94 GT biggest rear tire on 18x9 wheel?

Prerunner5.0

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Apr 14, 2020
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San Diego
I recently bought a '94 GT with a 427W. It has 18x9 Saleens with 265/35R18 in the front and 295/35R18 out back, all 4 are Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sports. Cornering is great, traction off the line is non existant until I'm in third gear.

I'm looking at switching to Nitto NT05s in the front and NT05Rs in the rear. The car is slightly lowered (not sure how much) with MM coilovers. Does anyone with a similar setup know if 315/40R18 would fit in the back? If not, how big can I go?
 
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Years ago I had a 315 on my 9" wide 17" knockoff Cobra R's on my '02 GT. It can be done if you're determined enough. Me personally, I would get a set of 18x10" replicas for the rear and mount some 295/35 tires on them. Plenty of contact and there won't be any fitment issues.
 
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315/40r18 is pushing it. I ran a 315/35r17 in a 555r and had to do some hammering to clear.

I wouldn’t expect to have much grip from a dig. You need to go to a more drag oriented tire to have a snowballs chance in hell to hook in first or second.
 
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315/40r18 is pushing it. I ran a 315/35r17 in a 555r and had to do some hammering to clear.

I wouldn’t expect to have much grip from a dig. You need to go to a more drag oriented tire to have a snowballs chance in hell to hook in first or second.

This 100%. Adding 20mm of tire is not going to change much. A softer compound 295 tire is going to go a lot farther.

Kurt
 
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