Need specific winter tire / rim advice. I'm completely ignorant!

theDreamer

You find try to find someone selling the 370z 18" wheels because those will fit (other countries only get the 18" wheels and have the upgrade brakes).

__________________
theDreamer's Z // Fast Intentions // Uprev // GTM // HKS // TEIN
theDreamer's Silvia // URAS // GREDDY
Houston Zs // Facebook // Twitter // Instagram

Portlis

Ok, so the standard 18" wheels will fit over the sport brake upgrade? Sounds good.

But like I said, I'm a complete newbie here. So I'd basically just take the standard 18" rims, then go out and buy whatever 18" winter tires I wanted? How do I make sure that the tire fits on the 18" rims? Intuitively, it seems to me like the 18" rims would be too wide to properly accomodate a thinner winter tire. Am I wrong?

Again, I really appreciate the help but I could use some specifics here because hopefully you can see how little I know about this stuff lol

Lone Wolf 75

I have been evaluating this as well. Tire Rack sells wheel and tire packages, I think I will likely do this once I can confirm the 18-inch winter rims that I am looking at will clear the sport package brakes.

The more I think about it, this seems like the easiest route to take. The tires will come mounted and balanced on the wheels, and they even have an option to add the TPMS. So when the time comes, I am thinking:

1. I can have these shipped to my house.
2. Swap out the wheels in my driveway.
3. Store my regular/summer wheels & tires in the garage.
4. Drive to the nearest local, trusted auto service place to do an alignment.
5. ????
6. Profit!

Seriously, this will likely cost me somewhere around $2,000 or so, unless someone comes up with a much cheaper option.

I've also considered getting a winter beater and garaging the 370Z for the winter, but I think this is likely a much larger headache. Even though the beater option virtually guarantees that I won't get the Z dirty, stuck, or God-forbid into a weather related accident, there's not too many reliable and acceptable looking cars in this price range. Also, I think I can throw fun to drive right out of the window as well.

schrute

I have the Base/Touring model and mounted some Blizzaks from the local Big-O Tire store on the stock 18" rims (got mine powdercoated). They're ready to go when the snow comes.



The 18" Base model rims are a bit narrower than the 19" Sport rims so if you can get your hands on a set of these rims some narrower winter tires will fit great.

I went with the stock Base tire sizes (225 in front, 245 in rear). My Z is my daily driver but the wife drives a 4x4 SUV so on bad snow days I'll be carpooling with her.

You could also go with 225's all around if you want a little better snow traction, the 1" wider rear base rims will still handle 225's just fine.

I wanted to keep some stagger (wider rear tires) to maintain handling and performance on the non-snow days during the winter.

The tires were about $800 (tirerack.com had them on clearance, Big-O matched their price) and base rims seem to go for $1000 and up, so the $2000 figure quoted above is right on.

__________________

Liquid_G

Why do you need an alignment? just to change tires?
Also, pretty sure your TPMS sensors on the new tires will not work out of the box, Dealer will most likely have to sync them to the car.