Quote:
Originally Posted by paradocs98
After months of researching, thinking, hemming and hawing, I finally decided on a square set of 18x10 Forgeline GA3Rs for my track wheels. Forgeline was great to deal with--it's not easy to find an 18-in wheel to clear my StopTech 380mm/6-piston front brakes, but Forgeline used the StopTech template and built my wheels for this specific fitment. I had Discount Tire Direct send a set of 275/35-18 Nitto NT01s to Forgeline for mounting, and after a few weeks of waiting, I received the wheels by UPS last night. 
I was excited to do a test fit today, but when I tried one on a front corner, it JUST contacts the brake caliper, preventing free wheel movement.  The GA3R is a multi-piece design, and joins the wheel center with the rim or barrel by a series of small nuts, in the case of the GA3R mounted on the inside of the wheel face for a cleaner look. This is in contrast to their ZX3R, which places the joining nuts on the ouside face of the wheel. It's these small jet-nuts that just touch the shoulder of the 6-piston caliper--it misses clearing by just millimeters.
I was about to pack the wheels up for shipping back to Forgeline when I had a thought--what about using the 12.5mm Turner spacers that I use on my ZCP wheels for my daily driver setup? I tried the spacers, and sure enough, the brake caliper now clears without a problem However, when the front wheels are turned a decent amount, there is now contact/rubbing between the tires and the plastic inner fender liner. It's probably a degree of steering angle that I wouldn't see that often on the track, but it's obviously less than ideal.
So...should I:
1. Try this current setup with the 12.5mm spacers and hope that I don't get too much fender liner rubbing on the track.
2. Try a narrower spacer such as a 5mm in hopes that it's enough to clear the jet-nuts from the brake caliper, but not so much that it causes fender liner rubbing. Also, I've read that with BMWs, any spacer less than 10mm cannot be truly hubcentric. Would a 5mm Turner spacer therefore be less than ideal on the track?
or 3. Send the wheels back to Forgeline for revision or replacement with new wheels, since it was a guaranteed fitment.
This hobby is going to make me NUTS.  |
You're already nuts - you know that, right?
As tempting as it is to say "get some 3mm spacers and you'll be fine" I'm with the guys that say to send them back and have them rebuilt. Spacers are a pain in the butt on a long term basis. If you have the option to not use them, take it.
That said, I have some real bad news for you. 275/35x18 NT-01's are so wide that they will still rub the inside of the fender well on any rim - 9.5 or 10 - that clears the strut (ET25 or so). Mine, on 9.5 ET23's, hit the liner so hard under braking into a hairpin (once every 90 seconds or so all day long) that it dislodged the windshield washer reservoir located behind the fender liner. I eventually gave up on the square set and ran 245's on the front.