thomsbrain

Can anyone confirm max fitment for the Downforce front fenders?

For 18x11, you need to go to somewhere around +46 to +43 to avoid rubbing on the inside. That gives you extension of about 35-38 mm beyond what you can squeeze under stock fenders. The Downforces are advertised as adding 30mm of space, but I'm wondering if you can push that with a little extra trimming or camber in order to squeeze on the 11s. Could you get 285s or 295s under a Downforce fender?

I'm basically trying to plan a future square setup that's as wide as possible on rolled stock rear fenders and will give a maximum amount of front tire width. If a 18x11+63 fits in the rear, all you would need is spacers to mount the same wheels up front, as long as you had enough front fender space.

What say you, S2Ki?

s2000Junky

Yep pretty much, 11" +40 is the offset you need for a 30mm downforce front fender and a 285 fitment. 295 would be super tight and may cause some rubbing in or out depending on your ride height and alignment. Obviously you don’t want to set alignment for fitment, you want to set alignment for best chassis tuning.

Going to be quite a track width difference running 60mm total up front compared to the rear. It will look and handle a bit funny. Your better option would be to run over fenders in the rear and push the track width out to more closely match the front. If anything a slightly wider rear track width is preferred for added stability on this car at speed. If you want to maximize the available fender opening on this car, your going to end up with a staggered fitment anyway, and that’s ok, doesn’t mean it will perform any less then a square, in many ways its a better handling set up anyway and yoru maximizing the total grip level of the car. I run 255/295 stagger on stock/modded fenders and feel its pretty optimum. If I were going with wide body/over fenders, Id widen the tires and or track width, but keep the same stagger percentage between front/rear. Depends on the driving environment you will be tuning your suspension for though, as well as driver preference.

blixhavn

^x2 on the over fenders, I have down force fronts and voltex rears.... but I run a staggered setup of 9.5F and 11.5 rear +57... fits the fenders perfect with a 255/295 combo. If you want some pics of fitment go to page 4 on my build (link in sig). But I think if you ran 18x10.5 or 11 square with 285/30's it will work... as for offsets you can always play around with willtheyfit.com . That lil tool rocks!

thomsbrain

Thanks for the replies!

I'm actually purposely looking to run a wider front track width than rear and to avoid cutting any stock metal, so the downforce fronts kill two birds with one stone in that regard. Sounds like 285s might be the upper limit on these fenders. Good to know!

The goal would be track-oriented mechanical grip with NA power and stock-ish visuals.

Manga_Spawn

It is going to end up looking like this. https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/100...interesting-s/ Which just looks odd. I would think the overall feel and handling would be effected by the much wider front (More oversteer?). Anyways the 255 295 setup Junky referenced seems much more ideal from both a performance and looks perspective and with 18's that is actually very doable from a tire perspective since you can actually buy 295 tires for 18 inch wheels.

s2000Junky

Please dont let this be a new goofy trend for our car. Over square front wheel drive drag racing look.

Redline S2K

You can get custom made wheels to fit a stock body S. I have 285's in the rear with only a fender roll.

s2000Junky

With the right width/offset (aka 10.5 +70-72) you don’t even need to roll the fenders to accommodate a 285.

I guess the point is, there is far more room (40mm) of fender opening in the rear versus the front to stuff some rubber under. If you want to maximize the cars traction ability on a stock width body, you will be running a staggered set up. If you want to leave some grip on the table then you can run a square fitment, and if you don’t want to give up traction but still stick to a square set up with wide front fenders, then you will end up with an extended front track width. However rebalancing the rear track width to the extended front puts you back at a staggered fitment again if you want to maximize the new available room.

thomsbrain

From these posts I'm suspecting you guys have some incorrect assumptions about how changing track width at one end of the car effects handling. I'd recommend reading Tune to Win by Carrol Smith or even just playing around with one of the free dynamics calculators you can find online. The comments about looks are certainly valid, though. And I very much appreciate your expertise on what physically fits on the S2000! Everything I know about wheels I've learned from this forum.

Manga_Spawn

Well sounds like you know best so go do it. I will say there must be a reason as to why do don't see race cars or track cars with the front wheels pushed out further than the rear but what do I know.