Anyone running 19” wheels?
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Whether or not they fit your limited opinion of what you think looks good is your problem. If you're looking for 18x9's or 9.5's up front to run 255's or 275's, then you're somewhat more limited, but even then you still have more options than if you run 14's or 15's. I mean seriously, what do people run? Rallye's, magnums, oe steel, police wheels, cragars, torque thrusts, or those god-awful centerlines. I bet those styles account for well over 90% of the wheels being used on these cars. That's what, 7 styles?
Not a fan of mild disagreement, I see!
I don't even know what we're arguing about here but I'll play along.
First, if Centerlines don't fit within your limited opinion of a good looking wheel, I'd venture to say that this is YOUR problem. ;)
Second, I'm personally open to the majority of styles on various cars. I ended up with a JDM-oriented wheel on mine and I personally like track-focused wheels on classic muscle cars in general...I actually think the RPF1s in particular, look awesome!
I can also understand the position of those who can't get used to >15" wheels, particularly from the perspective of "reverence for automotive design," artistic composition, or just plain nostalgia. Like I said, it's a matter of personal taste. Maybe it's even worth the performance sacrifice to many of these folks. It's their call, no?
It's admittedly 100% "my problem" that aesthetically-mismatched wheels can make an otherwise tasteful car look to me like it was styled by an 18 year old with a big Pep Boys gift certificate. :D IMO, it's REALLY hard to make a classic Mopar look ok with 19" wheels and nearly impossible to do with 20" wheels. I'm open to being proven wrong.
If that 19" wheel package improves someone's lap times, more power to them but Elwood Engel spins in his grave every time someone does this to an old Mopar.
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Personally if I wanted to go 18x8 and 245/40/18's there's at least a dozen different wheels I would be totally happy to run on my car. My list gets cut down by the 10" or wider wheels I run in the back, and the fairly narrow offset range I have to use to run 275's up front and 295's out back. But I like a bunch of the "tuner" style wheels, as evidenced by the Enkei RPF1's I run now. If you're stuck in the 70's with your wheel design you don't have as many options.
Since we're airing grievances here, one thing that does grind my gears about wheel/tire packages is the disregard for wheel width vs. tire width. I'm sorry but if somebody is running 275s on 8" wide wheels in a handling-oriented application, either they don't know what they're doing or their priorities include something other than optimal contact patch (which is totally the prerogative of the owner, of course). If somebody wants to pinch their tires, go right ahead but wider tires are not always better.
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I don't think it's silly at all to compare the weight of the police rims to modern aluminum wheels. That's the swap I actually made, so it's relevant.
I see your point here and it is reasonable to think that a lot of guys would be replacing similarly massive wheels in this scenario. I do get that. What's still missing that makes this comparison a bit unrealistic is that a 15x7" steel wheel will run $50 piece while an 18x9" RPF01, known for being an affordable, light wheel, will still cost what, like
6x as much? That may not matter to some of you guys but that's real money in my world. Since most of us here are fretting over wheel/tire packages for 50 year-old econo cars, I'm guessing that it's real money to lots of other guys here too. So yeah, there are big weight savings, potential for bigger brakes and tire upgrades to be had with bigger wheels but there are number of variables at work.
Again, I don't know what we're arguing about :)
