just joined the Cobra R club!

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keVIIIn

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I just bought these 2 days ago, saw the ad on craigslist for a 97 mark viii for sale and the guy said he would throw in the wheels for an extra $500 so I called him and asked if he would sell them seperately and he agreed. They are 18x9s which I haven't seen much of on this site, mostly the 17s, but they are in pretty good condition, I had to clean the backs up a bit but theres no pitting or flaking anywhere. The tires will have to be replaced soon, but they should last me through the summer just fine..I'm already pondering if I can go wider with the tires, the current ones are 245/45/18, but they are pretty close in the rear to rubbing the fender if I lower it or go over a bump, not sure how much wider I can go...anyone have these size rims with wider tires in the rear and no fender rolling??

IMAG1169.jpg

IMAG1170.jpg

IMAG1173.jpg
 
At first i thought you bought a cobra R (the car)
Then i saw the pics it looks great aside from the off road hight .



Luke
 
I always LOVED your car before but now....WOW !!! Looks Awesome......Whatcha doin with the 20 spokes ???
 
keVIIIn said:
I just bought these 2 days ago, saw the ad on craigslist for a 97 mark viii for sale and the guy said he would throw in the wheels for an extra $500 so I called him and asked if he would sell them seperately and he agreed. They are 18x9s which I haven't seen much of on this site, mostly the 17s, but they are in pretty good condition, I had to clean the backs up a bit but theres no pitting or flaking anywhere. The tires will have to be replaced soon, but they should last me through the summer just fine..I'm already pondering if I can go wider with the tires, the current ones are 245/45/18, but they are pretty close in the rear to rubbing the fender if I lower it or go over a bump, not sure how much wider I can go...anyone have these size rims with wider tires in the rear and no fender rolling??

IMAG1169.jpg

IMAG1170.jpg

IMAG1173.jpg
Click to expand...

YEAH BABY!!!!!!!!!!! SWEET WHEELS! Now I love your car even more.

Wanna trade?

20120505_184754.jpg
 
Damn you just did what I wanted to do to my 95!!
Looks great!!!!
Now its time to lower it and tint the windows
 
:leghumper






I was tempted to get the wheels a week or 2 ago but just couldn't talk myself into it. All you got left now is to Lower it and some 35%(imo).
 
nice kev, it looks great- now i know how 18'' cobra R's will look- i cant wait to get mine next febuary or march. imo tint would look great. it looks real clean, good job
 
Ms1997 said:
I always LOVED your car before but now....WOW !!! Looks Awesome......Whatcha doin with the 20 spokes ???
Click to expand...

Thanks man, I'm keeping the 20 spokes though for winter wheels, the tires still have alot of tread left.

slowmkviii said:
At first i thought you bought a cobra R (the car)
Then i saw the pics it looks great aside from the off road hight .



Luke
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm torn on what to do, either lower it and get the same size tires as what's on here now, or leave it stock height and go with wider tires..otherwise I would have to roll the fenders in the rear which I really don't want to do..
 
sbcaprice305 said:
:
I was tempted to get the wheels a week or 2 ago but just couldn't talk myself into it. All thats left now is to Lower it and to throw some 35%(imo) on.
Click to expand...

yeah, I gotta slow down on spending money lol in the past 2 months I've done alot to the car..tints aren't bad on cost, I will probably do that soon, but not sure on what to do with lowering it, because I want to go with wider tires, and I have a feeling they are going to rub on the 1/4s if it's lowered..but not sure yet, we'll see.




mossbergman said:
Wow that looks great. Are they in the mark bolt pattern?
Click to expand...

Yep, 5x4.25, it's damn close to the spindle in the front too..
 
Looks awesome man! I had CobraRs on my old 95.

They work well with the body lines of the gen1


Hell, I had em' on my old 98 as well.
 
Are you still on air? If so, I'd drop it little by little with driving time between. Once you start running into clearance issues raise it up a hair. If converted, I can understand your concern($).
 
i wonder where the wheels came from originally? I've seen a few cobra style wheels in 17s but not in that size
 
keVIIIn said:
I want to go with wider tires, and I have a feeling they are going to rub on the 1/4s if it's lowered..but not sure yet, we'll see.


Yep, 5x4.25, it's damn close to the spindle in the front too..
Click to expand...



I run 275/40's all around. They slightly rub on my rear fender. Only when the car slumps down 3-4 inches or so.

I have a thread from a couple years back when I bought mine. My 93 had bad upper control arms. They rubbed as soon as I turned the wheel either way. I had to grind a 1/2 centimeter from the arm so that the rubbing would minimize.
Now with the new control arms they only rub lightly on a super hard right turn. I have yet to get the car aligned. That might solve it.

All in all, expect some minor rubbing when lowering the car. Just be gentle with the handling & you'll be fine.
 
I have 18x9 speedstars on my '98. The ride height sensors were set to the lowest setting. I also run 245/45/18's all around. It has never rubbed yet. The car looks awesome! Great job!!
 
sbcaprice305 said:
Are you still on air? If so, I'd drop it little by little with driving time between. Once you start running into clearance issues raise it up a hair. If converted, I can understand your concern($).
Click to expand...

yeah, still have the original air ride, I tried adjusting the drivers front sensor not too long ago because it was a little higher on that corner for some reason, and it ended up making the front bag(s) leak down more than usual after a day of sitting so I'm guessing if I sensor lower it, it will cause them to leak (original bags)


UltimateSVT said:

I run 275/40's all around. They slightly rub on my rear fender. Only when the car slumps down 3-4 inches or so.

I have a thread from a couple years back when I bought mine. My 93 had bad upper control arms. They rubbed as soon as I turned the wheel either way. I had to grind a 1/2 centimeter from the arm so that the rubbing would minimize.
Now with the new control arms they only rub lightly on a super hard right turn. I have yet to get the car aligned. That might solve it.

All in all, expect some minor rubbing when lowering the car. Just be gentle with the handling & you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

I don't see a 275 tire even coming CLOSE to fitting without rubbing big time in the rear if I were to hit a bump or if the car was lowered, it's close as it is with 245 wide tires, I'm thinking I could get away with a 255 but that's max. What is the backspacing on your Cobra Rs? I'm not sure what these are but I'd assume all of the aftermarket cobra replicas as well as the speedstars are the same offset, most of them are 9" wide. And I have noticed today that when I back out of my driveway with the wheels turned all the way one way, something rubs slightly, not sure if it is the tire or the rim..but there's no marks from the rim touching the front spindle. When i look under there nothing else is even close to touching anything..so I'm not too worried about it.

Which part of the upper control arm did you have to clearance to make the rims fit?
 
Being that the car doesnt need wider tires i presume that you want them for looks
And imo the car lowered would do more for the looks than wider tires.
 
slowmkviii said:
Being that the car doesnt need wider tires i presume that you want them for looks
And imo the car lowered would do more for the looks than wider tires.
Click to expand...

I think they would look better if they were a bit wider, as it is now with the 9" wide rim, the rim sticks out further than the sidewall does ever so slightly..I think if the tire hung out just a bit farther it would give it a meaner look..wish I could have the best of both worlds..wider tires and lowered lol..I'm sure it could be done, but I don't want to roll the 1/4s and then have the damn paint crack on me..that would piss me off lol
 
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