We have a little front poke with 19mm spacers. Reducing the spacers by 5mm will suck the tire back under the fender, which might not even be necessary if we dial in a little more negative camber from the street-focused -1.5* that we are currently running. For autocross, track width is king, and I’ve seen cars with over an inch of front tire poking outside the fenders. As the old Pontiac Grand Prix commercial went: “Wider is Better”.
The advantage of the S197 Mustang is that you can fit 305s on all four corners. A negative to the S197 is that 18” track focused wheels do not fill out the wheel wells like import cars. But that’s the price you pay. In Project E36 M3, the car looks great tucking 17” 245s in the back, but you would struggle to stuff anything wider than a 255 and 18s start to cause a lot of problems. Meanwhile there is room for days in the Mustang and while you could lower it with more expensive coilovers, most race-winning S197s aren’t much lower than we have our car.
From the suspension to the wing, wheels, and tires, we were finally ready to hit the track and see how cohesive our entire setup turned out.
Those 305-width NT01s are massive on the front of the Mustang. But it really helps improve front grip, which is important.
The wheel, tire, and brake combo fits perfectly in our budget (but proven) track car build.
These tires are going to generate a lot of grip.
CONCLUSION
We were very happy with how the Apex EC-7 wheels and Nitto NT01 tires finished out our build. These are such important components that really affect how well a track car performs, and with my history using these parts and the track record of these wheels and tires being so popular in the community, we were stoaked to have them on the car.
Apex wheels are enthusiasts and racers doing a lot to support enthusiasts and racers, especially when it comes to their incredible Wheel Replacement Program. Nitto’s NT01 has been a staple in the track world and the tire is still so relevant today as being the go-to track tire. We were very excited to finally take this project to the track and see how cohesive all of these components work together and compare the lap times of Project Budget 400whp Track Car to a new 2016 Mustang GT as well as Project E90 M3. Stay tuned!
Quick Reference:
Page 1 – Intro & Palm Beach Motorsports
Page 2 – Apex EC-7 Tech
Page 3 – EC-7 Weight & Nitto NT01 Tech
Page 4 – NT01 Weight & Mounting
Page 5 – Mounted NT01 and EC-7 Weight and Comparison
Page 6 – Wheel Weight Comparison and Install
Page 7 – Wheel Spacer Tech and Clearances
Page 8 – Rear Wheel Clearance
Page 9 – Installed Pics
12 comments
Hey Billy, great update. Those wheels look great in bronze against your silver car.
I noticed you saved 5lbs per front tire. Did you get a weight on the old rear setup?
Looks like 275/40-19 PS4S are 31lbs new (per Tire Rack) vs 28lbs for the 255s.
The internets say the 19×9.5 PP rear wheels are ~34lbs, so I’d expect about 10lbs saved per rear. Huge!
Unfortunately I lost the pic of the weight of the original rear wheels. I want to say they were a couple pounds heavier than the fronts.
Thanks for the great article again, Billy. I really, really enjoy this series and I can’t wait for the next one! I would love to buy one of these Mustangs and replicate your build, but the market is too crazy for me right now.
What do the 305s up front do to steering response? Does it tramline like crazy? Does the steering get vague? I’d also love to know the front/rear/cross weight balance as well. Sorry for all the questions.
Steering response is pretty similar to stock, but increasing the front width of any tire will increase tramlining. The nose weight should be around 54-55% at the moment. I have not weighed it yet but that will be discussed during the battery relocation kit article.
Hey Billy love this articles. I just received my set of Apex SM-10 19×11 ET26 Front ET52 rears for my 2017 GT track day car. And I can’t wait to put tires on in Europe getting good 305/30 tires is hard so I might get 295/30 instead I hope it will be a step up from my current 275/35/19 on PP1 wheels. Thank you for the lovely read.
I’m glad to hear it. Thank you for the feedback!
Great series Billy! What modifications have you done to address the MT82 Shifting issues? I’ve heard of a ton of solutions from trans mount inserts to Tremec swaps.
Thank you! Stay tuned for the next installement!
This is an extremely informative and well written series. I’m glad to have found your site.
Thank you. I’m glad you’re enjoying the content.
I instruct for NASA & JUST TRACK IT -ATLANTA, Ga. 20-24wkends/year in 2016 Mustang with full STEEDA SUSPENSION & 2-PC ROTOR/BRAKE LINE UPGRD.. I have APEX SM-10 & APEX EC-7-18 /11 & 19/11 WITH TOYO R888R & RR . I . HAVE USED NTO1 IN PRIOR Seasons.. Have U tried TOYO VS. NITTO..( Toyo -OWNER OF both BRANDS)?? FRT NEG CAMBER DO U USE ??? 🏁APPRECIATE UR INFO🏁