All was well until that statement, kidding or not. I don't like companies that keep secrets from customers. Any and all questions not answered completely and honestly make my "spidey senses" tingle...sorry.
Well I think we have shared
a lot more of our S197 wheel testing than most if not
all other shops. There are
224 pictures in this gallery showing a lot of what we did. I purchased over a dozen different wheels to test fit with, many of which didn't fit (or fit poorly), and after testing had to be sold at a loss. Each one was weighed, we verified offset/backspacing, checked caliper clearance, and some of them were race tested.
In the end we found that there weren't
any 18x10" or larger off the shelf wheels that actually fit this car, so we decided to make our own run of wheels in conjunction with D-Force Wheels. Big investment in time, money and marketing on our part. So we didn't release our final wheel offset data until the production run of Vorshlag/D-Force 18x10" wheels (see below) was ready to sell. Because we knew that once we sold a lot of these, people would figure it out and share the data quickly - so we did share that "magic offset" (the only number we could come up with that allowed a 10" wide wheel to fit both the front and back of an S197), which was +43mm. It wasn't long after that before people were ordering wheels from other vendors in this same offset and size, and other vendors made their own wheels using these dimensions. It happens, and you cannot keep a lid on everything. We know that. Forgestar sells tons of 18x10" wheels for S197s with this offset.
Vorshlag is always
extremely open on every project build thread we make, but when it comes to something we might actually be able to sell, we don't give away things that would be considered trade secrets. We don't share things like the names of our suppliers, or machine shops, or individual part numbers on items we use inside a kit or product we sell. You won't find me posting up CAD prints for our parts, or telling you how much our cost is on an item. To do that would be
business suicide. Most people can understand that, if they look at it from our point of view.
Likewise, the offsets on the custom set of 18x11 and 18x12" wheels we have managed to fit under the fenders of this car took a lot of time, money and effort to perfect. We know that many fewer people will run that size, because that takes a lot of compromises and variables put a certain way to make them fit. And it is not streetable. Then you have to realize that we are a Forgestar dealer. So if you want to get a similar set, we'd love to work with you, and we have the best Forgestar prices allowed.
But we're not going to share the offsets openly. One of the few "hold backs" you will see.
It's not much of a secret, I sure they are running somewhere between 55-62 +/- a couple mm to fit that wide of a tire in the rear. I was just curious to know the exact offset in case anyone was looking to run that wheel combo.
Digital - We both know from tampering with Forgestar wheels that they offer a wide range of offset to suit/ make it possible to throw some thick tires out back.
Exactly. You can figure it out on your own if you don't want to work with us to get a set made by Forgestar. The guys at Forgestar won't give away our offsets either, and even if they did it might not be the right one (we've tweaked them since our first order).
Honestly I try to discourage most people from using the 18x12" wheel on these cars. We had to switch to a Watts Link (Whiteline) to minimize axle movement and then to a reverse mounted swaybar (Whiteline) to make room for these wheels, inboard. It isn't an easy fit. And for extreme track or autocross use they
still aren't big enough.
So on our 2013 GT we're going with at least 18x13 if not 18x14" rear wheels, so we can run the largest Hoosier or Kumho race tire made (345/35/18). That will take heavily cut fenders and fender flares.
But for 95% of the racers out there, just going to the proper offset 18x10" wheel is a
huge step up in performance. Those can and DO fit very well, both front and back, and will swallow a 295mm tire.
Cheers,
