Hey Everyone. I’ve got 2 beautiful SC400 , black 95, white 96. One has stock chrome 7 spoke mint , the other 10 spoke silver standard. My question is , how much bigger can you go without needing coilovers to drop it back down? I know I don’t want it looking goofy with too big a wheel , but there are some nice looking wheels in larger size obviously. Is 17 inch ok with no drop ? 18?

 

I thought SC’s looked good on the Supra’s OEM 17 inch wheel without a drop. Some of the other OEM Lexus 17 inch wheels would look good.

I ran 18 inch wheels without coilovers/lowering springs and the car looked silly. The massive fender gaps become super obvious with the bigger wheels. It’s mainly the front wheel fender gap that looks really bad.

 

you could run 18s with 245/45 front and 255/45 rear if the rims are staggered with 8 inch wide up front
its a little larger and your speed will be a bit off but would fit in the fender no issues and still fill the gap a bit.

 

What I would recommend is try running tires on your wheels that are the same diameter as the original tires. V and I are both running the same 350Z 5 spoke 18 inch wheels but different size tires. I am running 255/35 x 18 on the front which is the same diameter as stock SC300 on the front. I am running 275/35 x18 on the rear which is the same diameter as the SC400 which does throw off the speedometer which does not work half the time anyway. I never had a rubbing problem but now I have lowered it last month with Supra lowering springs I am hearing a faint amount of scrubbing. It so light it does not even show on my tires.

 

good lord man, 275 in the rear with no rubbing!!?!?!?!?!?

 

I totally agree. I bought my '99 with 18" wheels and I kinda cringe every time I look at it.


The wheels are nice looking in themselves but just too big for the car.

As for Supra wheels, wow, they go for a premium! $1200 for 20-year-old wheels. They don't look that different than the stock lexus five-spoke wheels.

 

The secret is offset to keep the tires from rubbing. I have read all these threads where members are running 285,295, and even 305 by one member. There is plenty of room in the back with the proper offset. I have read of several people running bigger than my 255 and wider than my 81/2 on the front but I am not going there. I do not want to put more load on my power steering pump than what it has now. When you go to those larger sizes there again you are throwing your speedometer off. One other thing when I bought my tires I had just spent a bunch of money on other things for our home and I ended up buying some inexpensive tires (which I can't wear out) and they may be a little narrow than the better tires I will buy next time. Believe me in the next month or two I do plan on rolling my fenders.
It all goes back to what you want and what you are willing to put up with.

 

I ran 18x10.5 wheel with a 275/35/18 tire at stock height without rubbing.

That’s how my car looked back in the day.

Supra wheels are way overpriced. Those are the uglier 16 inch non-turbo Supra wheels. The bigger 17 inch version looks better and resembles the 95-96 six spoke 16 inch SC300 wheels.

 

Kira X
Just curious, what size wheel and tire did you run on the front when you ran the 275/35 x18 on the back?

 

I ran a 245/40/18 at first but rubbed on the fender liners when I was lowered. Later on I switched to 235/40/18 and eventually went back to stock suspension with no issues.

I had rolled front fenders and shaved rear fenders. It wasn’t an issue at stock height but it helped when I was lowered.

 

You can go as big as 18s but depending on the design of the wheel it can look alright.... or kinda awkward.

This is me back in the day. Stock suspension. Stock body.
RAYS GramLights 57F
18x8.5 +40 245/40-18
18x9.5 +38 275/35-18

I ordered these thru a Discount Tire in California that was basically vending high end JDM wheels on forums like ClubLex and a host of others. I told them I had a SC300 with Supra TT brakes so I needed Supra TT wheel fitment. I got these and ran them from 2005-2010. On the car, they were maybe 5-10mm from being flush. So an almost unnoticeable sunk look. The tires are also "oversized" / +1 sizing.
Because these wheels are skinny monoblock 5 spokes, they look big and the tires look small. I didn't think this back then (no one did) but as I look at it now 16 years later.... yeeeeaaahhhhhh

If I had ordered the GramLight 57F-Pros, or the Work Meister S1 2pc, I would have ended up with wheels that had a smaller face [18in wheels with 17in faces] and that would've make the wheels look better (aka less "skinny")



In hindsight I think these don't look as bad on my car as I remember because I have the TT brakes and they physically fill out the wheels. If you have stock brakes, 18in skinny 5 spoke wheels will just make your brakes look smaller

 

Kira X,
A little information, our stock tires had a diameter of 25.14
245/40 x 18 25.71
235/40 x 18 25.40
All of this if my math is correct, but on to the story. You were running a tire (both sizes) on the front that had a bigger diameter than stock and that contributed to any fender rubbing and of course offset on your wheels could have contributed to the rubbing also. That is the reason I ran 255/35 x 18 on the front which were 25.02 so close to the original size. Of course I have rubbing now since I have lowered my SC but it is so slight I am not worrying about it until next month When I will take time to roll the fenders.
Best of luck

 

Yes, I did have a little bit of rubbing on the 245/40. It mainly rubbed the fender liner on sharp turns when the car was loweredI never thought to try a 255/35 back then as I’m a fan of meaty tires. My fender liners got tore up from a set of really soft Supra TT Falken lowering springs I briefly had and I eventually had to remove the liners.

I currently run a 265/35/19 up front without any rubbing due to me getting rid of the fender liners. My rears are a 305/30/19 which rub as soon as I hit the gas, due to the height of my car. The offset and wheel width combination is just too wide at my current height.

 

Kira X
A little more math, your front tires are 26.3" and your rear are 26.2" and with the original tires on the SC300 being 25.14 you have raised you car with your tire size. It's looks like an inch but it is only a half inch since you split that inch with half of that inch is at the top of the wheel and the other half is at the bottom. There may be a way that you can keep your car from squatting as much when you take off. Maybe with stiffer bushings in the rear?????????????????????

 

It does sit quite a bit higher than it did on my old wheels. I do need to change my rear bushings out, but my car is just sitting too low for tires that big. There is a very tiny gap between the rear fender and the tires, and my coilovers are on the soft side in the rear. I would either need stiffer coilovers and bushings or to drop down to a smaller tire. A 285 or 295 would have worked much better but I went overboard with the 305.