Squared wheels?

[Bosse'sBoss]

Does somebody knows why the 1LE came with different size wheels, that do not allow rotation?
(I posted this before but got erased from the forum)

[hcsi99]

Wider rear wheel for better handling characteristics.

[ST1LE]

I believe the wheel offset doesn't allow the front wheels to fit properly on the rear. I am pretty sure I saw that posted somewhere quite some time ago.

[BDBiker]

This might help.

[Bosse'sBoss]

Guys,
Thanks for the info

[2cnd chance]

Originally Posted by ST1LE

I believe the wheel offset doesn't allow the front wheels to fit properly on the rear. I am pretty sure I saw that posted somewhere quite some time ago.

Yes. The Camaro was designed with a staggered F/R wheel.

[SUX2BU]

They had leftover ZL1 wheels.

[right to travel]

so i heard what al o said but i need an english translation

[Norm Peterson]

The fully staggered ZL1 wheel and tire package would have understeered more than they wanted. There's a little more to this than just the front tires running out of grip first.

Apparently there isn't enough easy room up front for much more than 10" wide wheels and 285/xx tires - you either go to some trouble with offsets and (more) negative camber or you add on some fender flares (as on the Z/28 with its 11" front/11.5" rear wheel widths). The ZL1's front tire sidewalls are pretty well flush with the fenders as it is. I doubt there's much "extra" room on the inside.


Bosse - did Pete ever mention what they did on that Lingenfelter/Optima Challenge car that Danny Popp drove the last couple of years? I know he's mentioned a preference for a fully square wheel and tire combination. Even if you did fit 11's front and rear, the offsets might be enough different that you still wouldn't be able to rotate front to back.



Norm

[SUX2BU]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

The ZL1's front tire sidewalls are pretty well flush with the fenders as it is. I doubt there's much "extra" room on the inside.

Have you seen ZL1 fronts in person? They are not flush at all. They sick out 1/2" to 3/4".

[Norm Peterson]

I saw one at a local car show just yesterday and took a few pictures. It's close enough that the actual camber will matter. Most of what appears to be outside the sheetmetal is the tires' rub strip, which won't ever actually rub on the sheetmetal. The angle that you're looking at it from also matters and might be making things look worse to some than is really the case.

Note that in the last picture (taken from just off the front of the car) that the camera angle is off to the side enough to show the vertical face of the front fender flare. There is a little optical illusion going on that makes it look worse than the view from almost perfectly straight behind, because you aren't lining the tire up with where it really is. The rear tire picture is to illustrate the contribution of the rub strip to the overall "look".

I get that not everybody will appreciate the appearance of a wheel/tire combination that isn't "conventional" in the traditional muscle car or drag race sense, but OP is looking for cornering performance ahead of that conventional appearance. As do I.


Norm

[SUX2BU]

Here are some pics of a 1LE which are the same front wheel/tire as the ZL1
Do you can see how bad they stick out. This looks to be an inch on each side.

[Bosse'sBoss]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

The fully staggered ZL1 wheel and tire package would have understeered more than they wanted. There's a little more to this than just the front tires running out of grip first.

Apparently there isn't enough easy room up front for much more than 10" wide wheels and 285/xx tires - you either go to some trouble with offsets and (more) negative camber or you add on some fender flares (as on the Z/28 with its 11" front/11.5" rear wheel widths). The ZL1's front tire sidewalls are pretty well flush with the fenders as it is. I doubt there's much "extra" room on the inside.


Bosse - did Pete ever mention what they did on that Lingenfelter/Optima Challenge car that Danny Popp drove the last couple of years? I know he's mentioned a preference for a fully square wheel and tire combination. Even if you did fit 11's front and rear, the offsets might be enough different that you still wouldn't be able to rotate front to back.



Norm

No Norm, I don't recall.

But now with all the explanations, now it make sense to me, of why the 20x10 and 20x11 of the 1LE. Now is clear to me. GM knows what they do when they want a performance car.

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by SUX2BU

Here are some pics of a 1LE which are the same front wheel/tire as the ZL1
Do you can see how bad they stick out. This looks to be an inch on each side.

Looks to me that those wheels are aligned to somewhere within SS specs rather than something more consistent with the car's mission statement. Hell, they almost look like positive camber. I don't know what Chevy lists the 1LE's camber spec at or even if it's different from the "regular SS". But if that's it in your pics I'll guarantee right here that they wouldn't stay that way on any 1LE I'd ever own for much longer than it'd take to drive it home and get out my digital angle finder, a bolt to fit in the knuckle's adjusting hole and a couple of wrenches.


On edit, the outer shoulder of that left front tire looks a bit worn, which might be an illusion/lighting issue or underinflation - or it could be a case of not having enough negative camber for the usual driving (at least the right turns) that the car sees.


Fully half an inch of those gaps would disappear with cambers set to only a hair beyond -1° instead of being at best barely on the negative side of zero. At the -1.8° that my avatar car came off the assembly line with and still has, your yardstick would be very close to hitting the sheetmetal before the tops of the tires. (Yes, my car has always been "out of spec", but I'm not complaining one bit. )


Edit #2 - also see Pedders "Aggressive Street" for the FE4 in this post → http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showpo...37&postcount=4


Norm