Why not 16 x 8 wheels all around on 308

IMO, the relative balance of the 308 coachwork favors a wider wheel/tire width at the rear (to go with the more substantial amount of bodywork).

I, too, can't recall anyone posting anything about 8" all around on a 308B/S.

Are you somehow forced into that situation?

 

Try to do a search of the old ferrarichat archives. I seem to recall a discussion about this a long time ago. Don't remember the result, though.

Dom

 

Not totally sure but I thought there was a clearance problem with 8" in the front while turning.

 

Use 8-inch front here and it is fine. Unless you REALLY drop the ride height could i see some rubbing problems, but then again if you dropped the height a lot odds are you will be using stiffer springs too so...

Only get a rare, very small rubbing on the inside at center of the front of the tire well when the wheel is at FULL lock, but i use full lock so very rarely.

 

I've got 8" on the front of my 308 and never had a problem with rub or interference.

 

it ain't gonna look right

fronts are gonna stick out

 

The original 7.5x14 rims and tires were flush with the fender on the left side, (looking down with the wheels aimed straight). For some reason, the left tire/wheel was back from the fender lip by 3/8" or so?? Just individual body variation??
When i lowered the car, via QA-1s & stiffer springs, i had it too low and it would pull a fender lip on entering a driveway with stock wheels and tires. I jacked up the car a bit and the problem went away.
Next, i changed to 7.5x18 rims and low profile tires, (front, rears are a different story), and i had the same fender clearance problem on entering the driveway on an angle. So, it appears that i need to raise the front just a touch more, but i would really like to use some scales to get the corner weighting right while i do this.
Sorry to digress, 8 inch wheels on the front are probably the limit without sticking out past the fender and or hitting the lip, depending on squareness of the tire, ride height and individual body differences.

hth,
chris

 

The biggest con I can think of is that although the 8s will fit in the front, 10s will fit in the back

 

Here's my 308 with 16x8 front 225x50x16, rear 16x9 245x45x16.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

No problem!

Sorry I don't have more pics that might help you see the tire-fender relationship...

I've still got 6' high snow banks up here and the 308 won't move for about another 6 weeks =(

 

No they don't if you have the right offset.

Agree

Pics below as i have 8x17 front and 9x17 rear, proper offset, Kinesis K27 rims. Tires are Mich Pilot SPort 2.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I have 17" Ronals on right now. 8" front, 9" rear. No problems with the fronts at all, the rears will touch the fender skirts on hard corners sometimes, but they look good.

One thing to remember: Wider wheels and tires add rotating weight, which is a bad thing in underpowered cars such as my 308. Rarely is tire width an issue with cornering ability on 308s, and rarely is understeer an issue with 308s. So, why do we go with wider tires? In my case, it's a deep seeded need for coolness, but do YOU really need them?
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Aren't the OEM wheels 14x7, not 7.5" ??

 

i believe the Ronal weight in at 24 lbs or so and agree that is BAD news. VERY bad. Of course those rims are less money than, say, Kinesis where the 17-inch rims weight in at 17 lbs. As i recall, the stock magnesium rims were about the same 17 lbs, but feel free to correct me about stock as i am not 100% sure.

 

I think he has hit again upon an important point - you can have too much wheel/tire width. The example that was always quoted to me was to imagine a Lotus elan with 255 section tires - it would actually slow lap times due to frictional drag, weight and air resistance. It's about balance for what you want to do.

 

Back to the original question regarding 8" wide tires all the way around. There's nothing "wrong" with having 8" all the way around. Dr. Tommy Cosgrove has four 8x16 track wheels, and guys who put 360 wheels on 308s usually put four fronts (7.5x18) on because of clearance issues on the back with the stock 360 rears (10x18).

That being said, I like the handling and look of the 308 with wider wheels in the rear, the way the car was originally modified in the later years like for the QV.

 

Too true, for track days I use 16" Gottis, 7" front, 8" rear. Never weighed them without the tires on, but with tires, one rear Gotti is 40.0 lbs, one rear Ronal is 55.7 lbs! yikes! That's a lot of rotating/unsprung weight! -m

 

Wheel width is not as important as tire widths.