1SS wanting to downsize to 18"
 

I just got a beautiful 1SS in arctic blue metallic with the 20" 5 split spoke low gloss black rims. Don't get me wrong they are beautiful rims but I'd rather have 18's because I like having some sidewall to work with and I'm looking for a cleaner more traditional look. In advance, I know a lot of people like these rims and think 20" rims look good on Camaros, if that is the case more power to you I have nothing against them, I just would rather get the traditional look of more sidewall, as well as the lower chance of scraping rims on curbs.

I've never exchanged rims/tires on a vehicle before. Could someone point me in the right direction of how I might figure out which wheels and tires to get? I'm really starting from scratch here. From my preliminary research, 18" is about the smallest I can go before having to worry about hitting the brake piston, so 18 inches is what I settled on.

:crazy:

Thanks for the help!

i believe you can go an inch lower on the 1ss, on my 1le i'm restricted to 17s in rear and 18s in front. but that's my drag pack, i guess it all depends on what you are looking for. if you want as a daily driver i mean just find a rim you like and go from there, contact to see if fitment works on your car and so forth. for example my rear tires are 305x35r20 but if i got an 18 i'd just do 305x35r18 or actually for more sidewall i'd do 305x45r18 so it all depends again what your looking for.

You’re making a big mistake, everyone told you that here, in your other post. 18s will leave you with huge wheel gap’s with a 30/35 tire, the car will look like a 4 x 4… adding a large sidewall tire looks bad. the Camaro is made with oversized large wheel wells to accommodate the 20s. Don’t do it, (but I think you’re going to anyway).

Talk to an expert, p.m. paul at PK design who is here on many of the wheel threads.

A 4x4? The LT comes with 18" rims and they look fine. Perhaps the stock GM 18's are a little generic looking, but with the stock tires they do fit and I don't see a huge wheel gap. Perhaps your definition is much different than mine, but I see very little gap on the LS/LT non-RS models I've seen, and to my eye they look perfectly proportional.

Also, I'm not the only SS owner who doesn't want 20's:
http://www.camaro6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=410121

1SS wanting to downsize to 18"
 

First two replies are wrong information. When you -2 the rim you have to upsize the sidewall making the overall diameter the same or close to it. Pm the forum sponsor tire rack rep.

Tire size is going to depend on rim diameter and width so figure out which rims you want.

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I use 18s on my SS for snow tires. They look fine for what they are. I did have an issue with the brake cooling duct hitting the wheel weights at full lock. I just swap them out when I change wheels.

I get where he is coming from, on older muscle cars I definitely don't like big wheels and low profile tires, I think they suit the new Camaros but to each their own. I think the rear wheel/tire fitment of drag packs actually looks good so a smaller wheel with thicker side wall could look good, provided he chooses the right wheels, I am thinking something more old school with a lip.

Just a matter of finding an 18 that clears with the right offset and ensuring you get the tire height right. Or, having an expensive set of forged wheels done to your specs.

The ZL1 1LE replicas (MRR M716's) are a little smaller @ 19", might be a ready-made option for you.

As long as the OP goes up the matching ratio on the sidewall the wheel gap will not change.

OEM

Front - 245/40-20 = 27.72
Rear - 275/35-20 = 27.58

on 18" wheel

Front - 245/50-18 =27.65
Rear - 275/45-18 =27.74

On the OEM setup the fronts are slightly larger than the rear. If the OP only goes up in aspect ratio on the tire sizes the rear will be ever slightly larger than the fronts, the car will be fine though as it will be with in the system tolerance.

Generally for every inch / " of wheel size you go up or down you must either drop or raise the aspect ration 5 (40 to 45 as an example) to stay close to the original rolling circumference size.

Again, adding a huge sidewall tire to a smaller rim to get it to equal diameter of a 20 inch looks like crap on this car , imo...that’s my point.

But thats not what the OP asked, plus GM offers the Camaro with a 18" wheel from the factory. The 18" wheels will ride smoother and to be honest, 80% of the owners would be fine with the handling as 18" wheels were a common place less than 5 years.

I would prefer a little more sidewall and less rim. I think 19's are perfect on this platform imo. I also think 18/17 drag packs look great on these cars as well.

18s look okay. I prefer my 20” wheels, but my winter 18” looks fine to me.

^^^
Looks awesome. The 18's scream vintage muscle car to me.

And that's fine. I assume that's why you bought an RS (it looks very nice BTW) But you didn't have to. It's an option, because not everyone wants 20" wheels, a spoiler and blingy head lights. And that goes even for people that have the money for the RS package. Some people just don't want the flashy stuff. I was reading something recently where someone wanted an SS for the V8 but hated the black heat extractors on the hood...so they got a V6 non-RS instead because they genuinely liked the no frills, clean lines of the base model Camaro. If Chevy offered the V8 as a sleeper that looked like a base model, they would've bought that. That's where a lot of people take issue with Chevrolet--they force you into a bunch of options just to get the V8. For me, I like the heat extractors but forcing me into 20" wheels really irritates me. Every person is going to have a different idea of what their perfect car is, and no mass produced car is ever going to be perfect from the factory. Everybody does mods.

So if I wanted to PM someone about the details of downsizing, who would it be again?