18" or 19" or 20"????

[RedEnuf93]

18\" or 19\" or 20\"????

I need new rims, since I sold my old chromed 5-spokes.

I was going to get 18", maybe CCW's. Now, I have found couple of other nice wheels in 5-6 spoke configuration, but they are either 19" in front and rear OR some are 19"'s in front and 20"'s in rear.

What is the REAL difference other than the 1 or 2 inches of diameter. I heard that the ride may/will suffer with the 19/20 combo. How about hooking up, I have a Roe supercharger with NX. I am not going to do drag racing, for that I have set of 17" 3-spokes. I am simply looking for lots of BLING and nice/decent ride while doing "spirited" canyon carving at the beautiful Pocono mountains. I prefer not to loose any filling from my teeth due to ride issues and kidney belt is also out of question. I will strap myself into 6-points, so that will give you a idea what type of driving I do.

My car is lowered with Eibach springs and is a 1993.

 

[Fast Freddy]

Re: 18\" or 19\" or 20\"????

i have the wheels you are looking for. they are brand new in the box and have never been mounted (see pic below). they were custom built by forgeline for me and and are built to identical specs as their discontinued VR-1 wheels. they are 18x11's in the front 18x13's in the rear. the offsets and backspacing are indentical to forgelines street series VR-1 wheels which were built specifically for vipers to go road racing with. that means they stick out a little bit wider than stock wheels by approximately 1 inch in the front and rear which gives you a wider wheelbase. they come with custom viper logo centercaps. the wheels are their WC3 wheels and they are fully polished. the advantage to having a 18X11 wheel in the front is it makes your car turn better when road racing (less understeer). you can mount up anywhere from a 275 wide tire to a 335 wide tire up front to find the handling you want out of your car. i recommend a 305-315 wide tire for this wheel in terms of general use. 19 inch wheels up front on a gen-1 or gen-2 viper is a bad idea because if you ever lower the car even 1 inch the tires will rub on your fenders. last but not least these wheels will clear the BIG gen-3 viper brakes that come on the 2003 and newer vipers. i have these brakes on my gen-2 viper and only certain wheels will clear these brakes. so if you ever decide you want to put bigger brakes in the front of your gen-1 viper these wheels are a must have.

as far as drag racing on the street is concerned its all about the traction in the rear of the car and if you get a 19 inch or a 20 inch tall wheel you won't have enough sidewall on your tires to get any traction especially with the fact that you have a supercharger. not only that but no decent tires that provide any real traction for the dragstrip or even the street are available in these size rims because they know its not worth making them because the sidewalls are to short.

i feel that the best tires for your situation are kuhmos or toyos. either tire provides way more traction than the stock tires and can be used for road racing. while these tires are not drag radials they will provide better traction than stock tires due to their compound.

i will sell you my wheels brand new in the box shipped to your door for $3,000. i will even pay for the shipping and insurance via UPS or DHL which will cost me an additional $300. i paid $3,200 for these wheels new so i will be taking a $500 loss here. the reason i am selling the wheels is because i have 3 sets of wheels for my viper and that is one set to many. PM if you are interested. also, i have a pic of what these wheels look like on a red gen-2 viper that i can email to you if you like. forgeline has made a few of them because they are the wheel that they replaced their old VR-1 wheels with.

 

[JUCD VPR]

Re: 18

I say go 18's for sure. I'd recommend CCW 505's , i just think they look the best on a viper. Well those and the HRE's but they are pricey.

 

[dansauto]

Re: 18

Hene 19" 6 spoke with polished barrels. They are the best looking rims I have seen. I have 19" HRE's and they do ride a little stiff, my biggest problem is wheel spin, they seem to lite up the tires easier with the large dia rims.

 

[Inferno]

Re: 18

I have 19's up front and it is lowered. No issues with rubbing the fender or anything else.

 

[sbkim]

Re: 18

My vote is also for the 19"

 

[RedEnuf93]

Re: 18

Thanks guys!

Are there any more who can verify that 19" combo with lowered springs will not rub the fenders?

Regarding tirechoises in 19"'s it's Pilots or Pirellis only? Any stickier stuff available on 18" or 19"?

sounds like the 20"'s are not a great option for street...

 

[02 Graphite GTS]

Re: 18

P M sent to Fast Freddy

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Re: 18

I will strap myself into 6-points, so that will give you a idea what type of driving I do.

sounds like the 20"'s are not a great option for street...

I thought you were going to do some tracking in which case tire selection is a big factor in going with 18".

But if all your gonna do is street stuff it doesn't matter so much. Get whichever looks the prettiest.

 

[RedEnuf93]

Re: 18

I will strap myself into 6-points, so that will give you a idea what type of driving I do.

sounds like the 20"'s are not a great option for street...

I thought you were going to do some tracking in which case tire selection is a big factor in going with 18".

But if all your gonna do is street stuff it doesn't matter so much. Get whichever looks the prettiest.

Chuck, for tracking I'll use my old 3-spokes and maybe Kumho's. At least you can buy some sticky stuff for those wheels.

After a "sudden stop" last month, I realized that its not too bad of an idea to get strapped properly in the Viper. I ended up eating the damn windshield frame, being aluminum, it was not a whole lot of fun.
3 points were totally worthless. At least next time my ass and head will remain on somewhat same line...

The "big" wheels will be purely for street, but still for "spirited" driving.
I still cannot make the decision to go with mucho bling 19's or not so mucho bling 18's. Oh well, I quess I'll just have to figure this one out...

 

[Warfang]

Re: 18

Isn't wheel selection just the hardest decision in the world to make? And women think they have a hard time fuguring out what to wear on a date.

 

[RedEnuf93]

Re: 18

Isn't wheel selection just the hardest decision in the world to make? And women think they have a hard time fuguring out what to wear on a date.

Well, at least they have a closet full of stuff to pick from. I'm gonna be stuck with the wheels for the rest of the summer (or years to come)...

I'm looking seriously the "Hennnnnsy" 5 spokes. Propably 18's in front and 19's rear. Lotsa bling, bling!!