Winter Wheels Mounted, MB Weapon with Blizzack LM-25
 

I mounted these on today. MB Weapon Wheels with Blizzack LM-25 tires....

I have a 25mm rear spacer on in the rear and had to take my front spacers off due to the front wheels sticking out too far. Ichiba makes a 38mm spacer that would make the offset sit a bit better in the rear but I am going to leave it as is.

These rims were only 510 shipped to my house on black Friday (100 dollars off) and only weigh 21.5 lbs in the rear. fronts are 18x8 rears 18x9. With the tire mounted the rears weighed 46lbs compared to 51 lbs on the OEM 19" Rays wheels.

The dry grip is all I can speak of right now and the blizzack LM-25s provide substantial amounts of grip. I am more than pleased with the feel of the new winter setup. I went with 245/40/18 in rear and 225/45/18 in the front. They are a bit smaller in diameter; but since the deal I got on them from a 350z guy was too good to pass up I will live with the sizes. Everything seems to be fine as of right now. The car did drop a little lower with these mounted though, I now scrape going into my driveway , wasn't the case before. Not a big deal to me.

Do they look as sharp as the rays ? Def not. But they aren't all that bad either...

http://www.the370z.com/members/chuck...none-front.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/chuck...none-front.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/chuck...none-front.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/chuck...none-front.jpg

I have several more angles and pics in my album if you want to check them out. For a very inexpensive wheel I am happy with the outcome. I was going to sell these to esfourteen but out of curiosity I mounted them and test drove them and had to keep them. Another thing to note was with the front spacers being extended stud ones I had to purchase open ended lug nuts, no biggie but something to note.


:tup:

looks good, MB Wheels is a good choice for low price wheels, got a set on my DD

With the new tires/rims, did you need to get a wheel alignment or get your tires balanced?

I ask because I am about to pick up some blizzaks(used) and put them on my stock 18's and I am not sure if i'll need to get the tires balanced or if I need to get a wheel alignment.

I got the rims balanced... and you should do the same...

you should be okay without an alignment

Looks good. I'd definitely bump the tread to 225/50 and 245/45 when it comes time for new ones. That will help traction a bit.
I've got Blizzaks and love 'em.

Yea in an ideal world I would of gotten that size, but for 200 bucks for tires that are nearly brand new I couldnt pass it up... litterally 90 percent tread left.. the dry grip compared to my nt05s is night and day.. which is weird because even in the cold I was expecting a loss of dry grip...

On a side note I have pictures of my rear NT05s and they do not seem all that word down, but were causing my car to sway over rivits and bumps, that is gone with the winters and the nittos only look half gone... I prob got 8k on the nt05s tops and they crapped out.. Loved them when they were new, but will not be getting them again in the summer. Im going to contact nittos customer service to see if what I had going on was normal.

Best looking snow set yet. :D

Looks nice, man. I'm sure they'll do real well. I'm in the process of sorting out a winter setup right now.

Edit: Just ordered some LM-22 closeouts off of TireRack (yes, AK, I used the link!) and will be getting some winter wheels later this week. :tup:

What was the outside temp when you experienced the problems with your NT05s? It's normal for high performance summer tires to loose grip when the temps drop below the 40's. The stock Bridgestones turn into hockey pucks when temps drop to freezing or below, no grip whatsoever... That's why winter tires make sense, even when there is no snow. The rubber is of such a compound that it stays soft even when temperatures drop below freezing.

i would consider the mich sport a/s's if it's going to be non-snow driving, but in the cold. those tires grip well even down to sub-freezing temps.

snow tires are a bit too much for non-snow driven cars, imho. they squirm quite a bit due to the taller treads and they dont necessarily look all that great on a performance car to begin with. i would look for performance tires that use special soft silica or watever it was called.

Well it depends on the type of snow tire you get. The performance winter tires like the Michelin Alpins are really good in cold, dry pavement and offer light snow capability as well. Tires like the LM-25 still do pretty well in the dry but offer better light and heavy snow traction.

In any case, snow tires give up some handling, yes, but they allow you to safely enjoy your car through the winter months. :tup:

some? you mean siginificant. :icon17: snow tires and summer tires are different composition and structure.

I just ordered a set of the Continental ExtremeContact DWS's to put on as winter tires. Just started to get really cold here (NoVa) and I could feel the difference. Of course, my Z is only 5 months old, so I'm going to try to store the summer tires for next year.

Yeah yeah I know. But still, you don't have to give up all your fun when you go to a winter tire.

DWS are supposed to be the better than all other all seasons in the snow, so those should be a pretty good choice.