Winter Tires and Wheels

mayday813

I put 245/45 R 18 Icex2s on a 2011 touring sport coupe six speed. Handling is not as sharp but tolerable and the ride is a little softer. We've only had one snow to date which was gone in a day and they worked well. I've got about 500 miles on the snows. They are a little wider than the 225/50R18's but they still don't fill the rear wheel wells. I don't want to spend the money for spacers which run about $140 a piece if I recall correctly.
I've used Michelin snow tires on a 2009 G37 and a 2002 Mercedes C230 over the years with very satisfactory results. Incidentally, the snow tires on the 370Z are much quieter than the stock Potenza's.

HankL

I am enjoying the quieter cabin with the winter tires.

Nate23

Thanks for posting your setup HankL. I recently bought a 370z and needed a set of winter wheels right away. Ended up going with the same setup you have, 18x8 F10 Sport Editions and same Blizzaks. Everything fit and looks pretty good for winter wheels!

Here's a couple pics if anyone else is curious or finds this thread later on researching like I did.



Sport brake clearance on front...pretty damn close, but it clears!

TreeSemdyZee

You'll love 'em. I'm on my third winter with the same setup. Of course, you'll probably get a lot more use out of them in Minnesota. We had around a ten inch snow last winter and I tried to get them to lose traction and they didn't really want to let go. Its real nice having that kind of sure-footing.

Word of warning to anyone with these wheels (and probably others). The little spring clips that hold in the hub rings like to come off when you're swapping tires. Mine actually came slightly loose when I put them on last winter. When I put my summer wheels back on, people kept telling me that my wheel was wobbling. I'd tighten the lugs down and still had people stopping me. I ended up pulling the wheel back off and found that the spring had actually gotten embedded (from torqueing the lugs) in the hub. Now I have a groove in my hub.

HankL

Hey Nate23 and Tree, thanks for the positive comments. I'm glad you found it useful. It is for sure a fairly big investment to screw up.

By the way, I did install 25mm Eibach Pro-spacers on the rear. I didn't like the look with the rear track more narrow than the front (I didn't measure, just by the look). As it turns out, and I could be nuts, I am sure I feel the increased stability of the wider track and looks a lot better as well. If I did the math correctly, the wheels are approx. 4.6 mm further apart (at the outside) than with the summer tires. I went strictly by the width and offset of the wheels.

Rays - 10" or 254mm with +30 offset (hub toward the front of the wheel)
F10 - 8" or 203.2 mm with 0 offset.

The Rays are 25.4mm wider each side of the centerline but sit 30mm further back with the offset.

I have been meaning to post some pics, I will do that.

Nate23

I forgot to mention that in my post as well, but I bought spacers as well for the rear. I have Ichiba 25mm Type 2 wheel spacers. The rear looks normal with them installed so I'm glad I got them since the rear would be in way too far to look good without.

HankL

Hey Nate23, Have you noticed that these F10 wheels get dirtier, quicker compared with the Rays? It must be those flat spokes.

Nate23

I only drove my Z a couple times before swapping from the Ray's to the F10's so I don't know about that one. I had to swap to the F10's right away since it's December here in MN.

__________________
2011 370z Coupe: Pearl White, Gray Interior, 6MT, Touring, Sport & Nav.