New Mark Member and Owner

Thomas Kadar

New LVC Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2020
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Location
Pennsylvania
Just Picked up a 98 LSC with 150k.. I am have mainly always been a GM guy. I have been into drag racing my whole life and currently have a 94 firebird small tire (275 radial) car, LS 106MM single running 7.1@ 197 4.5s@157. I had been looking for a good deal on a beater if you will to keep miles off of my 18 1500 Denali. I put 23k on in last 12 mos. So long story short I found this and actually love it so far. Being the racer and gear head that I am, I hate leaving well enough alone of course. I see this quickly becoming a distraction car. Without further wait here it is, along with the (Stracecar)

My short list right now - Jmod, Gear Swap, chop mufflers for now - if to loud use a couple old flowmasets that I have, wheels!!! Anyone have any good wheel pics - Maybe 20s? though the 18" cobra replicas look great on these.

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wow... I'm fascinated by the plumbing you have on the bird! With the lag on something that big I can see its either all out or wait for the light. nothing in between! I bet you have one hell of a pump on the water cooler.... Whats your boost toping out at? Don't tell me you never had head gaskets spit out of that. That's a crazy amount of custom work. We are lucky to have talent like yours on this forum. Thanks for sharing.

PS.. think about the unibody clinging to the motor frame.... Theres some trick work under there to or else that thing would throw the glass out of the frames and pretzel the body with a single throttle romp. Ha Ha.....
 
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I do miss my 17s but I did go to 18s cause its easier to get the correct height tire.
The current wheels on the red one are 2012 mustang gt wheels. The black wheels are saleen replicas and the one that looks wrapped isnt, it's a charcoal gray
 
Idk you can get R888 in a 17 for fun days and for regular days you can get either a premier a/s or a pilot sport all are great tires BTW. I do agree 18 its much easier and probably cheaper its been a while since I've run 18s on anything though, I've always loved the saleen replicas idk how the black would look on red though, and its crazy the way the background reflects off the paint it looked like a colorshift wrap.
 
Honestly I'm having to talk myself into doing 17's just because the increased diameter throws off the speedo or so I've been told.
You just reduce the height of the tire so the total diameter is equal to the original wheel. Doesn't matter if 17,18, 19 or 20. The larger the rim the lower side profile (side height) of the tire. I do agree slowmarkviii, anything bigger than 18's look too big, although have saw the odd 19's and 20's that looked good on the M8
 
That makes sense so I can totally run a 17 and a set of R888's in the summer, they've got a fairly small sidewall. I was looking at these really close to the stock offset if I'm not mistaken.
https://m.tirerack.com/wheels/Wheel...utoModel=Mark+VIII&autoYear=1997&autoModClar=
One thing to note: make sure the diameter of the front is close to the back. If this is not close, your traction control will turn on and you won't be able to increase speed. I had 225/60/16's winter tires on all four corners. One set was worn for the next season, so i put on two 215/55/16's on the front with 2 225/60/16's on the back. Car would not go above 25 miles an hour.
When increasing diameter size, I believe the rule of thumb: you can increase the diameter safely up to 3% with original brakes and suspension.

If you run a 245/50/17 its diameter is 26.6, which is the exact same as the stock wheel.
You can use Tire Size Calculator for other rim sizes.

That rim you linked above has a close matching offset (ET) Stock is 37ET. Check the centre bore of the rim, this wasn't listed on their site. You want this close to the M8 stock size unless you have done a hub swap. Stock is 63.4. If smaller the rim won't go over the hub. if too big you can put the rim on, off centered which will create a wobble. You can purchase hub centric rings to correct for rims that have a larger diameter than the M8.
 
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Offset will depend on wheel width
About perfect are the saleens I have they are 18x9 with 36mm offset. With 17's I had a hard time finding a 245/50/17 tire I liked maybe there are more now. My mustang wheel I think are a 50mm offset so I had to run a spacer
Wheels That Fit Mark VIII's
 
Hmm never heard of them the look awesome, did you huh swap or roll the fenders or anything?

Thanks very much.

Nope. Everything fit normally. I have the 18" Dante's on as of now. I need a tire for the 17" as I had a blowout last year.
 
Ah we drive ours year round and don't have a choice since its our only car.

Mark VIIIs are nice cars. I have a Park Avenue and it rides like a dream.

My Mark has some performance upgrades. I sold my 1981 Cutlass that was pushing close to 700hp unfortunately. I bought the Mark and while it's not in the league of the Cutty, I'm hoping it'll become more collectible in the coming years. It's a nice summer car.
 
Oh hell yeah the mark is a great summer car, I've got a 99 century the ride quality is night and day my Buick is like a cloud and captain America is more like my buddies 3 series firm but planted, no performance upgrades yet my wife are living comfortably but not to where we can drop a grand on an exhaust setup or anything, I had an 89 cutlass wagon I swear its been my favorite car of all time.
 

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