9.5" rim, 275 tire, w/MCS, fitment

[aeronaut]

Anyone running 9.5" rims with HardMotorsport flares and MCS dampers?

My math shows that a 9.5" ET22 rim would be really really close to rubbing on the outside on the rear (with the 30mm HM flares).
And that an ET35 would be close to rubbing the MCS dampers even with a 20mm spacer.

[aeronaut]

I just remembered, I've seen a few on here put spacers between the flare and body to get a little more spacing. That's seems like a reasonable plan if it's a tight fit.

[aeronaut]

And, I remembered this thread I started. lol.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ighlight=flare

[ScotcH]

Be careful with 25mm bolt on spacers ... we have a set on our e36 with flares, and now the car looks like this because they unbolted, and the wheel fell off at Tremblant turn 2:

20190728_135742.jpg

[aeronaut]

Ouch! Sorry to hear that. Good info. I'm closing in on 18x9.5 ET25 or 18x10 ET22. Which would need 12 or 15mm spacers, and maybe some spacing of the rear flare to make it wide enough.

One thing I'm concerned about, is tire diameter of a 275/35. It's around 25.6", and I run a moderate rear spring rate (900#). I'm not 100% sure a HM fender flare goes "high" enough to give the clearance needed under full spring compression. I guess that's what the hammer is for.

[ScotcH]

Yeah, proper flare really means cutting out the sheetmetal, and squaring off the inner metal so there is plenty of tire clearance. Then run 10.5 and 295s or more (depending on power level)

Btw, FAST wheels (FC04) has a 18x10.5 with 2 different offsets available ... I think +25 and +40. It's the wheel on the front in the above pic. Pretty light, and cheap as well.

[lcrain]

Are you set on the HM flares? There are other options available that can accommodate larger wheel/tire setups easily. I went with a generic flare from clinched flares. Whether you go hard or some other flare brand the hard work is the cutting/trimming and then cleaning it all up.

[aeronaut]

Not set on HM flares, others I'd taken a quick look at seemed overboard. I'll check out Clinched. The fab work needed doesn't scare me. Much.

[olemiss540]

I went with hard motorsports first and generic second and regretted the generic ones because of how clean the hard motorsports ones looked post install.

[ScotcH]

The HM ones definitely look and fit great ... but at $99 for ebay specials for 4, you can't beat it, lol, especially if you're racing where they will get smacked up!

[lcrain]

The HM are nice because they are designed specifically for the e36. But they do not allow as big of a wheel/tire setup as I wanted to go. The clinched flares took a bit more work up front but I run an 18x11 with a 315 hoosier which is fantastic. The HM have a hard time fitting a 275, not to mention anything bigger than that.

[olemiss540]

Holy crap. 130 bucks a tire gets you the previous gen RC1 in 275/35/17.

Not as fun to drive as NT01's but just as fast and wear like iron. Also amazing size/ratio for flared e36 m3......

Sale here: https://shop.maxxis.com/products/vic...34069175435399

[aeronaut]

Wow..that's a give away.

[aeronaut]

Making a record here so I won't forget, settled on the Apex 18x10 ET25. Front should fit fine with 275/35 18s, with 15mm or 12mm spacers and HM flares. Rears are going to be very close clearance on the outside with HM flares, so may need to space out the flares. I'm also considering generic flares.

Thanks for help!

[olemiss540]

So, want to update this with your final setup/spacer info? Maybe I need to do some more trimming before I install these MCS shocms... I wanna run lower....

[aeronaut]

HM flares (no spacers, the inside lips trimmed as expected, major reshaping of the rear fender arch), Apex 18x10 ET25 rims. Toyo RR 275/35 18 tires. 15mm spacers up front. No spacers rear. Steering limiters.
I have 95 geometry up front, which has slightly less camber than 96+ due to kingpin design, so I actually run a few mm thick washer between the kingpin and damper which reduces the clearance between the tire and strut. I could use thinner washers there if I needed more damper/tire clearance.

Springs are, front; 750lb/in 6" with helper springs. Rear are 900lb/in 5.5" with TCK height adjusters (currently set as low as possible)
Ride height is 5.7" front, 6.5" rear. Too high, and I have a plan.
(Big note, we have a steep banked carousel turn, with bumps, where I see 2.0 lat G's, and if I setup to manage that turn, I have to run the above height or get stiffy stiffer and shorter springs. I'm probably going to just lower the car to where I want, and slow the f down a touch in that turn, make up the time elsewhere. Maybe.)

The above setup gives me ~3-4mm clearance between the tire and spring perch lock-ring. No rubbing on either fender flare. There is light rubbing in the rear inner wheel well at near max compression, barely enough to rub off the marking paint I put on to check for rubbing. But that says I can't go to a 285/30-18 without rear spacers. Which I'd like to do because they are the same weight at the 275, but measure 0.8" less in diameter.

It's all close, and any changes in tires, spacers, ride height, or spring rates needs to be thought through.

[olemiss540]

Where are you measuring the height? At the puck locations with pucks removed?

[aeronaut]

Where are you measuring the height? At the puck locations with pucks removed?

Yep.