Low profile rims & tires

["Walter" <Whalt@xxxx>]

I finally got the new rims and tires on my Delorean. It took a few weeks to
get the spacers for the rear wheels right, but now I finally got them!

What I got are TSW brand one-piece alloy rims in the Imola style. The rear
rims are 17"x8". The front rims are 16"x7". The front tires are Falken
brand model 18-81-FLK 151680 with dimensions 205/40R16 @ $115.00 each, and
the rear tires are 18-81-FLK 151784 with dimensions 245/45R17 @ $139.00
each. These tires are rotation specific which means you shouldn't run a
tire meant for the right side of the car on the left side. My first choice
was Yokohama brand since I have read such good things about them on the DML,
but they cost about $20 more per tire and the warranty wasn't as good.
Besides, that recommendation was for mounting tires on OEM rims. These rims
are sort of treading on new ground.

I'll post pictures somewhere once I get the front suspension lowered. Until
then, you can check out the TSW web site at www.tsw.com They have a
picture of what the Imola looks like. This was not my first choice for
rims. I wanted the Big Deep or Revo style, but they didn't make them in the
4 lug pattern that could be made to fit the Delorean. It turned out that
the only set of one-piece rims that the store could sell me was the TSW
Imola. There were plenty of other choices in multi-piece rims, but I wanted
the strength and quality that goes with a one piece.

Final price out the door including taxes and all the hidden charges:
$1,932.81
(These are VERY nice rims.)

The front tires needed no spacers, but the rear wheels did. The spacers
were custom made locally to fit the application. On the first try, the
machinist didn't know about the center hub, so we had to send them back to
make the hole in the center bigger to fit the hub. When we got them back,
the machinist made the cut deep enough, but not quite wide enough. So we
had to send them back again to take more metal off. That worked.

The front tire diameters are the same as OEM, but the new rear tire diameter
causes the car to sit 1/8th of an inch lower than OEM (yeah, big deal.) If
I went with the next size larger tire, it would have been 1/8th inch in the
other direction, but the tire would be too wide to reliably fit the rim.

As far as handling goes, I have two problems. The first is that the front
rims are an inch wider than OEM. I didn't know this when I ordered them. I
thought I was getting OEM dimensions. This extra inch of width extends
deeper into the wheel well instead of sticking further out the sides of the
car. A visual comparison between mine and Randy's car confirmed this. The
problem lies in the fact that the inside of the wheel hits the sway bar
sooner than the OEM wheel. This means that my turning radius is reduced. A
little nasty part of this problem is that it is the metal part of the rim
that hits the sway bar and not the tire part as it does on the OEM wheel.

Yes! The OEM tires rub the sway bar! Why? I don't know. Either this is a
design flaw in the Delorean or it was meant to be a 'wheel stop'. I suppose
that if the wheel didn't rub the sway bar, then perhaps something else would
eventually stop the steering movement by hitting or binding some other
part -- which could be bad. I am going to look into this to find a fix. I
showed Randy & Brian the spots on my sway bar where the OEM wheels rubbed &
polished the area. Next to those were new shiny spots where the new rims
are hitting. Randy looked at that and said that he didn't think his wheels
hit the sway bar. I got under there with a flashlight and saw the same wear
pattern as on my car, so it is reasonable to assume that all Deloreans have
wheels that hit the sway bar.

What I intend to do is come up with a custom designed sway-bar with a
different geometry that will allow wider rims to fit and perhaps allow OEM
wheels to not hit the sway bar either. The problem is -- I need to find out
if the OEM wheels are supposed to hit and rub the sway bar on sharp turns.
If a new sway bar with a different geometry were installed to give the wheel
more room to turn, then perhaps some other two parts under the car could
touch and cause problems. Does anyone know if this is the case? Or am I
the pioneer here?

If the wheel is supposed to hit the sway bar and must hit it or cause damage
else where, then I have two possible fixes that I will look into. One is to
mount a stopping pad somewhere in the steering. The other will be to
install a bearing either over or hanging off of a new geometry sway bar.
The tire would then hit this bearing instead of rub the sway bar. The
bearing would give a surface that would roll with the wheel instead of being
rubbed by it.

Again, if anyone has any knowledge of this situation, let me know.

The second handling problem with the new wheels is a shaking vibration in
the steering wheel at about 60MPH. I think this is just a tire out of
balance. They balanced the wheels before they put them on, but perhaps they
could have done a better job. With this style of rim, there isn't much room
to attach wheel weights without them being seen. Some people prefer to live
with out-of-balance wheels rather than look at ugly wheel weights. I think
I would rather look at the weights.

The new wheels run much smoother. The OEM wheels gave a 'galloping' feel
since they had flat spots on them from being stored in one position for too
many years.

Do any of y'all get a kick out of reading this stuff? I feel like I
sometimes post more text to the DML than everyone else combined. E-mail me
privately and tell me to either keep it up or knock it off. I don't want to
be annoying. :)

Walt Tampa, FL