Civic Type R After-market Wheel Guide

TheSnakeJake

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I just got Motegi MR145s same size/offset and went with 265/35. While I like the width I think I should have gone with 255/40 to add a little extra meat to the wheel wells since I won’t be lowering as this is my DD now.
can you post some pics?
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Kiel

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can you post some pics?
The snow is melting and it’s been raining here in MN. I’d like to at least get my car clean to off set my terrible picture taking skills but I will def post up some stuff
 

TheSnakeJake

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The snow is melting and it’s been raining here in MN. I’d like to at least get my car clean to off set my terrible picture taking skills but I will def post up some stuff
sounds good! shoot me a PM when you post them. i'm wheel shopping and considering all options... having a very difficult time deciding on wheel & tire size.
 

CrossOut

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Why not make them wider? A 9.5 will work at ET60.
Thanks for the reply,

My explanation will probably be grossly over simplified and have the wrong terminology.. engineering explained does a much better job at this. I suggest checking him out.

The idea behind going with 8.5 in et60 is because the center line of the wheel would be in line with the pivot axis reducing the scrub radius to almost zero. (-1 in the case of the type r's stock wheels)

Pushing 9.5 would give slightly better traction however you would gain back a bunch of torque steer. (More friction and grab of the tires makes torque steer even worst) so to again eliminate torque steer with 9.5 would require an offset of 72 to get the center of the wheel inline with the axis of pivot. Well 72 is impossible as the cars suspension and stuff would get in the way not to mention rubbing..

There are several people actually tracking their type r's on YouTube running 18x8.5 et 35-40 and 9.5 et 40s. Any bloke can stick wheels on his car and tell you he doesn't notice any torque steer.. The real drivers that are honest will tell you that they are noticing a lot more torque steer to the point where they actually are having to fight it! And I'm not taking about torque steer in a straight line. The car handles that pretty well.. go flat out in a turn or coming out of the turn, the stock type r even sees torque steer which is 10x worst with the wrong wheels!

Over all, you'll get much better performance switching to better tires like ps4s on stock wheels than you would get simply by switching to 18x9.5 et40's.

Are 9.5 a bad idea? No i don't think so. But the car isn't designed to accommodate them. They already make 18x9.5 et40 so no point in requesting them. Can we request et60. Yes, we can. But those won't be type r specific and they still wouldn't fit the role we are wanting.
 

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....
The idea behind going with 8.5 in et60 is because the center line of the wheel would be in line with the pivot axis reducing the scrub radius to almost zero. (-1 in the case of the type r's stock wheels)

Pushing 9.5 would give slightly better traction however you would gain back a bunch of torque steer. (More friction and grab of the tires makes torque steer even worst) so to again eliminate torque steer with 9.5 would require an offset of 72 to get the center of the wheel inline with the axis of pivot. Well 72 is impossible as the cars suspension and stuff would get in the way not to mention rubbing..
....
Offset is constant and remains the same off the wheel's center. An 8.5" width wheel and a 9.5" width wheel with the same +60 offset have the exact same wheel center. The 9.5" just has an additional .5" on the front of the wheel and .5" on back of the wheel.

Use this tool to visualize it, great resource when specing wheel and tires setups

https://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp
 


CrossOut

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Offset is constant and remains the same off the wheel's center. An 8.5" width wheel and a 9.5" width wheel with the same +60 offset have the exact same wheel center. The 9.5" just has an additional .5" on the front of the wheel and .5" on back of the wheel.

Use this tool to visualize it, great resource when specing wheel and tires setups

https://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp
That's fair, id imagine that may run into fitment issues with that extra half inch.. i could be wrong. But it sounds like the 8.5s may barely clear the suspension.
 
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Florence_NC

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Thanks for the reply,

My explanation will probably be grossly over simplified and have the wrong terminology.. engineering explained does a much better job at this. I suggest checking him out.
The Engineering Explained Youtube channel is decent, but he has plenty of mistakes as well. I have commented on his YT about this before. So don't take everything he says to be 100% accurate.

You should also know that I am a mechanical engineer, primarily working in the automotive and motorsports fields.

The idea behind going with 8.5 in et60 is because the center line of the wheel would be in line with the pivot axis reducing the scrub radius to almost zero. (-1 in the case of the type r's stock wheels)
Altering wheel width alone has no effect on scrub radius. You must alter the offset to change the scrub radius, and even then, there is more to it. Scrub radius can only be determined by a combination of the wheel centerline and the tire diameter.

Pushing 9.5 would give slightly better traction however you would gain back a bunch of torque steer. (More friction and grab of the tires makes torque steer even worst) so to again eliminate torque steer with 9.5 would require an offset of 72 to get the center of the wheel inline with the axis of pivot. Well 72 is impossible as the cars suspension and stuff would get in the way not to mention rubbing..
This is all incorrect. The wheel centerline is the only dimensional component of the wheel that is used to calculate scrub radius. Any wheel with an ET60 has the same wheel centerline, it doesn't matter if it is 8.5, 9.5, 3.5, or 23.5, the centerline is in the same position when mounted to the hub.

There are several people actually tracking their type r's on YouTube running 18x8.5 et 35-40 and 9.5 et 40s. Any bloke can stick wheels on his car and tell you he doesn't notice any torque steer.. The real drivers that are honest will tell you that they are noticing a lot more torque steer to the point where they actually are having to fight it! And I'm not taking about torque steer in a straight line. The car handles that pretty well.. go flat out in a turn or coming out of the turn, the stock type r even sees torque steer which is 10x worst with the wrong wheels!
What someone does or doesn't do for a track car is not particularly relevant to a street car. For starters, a track car has different needs, different qualities of importance, and is a different set of design decisions. Plus, most racers don't actually know why they do anything to their race cars. They copy what other people do, and have little to no understanding of what or why.

And I will generally agree on your assessment of drivers talking about added torque steer. Physics says that if you change the scrub radius, particular by 10-25mm like some of these wheels do, there WILL be a change in torque steer. Period. Although I think it is less about being dishonest and more about lacking the understanding of driving feedback, and just generally not having the "feel" for detecting nuanced changes in how a car is operating.

Over all, you'll get much better performance switching to better tires like ps4s on stock wheels than you would get simply by switching to 18x9.5 et40's.
A bit of a generalized statement here. But to take it further, why not put PS4s on 9.5s? By your assertion, I would be gaining twice.

Are 9.5 a bad idea? No i don't think so. But the car isn't designed to accommodate them.
This is a bit of a weak argument. the car isn't "designed" for anything but OEM 20" wheels with Conti tires.

They already make 18x9.5 et40 so no point in requesting them.
I don't want ET40 wheels, if I did, there are plenty of options. And you don't want them either, that is the entire point of this discussion.

Can we request et60. Yes, we can. But those won't be type r specific and they still wouldn't fit the role we are wanting.
Not sure what you mean by this, because it sure looks like it fits the role I am looking for. By saying "wouldn't fit the role", I think it is based on your incorrect assessment of the relationships between offset, wheel diameter, and scrub radius.
 
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Florence_NC

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That's fair, id imagine that may run into fitment issues with that extra half inch.. i could be wrong. But it sounds like the 8.5s may barely clear the suspension.
I have never seen a FWD car with much suspension clearance, so I made this incorrect assumption myself. It wasn't until I got my CTR on a lift and actually looked that I found out there is about 3/4" of clearance everywhere with the OEM wheels. Here is one of my posts with a more detailed explanation:

Civic Type R After-market Wheel Guide

In short, there is plenty of room around the suspension to run a 9.5 ET60 wheel.
 

CrossOut

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Thanks for the reply,

My explanation will probably be grossly over simplified and have the wrong terminology.. engineering explained does a much better job at this. I suggest checking him out.

The idea behind going with 8.5 in et60 is because the center line of the wheel would be in line with the pivot axis reducing the scrub radius to almost zero. (-1 in the case of the type r's stock wheels)

Pushing 9.5 would give slightly better traction however you would gain back a bunch of torque steer. (More friction and grab of the tires makes torque steer even worst) so to again eliminate torque steer with 9.5 would require an offset of 72 to get the center of the wheel inline with the axis of pivot. Well 72 is impossible as the cars suspension and stuff would get in the way not to mention rubbing..

There are several people actually tracking their type r's on YouTube running 18x8.5 et 35-40 and 9.5 et 40s. Any bloke can stick wheels on his car and tell you he doesn't notice any torque steer.. The real drivers that are honest will tell you that they are noticing a lot more torque steer to the point where they actually are having to fight it! And I'm not taking about torque steer in a straight line. The car handles that pretty well.. go flat out in a turn or coming out of the turn, the stock type r even sees torque steer which is 10x worst with the wrong wheels!

Over all, you'll get much better performance switching to better tires like ps4s on stock wheels than you would get simply by switching to 18x9.5 et40's.

Are 9.5 a bad idea? No i don't think so. But the car isn't designed to accommodate them. They already make 18x9.5 et40 so no point in requesting them. Can we request et60. Yes, we can. But those won't be type r specific and they still wouldn't fit the role we are wanting.
Thanks for correcting me on multiple points. Im personally a physicist and although my concentration isn't on motor sports i do understand a lot of the mechanics behind what is going on.

I've been corrected before in regards to the off set, w6hole yes 9.5 et60 may be better i don't think the wheels would clear the suspension.

And i didn't mean the car read designed for a specific wheel or tire. Only that it was designed for 8.5" tires with the et60..

I digress.. my post what's regarding the request from Titan 7 to get wheels in that specific size. I suppose if others would like a different size they can put in a request themselves as well.
 


CrossOut

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I have never seen a FWD car with much suspension clearance, so I made this incorrect assumption myself. It wasn't until I got my CTR on a lift and actually looked that I found out there is about 3/4" of clearance everywhere with the OEM wheels. Here is one of my posts with a more detailed explanation:

Civic Type R After-market Wheel Guide

In short, there is plenty of room around the suspension to run a 9.5 ET60 wheel.
Sounds like it might be worth putting in another request to titan 7 then
 

Florence_NC

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Sounds like it might be worth putting in another request to titan 7 then
The amount of additional room compared to virtually any other FWD car on the market is significant. I fell into the same trap as just about everyone else, including many wheel builders/retailers, into assuming the clearance was limited similar to everything else. It simply isn't.

Here is a project car from BC Forged. It has 19x10.0 ET55 wheels with 295/30/19 tires, no rubbing on stock suspension.

https://www.bcforged-na.com/project/davids-fk8-honda-civic-type-r-19x10-0-rz05/
 

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Looks great! I really like these wheels. I wish they made this size in the silver finish.
I wonder why they don't in this particular size, they have the bronze and black colors /shrug Thanks :) I'm very pleased with how they turned out
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