Paul94gt]

Just staring at my metric ruler, that looks about right. Also has me thinking that with the 9" rim, I could get away with the smaller tires. But I'll figure that out when the time comes.

For now, I need to put a straight edge on one of the rims and see what the backspacing is.

Thanks for that diagram!!!

 

[lutter94]

No prob. After I posted it, I was looking at the backspacing spec listed on LMR. Obviously the 9" and 10.5" widths are where the tire sits, not the actual outside width. The above sketch makes the assumption that any extra width is the same on both 9" and 10.5" wheels.

However, backspacing is to the inside face, correct? Long story short, LMR has the 17x9 with a overall width of 17x10 (outside to outside), and the 17x10.5 is 17x12.09 (outsides).

I've crunched the numbers, the modeling program makes it easy, the numbers just don't make sense. I'll attempt to measure the overall width tonight, since my wheels are a hair wider than my tires. Should be able to get a close measurement. If the lips are actually thicker or something on a 10.5, you would need 1 1/4" worth of spacers, to flush up a 9" where a 10.5" would sit.

Let me check my wheels before you take my word as gold, lol.

 

[Paul94gt]

Sweet. Thanks again.

And yes, backspacing, as best I have always known, is measured from the back edge to the mounting face. Where the wheel sits against the hub. Put a straight edge across the (back)outer rim and measure down to the mounting face.

 

[lutter94]

So I measured each wheel.

17x9 = 10.125" wide
17x10.5 = 11.625" wide.

Each wheel is 1 1/8" wider than the spec width. This allows the diagram above to be correct, since the delta is the same. Idk about the specs I found online, not going to worry about them lol.

Also took pics of the inside of my spokes, they are AFSWHEELS.COM with a +27mm offset. This does not match the LMR and AM 10.5" wheels. I don't have that modeling program on me, but the increased offset tucks my wheel in more, compared to the LMR/AM wheels.

The 25.05mm spacer in the above diagram is now 18.05mm, so a 3/4" would work perfect. 275's look good on 9" wide rims.

Looks like a pair the same as my rears is only $265, and they look identical to the fronts.


edit, got the program back, lol.