[ScaryFatKidGT]

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes

Well, here's some stuff to think about:

1, corrosion. Even if they don't use salt on the roads, all sorts of businesses use it in their parking lots...to absolutely crazy extents that should be illegal IMO or they at least should buy you a new car. So that already limits how and where I drive in the winter.

2, you won't put power down with skinny tires, the car needs some pretty wide tires in the rear for this. The idea that you should go for "skinny" rear tires is ridiculous given how low the car is and how you'll be driving on compacted snow and ice surfaces most of the time. This is better served by wider tires, skinny tires will not hook up well and you'll be all over the place, literally. I can do ok with my 255s (which I just reinstalled this weekend), but when it starts getting real wintery, they are pretty poor. The idea about using skinny tires comes from people wanting to drive something like a VW van in 1 foot of fresh snow.

3, I made an excel sheet to figure out what sizes would work in diameter and offset/width and how much it would change stuff. If you find out the stock sizes, you can work backwards and figure all this out. I think I set my height criteria around 1/4" or less, so my setup on 19s is very close to OEM. I think I'm around 15 or 19 (see my posts) and it is within 5mm of the stock width on the square setup, looks good...but the tires are obviously pretty skinny compared to stock.

For the last question you ask, the car easily overpowers skinny tires...that's all you need to know. You either drive carefully, or you spin tires. It cuts power pretty well in the normal modes, but you gotta be very careful on the frozen surfaces. Braking is pretty good with the tires you mention, but starting off in the RWD car is pretty terrible. Find some weight to put in the trunk.

1. Yeah they salt the crap out of roads here, I agree it should be illegal and snow tires mandatory from December through February, but anyway I have always thought newer cars were better with corrosion? like in the 90's 5-10 years and you had rust but my my dads 08 Kia doesn't have a spec of rust, part of the reason I wanted a new car.


I also plan on under coating it but don't know where do get it done, like there is so much under the car and I don't want sticky ribber stuff everywhere.


2. On my Subarus I went from a 205/55R16 to a 195/60, it seems that most people are running a 245? I could run a 265/40 19 or a 265/45 19 but those are pretty expensive.


I am pretty well versed on tire sizes and have spent a lot of time with a tire calculator. Right now I'm trying to decide between a studless ice and snow or a performance winter tire, I know the performance tire isn't going to do as well on snow but with the 1LE suspension and being a 2 door sports car it might be a better choice...

[DaveC113]

Definitely performance winter... unless you live somewhere where there's snow on the road most of the winter. They are very good in the snow and surprisingly decent on cold dry pavement. The LT1's torque is likely to eat up a softer pure snow tire and they suck to drive on if there isn't snow on the ground.

[BrianF]

So how bad does the Camaro pick up salt and grim on the under body? In MD they way over salt the roads. I have looked under my previous cars (Mitsubishi Evo) and it is mainly the drive line components that start looking pretty bad.

I am probably going to try and hit the car washes to get an under body spray during the winter as much as I can. Only thing is I think I have to go to a manual car wash. My 1LE manual says not to use an auto car wash.

[VinnAY]

The manual means not use one of those washes that pulls the car thru, not the stall you park under and the arm rotates around car.

[ScaryFatKidGT]

Originally Posted by VinnAY

I ran Xi3 on my Mustang GT perf pack in 245/45/19 and did very well with those, I would recommend them. For the Camaro I found that I didn't need a set of snow/ice but a good all-season so thats where I'm going with the Camaro. I can wait out .5-1 day that the streets aren't plowed and otherwise take a day off.

Wasn't to squishy? I take it you aren't going to be taking the Camaro our in the winter as much?

Originally Posted by RacerX78

I myself will be looking to run 285/35/20 on the stock wheels.

What tire?

Originally Posted by DaveC113

Personally, I got 19x10 / 30mm offset and 7mm spacers for the front.

I got 265/40/19 PA4 N-Spec for $130/tire from Tire Rack and once those are done anything from 265 to 285 should fit fine.

This allows tire rotation and full warranty on the tires where a staggered setup will not have full mileage warranty.

but +30 they looked pretty tucked in right? I too saw the PA4 N-Spec but the N-Spec kinda weirded me out, said they were Mercedes OEM tires or something?

Originally Posted by DaveC113

Definitely performance winter... unless you live somewhere where there's snow on the road most of the winter. They are very good in the snow and surprisingly decent on cold dry pavement. The LT1's torque is likely to eat up a softer pure snow tire and they suck to drive on if there isn't snow on the ground.

Thats what I was thinking... I kinda wish the traction control worked better... I mean I'm kinda glad it doesn't in track mode and stuff but even in touring it lets the tires spin way to much before kicking in, and Minnesota so there is a fair amount of snow...

[ScaryFatKidGT]

Originally Posted by BrianF

So how bad does the Camaro pick up salt and grim on the under body? In MD they way over salt the roads. I have looked under my previous cars (Mitsubishi Evo) and it is mainly the drive line components that start looking pretty bad.

I am probably going to try and hit the car washes to get an under body spray during the winter as much as I can. Only thing is I think I have to go to a manual car wash. My 1LE manual says not to use an auto car wash.

Originally Posted by VinnAY

The manual means not use one of those washes that pulls the car thru, not the stall you park under and the arm rotates around car.

I still wouldn't... it's a brand new car, and I usually do a better job with the pressure washer anyway... I have wondered what you are suppose to do to the fuzzy stuff under there tho?

[DaveC113]

Originally Posted by ScaryFatKidGT

but +30 they looked pretty tucked in right? I too saw the PA4 N-Spec but the N-Spec kinda weirded me out, said they were Mercedes OEM tires or something?

Thats what I was thinking... I kinda wish the traction control worked better... I mean I'm kinda glad it doesn't in track mode and stuff but even in touring it lets the tires spin way to much before kicking in, and Minnesota so there is a fair amount of snow...

For my setup front 7mm spacers + longer wheel studs will be needed to get the fronts to line up like stock. The rear uses 11" wide wheels + 43mm offset, I did the math and I believe the 19 x 10 / 30mm offset will place the outside of the rear wheel within 1mm of stock.

Without a spacer you'll have some amount of mismatch on the spacing, although with 9.5" wide 20mm offset wheels the rear would only stick out ~5mm more than stock. I'm being picky and spending ~$200 more for spacers and studs to make the square setup work without the rear sticking out more than stock.

If you don't go square I'd probably go with regular SS wheels w/performance snows or even the stock sized Pirelli snows if you won't be driving in snow that much and don't have steep hills. Stock sized setup w/Pirelli snows would be around $4k though, not cheap.

[ScaryFatKidGT]

Do these cars use special TPMS that tell temp? where does the temp sensing come from? Should I just let the shop put on whatever TMPS ot get ones from the dealer?

[jdpickering]

Does anyone see an issue with this square setup?
CURVA C300/

Rim Diameter: 19
Rim Width: 10
Offset: 30
Bolt Pattern: 5x120
Hub Bore: 73.1

Front Setup
Rear Setup

[ScaryFatKidGT]

Originally Posted by jdpickering

Does anyone see an issue with this square setup?
CURVA C300/

Rim Diameter: 19
Rim Width: 10
Offset: 30
Bolt Pattern: 5x120
Hub Bore: 73.1

Front Setup
Rear Setup

What size tires? They are hidden behind a disable ad block screen? On a 10" rim they should be 265 or larger

[jdpickering]

Originally Posted by ScaryFatKidGT

What size tires? They are hidden behind a disable ad block screen? On a 10" rim they should be 265 or larger

285x35x19 is what I plan on putting on

[DaveC113]

Originally Posted by jdpickering

285x35x19 is what I plan on putting on

I have the same size wheels, 265/40/19s as they were cheap... prolly use 275 or 285 after the 265s are worn out.

You'll need 7mm spacers and .5" longer arp wheel studs with .25" of the nub cut off or studs with threads all the way to the end. You can also use lug nuts with 2" length, the .25" cutoff is to fit Mcgard splined lug nuts. This allows stock wheels w/o spacers to be used w/o changing wheel studs back to stock, but the stock lug nuts won't fit as they are too short.

Hub bore doesn't look right though. MRR has Camaro specific wheels that'll work... I think the spec is for Corvette w/30mm offset, any of the PF series will work, so will the new ZR1 replica wheels.

[jdpickering]

Originally Posted by DaveC113

I have the same size wheels, 265/40/19s as they were cheap... prolly use 275 or 285 after the 265s are worn out.

You'll need 7mm spacers and .5" longer arp wheel studs with .25" of the nub cut off or studs with threads all the way to the end. You can also use lug nuts with 2" length, the .25" cutoff is to fit Mcgard splined lug nuts. This allows stock wheels w/o spacers to be used w/o changing wheel studs back to stock, but the stock lug nuts won't fit as they are too short.

Hub bore doesn't look right though. MRR has Camaro specific wheels that'll work... I think the spec is for Corvette w/30mm offset, any of the PF series will work, so will the new ZR1 replica wheels.

Thanks for your help on this learning more and more about wheels as i'm researching this. I now know about Hub Bore, looks like a 73.1mm to 66.9mm Hub Centric Rings Would fix this issue, they also make them custom out of aluminum. I love many of the MRR wheels however they tend to be expensive for a winter set of wheels. Also unless you go with something like the FS01 you can't get a square set that would work as most are in the et20's or et40's. I want to be able to rotate the tires as they'll be on the car for 4-5 months out of the year.

[DaveC113]

Originally Posted by jdpickering

Thanks for your help on this learning more and more about wheels as i'm researching this. I now know about Hub Bore, looks like a 73.1mm to 66.9mm Hub Centric Rings Would fix this issue, they also make them custom out of aluminum. I love many of the MRR wheels however they tend to be expensive for a winter set of wheels. Also unless you go with something like the FS01 you can't get a square set that would work as most are in the et20's or et40's. I want to be able to rotate the tires as they'll be on the car for 4-5 months out of the year.

Yeah, I got the MRR FS02 at 40% off (deal ended end of September) and they were still more than I wanted to spend, but a few hundred extra for wheels on a $45k car... ok.

They do have the ZL1 Vette wheels in 19x10/30mm, they are the same price as the FS series at 40% off. I almost went with them as the ZR1 wheels look pretty cool. I think about $1400/set...

The whole spacer thing is a pita, but the wheel studs only have to be done once. If you want to go for it the arp .5" longer studs are 100-7736 and the spacers are from motorsport-tech.com.

Disclaimer: I have NOT mounted my snows yet and can't confirm any of this will work, what the results will be, or any warranty implications.

As far as I can tell this will get you closest to the stock 1LE wheel's outer edge in a square, rotatable setup.

I have a hard time believing the Michelin PA4s will go anywhere near 30k miles on these cars and they have a 30k mile warranty.