So if I did an 8" wheel with 4.5" of backspace would work for rear, would the front still clear or need a spacer? Would a Torque Thrust M style wheel 72.6mm fit the hub? Does an 8" wheel seem right for tire size or would it be better to go wider?
In the front you need at least 5” of backspace to make an 8” wheel work with any size tire worth putting on an 8” rim. That’s the problem with A-bodies (especially Darts) and any of the stock rear axles, the backspace to maximum the fit up front and out back aren’t the same. With a BBP A body 8 3/4 you can manage a 17x8 with between 5” and 5.25” of backspace all the way around, but with an 8.25 that doesn’t work.
The hub bores are tricky. The actual hub on the 73+ rotors is about 72mm, but, that does vary some as it’s not a tightly controlled part of the rotor. Som manufacturers are a little different than others. The other problem is, even the ones that start at 73mm (like a lot of aftermarket rims) won’t necessarily clear because the wheel caps are a smaller diameter. So the hub bore tapers down. If the face of the rim is thin, the rotor hub will actually stick out past the face of the rim so they have to have a large wheel cap too. My enkei’s were like that. They have a hub bore that starts at 73mm, but taper down to 65mm. And the hub sticks out past the rim. So I had to have mine machined open to 73mm all the way through.
For the width, a 215/50/17 is the narrowest tire recommended for an 8” rim. A 245/45/17 is fine. If you just want to run 215’s up front you can use a 7” wide rim.
