As we have gotten the suspension of our C7 together we noticed that although it felt better with better balance and the car was easier to drive at speed, our track lap times did not improve very much. We felt that the stock setup was great with the stock wheels and tires and it shows how well the Chevy Performance factory developed performance suspension parts were calibrated around the stock wheel and tire package. With this in mind, to get further improvements out of our C7 we were going to have to increase the tires size and get stickier tires. To do that we enlisted help from Titan 7 wheels and Toyo Tires for help in getting more speed out of our Vette.
Our new wheel and tire package was selected to put the maximum amount of rubber on the road with the minimum amount of weight. Fortunately our C7 has pretty large wheel wells!
For wheels, we selected the Titan 7 T-S5 wheel. Titan 7 worked with us to help develop a special fitment just for the C7 Corvette. Titan 7 forges their wheels with an industry-leading 10,000 tons of pressure using multi-stage dies. This forging process gives the wheels great grain orientation with excellent strength and mechanical properties. Titan 7 produced a few test wheels with different offsets and we tried a few combinations until we came up with something that would allow us to maximize the room we had, allowing us to stuff a super wide tire in the stock wheelwells.
The Titian 7 wheels are all about smart weight reduction without sacrificing strength. In the wheels mounting pad, you can see that all excess material has been removed and the pad area hollowed out. This is done in the forging process, not by post forging machining to assure good grain flow and strength in this area. Little tricks like these assure that that wheels will be light. The T-S5 has a knurled bead seat area to help prevent the tire from spinning on the rim. The inner rim flanges are also beefy for strength in this critical area. Our front wheel is 18×10.5 with a 52mm offset up from the stock 18×8.5 with a 56mm offset while the rear wheel is an 19×11 with 79mm offset up from the stock 20×10 with a 79mm offset allowing for an aggressive tire fitment with workable tire to fender clearance.
The wheels have some cool details that this machined in Titan 7 logo.
31 comments
Say what? You got mad poke going on there up front. And the weight issue? Any amount you gained over stock is so tiny as to be laughable. I dunno, jump the shark much?
Look at the pictures at ride height. We just reported the weight and the differences, you have a problem with that?
Don’t mess with Kojima boooyyyy
Car looks amazing. Can’t wait to read about how it performs on the track.
I think it is a stretch to say the stock tire has had 3lbs of rubber worn off, but who cares? The contact patch gain is going to make big results and it was done as with as little weight gain as possible. Looking awesome is a bonus too.
Because of me being involved in Pro Drifting and us measuring how much the tires weight decreases due to wear, I have a pretty good feel for this.
I too was questioning this logic.
But since you mentioned formula drift I guess you would have an easy way to measure after a tire shredding session. LOL
I read somewhere pro fd guys will lose 10lbs of rubber per rear tire per 2 laps….thats wild!!
Depending on the size and the tire yes.
That thing does look awesome. I’m putting 285s and 315s on my 2014 SS Camaro right now.
When will we see an updated ButtonWillow 13CW test after this new wheel/tire upgrade?
Yeah, we didn’t run any faster because the bigger tires made enough grip to fade our brakes to nothing in less than a lap. So we are in search of better brake pads.
What is the wheel offset?
Maybe if you could just read the FRONT PAGE of the article!
Bookmarked this setup. My Z51 is putting down 625 hp on stock tires and I’ll need to level up. Wasnt sure what i’d need to do to accept wider tires w/o a wide-body.
Will this wheel/tire package fit on a stock Z51 suspension?
Seems like it would since parts are same, except for bushings.
I love the look!
Yes, it will.
Sure it will! Nicely too.
Would this fit on stock rims or would I have to buy tire and wheels
It won’t fit on the stock wheels
Would this be too risky to run on track, being the body so close to the tires ?
No
Would this setup be good on track, seems like the body is pretty close to the tire ?
Yes
so whats the max front width without having to modify the fender well?
What it says in the article.
Quick question, was the ride height of the car lowered or did you stay with the OEM stock height?
Lowered about 1.5″
That looks like a great setup. Do they sell this wheel and tire combo? I just got a C7 and I am trying to find options for wider tires
Yes they do, use the links in the story
Amazing work on this C7. curious about the rear fender lip trimming. i am having the same issue today with my C7 Z06. based on your description and the pics that were provided is there anything else you would recommend “prep, orbital sander, grit, etc..” how much material did you remove. thanks.