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Took 7 weeks to get them after the first set were wrong color and had to remake them all over but they arrived today and on the Z they went.

The combination I went with was the most cost effective option I could come up with to get into 17" tires. I choose Cragar D Window steel wheels(about 24-26# heavier per corner) and Nitto 555 Extreme tires...............

Front 17 x 8 w/ 4.5" BS Nitto 245/45-17
Rear 17 x 9 w/ 5.0" BS Nitto 285/40-17

Total cost for wheels w/center caps, tires, all shipping, mounted and balanced was $1080 from Discount Tire. Same tires with Billet Specialties wheels would have been $2200

I was sort of going for the Nascar/IROC look so what do you guys think?







For comparison thid is what I had on it before. I will be mounting my Hoosier QUick Time Pros on the rears and using these for the strip because they save about 100#. The steel wheels will be for the street and for road racing fun like at Road America.

It looks more "modern". Not really my cup of tea however. But the Nitto's should stick like glue. Do you notice a difference when driving in a "spirited" manner?

I likem. The steelies give her a very "basic" look. Are those the new drag radials?

They are not, I went with the NT555 for the street and for when we go up to Road America in September. I still have my Hoosire Quick Time Pros that I am going to mount up for the strip.

Pics won't load...?

I prefer more sidewall like you had previously...not a big fan of the rubber band tire look.Just my opinion seeing how you asked.All that matters is that you are happy with your choice..and if you are happy,so am I for you.

There we go, for some reason only Firefox shows the pics...

I dig it. Definitely has the IROC/Nascar thing going. I went with the same 17-8/9 combo as you but smaller 225-255/45 tires cause I was afraid of too much sidewall. Yours look great tho. You probably could have gotten a 10" rim in back.

A 10" rim would have been ok but Cragar did not offer anything but 8" and 9" in this wheel. I even asked about a custom version at 10" but the response was this did not have a hoop at 10" for use with this center. I am going have a set of aluminum spacers made up at a 1/2" thick in order to bump the rears out just a bit which will help fill out the wheel well more. My other option is I can possibly have the rears widened on the front side another 3/4 to 1" and then have them all powder coated more of a silver color, right now they came out a little to gray for my taste but they are grwoing on me.

Not a huge fan of the "rubber band" look myself and tried to get as large a profile as I could. I would have stayed with the 15" wheels I had but there are literally NO good high performance tires offered today in 15" sizes. All I could find was BFG, Mastercraft and Cooper and those are all-season tiires which pretty high UTOG #s that offer great tread life but they are not great for spirited driving habits. My car is setup as a dual purpose machine which suspension that allows me to perform reasonbly well in both drag racing and road racing environments. The 17" Nitto combo will work well on the street and on curvy tracks and the 15" with the Hoosier Quick Times will work well for the drags.

Thx for the comments! I appreciate hearing everbodies point of view, sometimes this is what helps us looks outside of our normal comfort zone and even come up with new ideas we would have not thought of otherwise.

Tom..I like that gray just as it is.Gives the Z a function over form type like look imo.

That is typically the way I have tried to build my car, function first and form second. I like the spartan race car look and pretty much stay away from all of the bling stuff like chrome. The flashiest piece under the hood is the chrome on the top of the valve cover breather, the rest is all pretty basic. I think the gray will grow on me, looks better ever time I step back and look at it but I would really like them to be closer to a machined aluminum finish. Chrome is definitley out of the question for me. For now they will stay as is becasue they serve a performance purpose which was the #1 priority.