18x8 +35

18x8.5 +35

These wheels I am looking at getting for my IS300. Stock suspension as well. I'm tearing my hair out on whether or not I should get them. I'm sure an 8.5 with a +35 offset would need the fenders rolled, same with the 8 +35. My main question is that I dont want any poke so would just a fender roll alone be enough to have these wheels? As far as tires profile goes I'd have no stagger and get 225 or even 235 all around. Maybe like 225 35 18. Any help is appreciated as I've turned my stock sport design wheels into winter tires only and want to have a decent summer set of wheels. Thank you in advance.

 

Cool looking wheels, but what is your intended purpose for putting them on the car? If it's "for looks"..... that sure seems like a lot of money, thought, and effort in something you won't even see/enjoy while you're driving the car.

 

It is for some form/function. I'd like to get the wheels before coilovers. Coils are on my list of things to get. I'd eventually like to use it for track days but as a daily driver as well. And they are about $1200 cheaper than the WORK Emotions that I was originally looking at.

 

If your intention is to track the car then I would skip the wheels for now and get the suspension setup you want for racing. The wheels are literally going to do next to nothing to improve your car on the track unless you're getting much wider tires. With wider tires comes more friction losses which will make a stock car feel, and actually be, slower than stock. So unless you're doing something to up the power at the same time as adding these larger/wider wheels.... you're literally making your car slower which goes against your stated intended purpose for the vehicle.

It's a lot of money to spend to make your car slower IMO. Maybe if the wheels are lighter weight that might counterbalance some of this effect, but I wouldn't expect the car to pick up any time at the track. In fact, I'd expect it to lose time.

If your two options for immediate upgrades are wheels or suspension, I'd go for the suspension. With that said, the stock suspension on these cars is actually pretty good when it's not worn out.

 

I appreciate the input, perhaps I'll go with the BC coils first. However my question still goes unanswered. If I were to get the coils first would I have less of a problem with fitment or should I use a smaller width wheel?

 

Hopefully someone else can help you with that question, but I would literally abandon the idea of putting wheels on the car until you've done something to make more than stock 2JZ GE horsepower. While I can tell you're thankful, I have a feeling you're going to get wheels before adding power to the car anyway. I can't talk you out of that but I do encourage you to track the car before/after the wheel change and show the difference in times. This will not only shut people like me up, but it will also prove to yourself that your mod was "worth doing". If you're not faster, it wasn't worth doing.

 

I do value your opinion. It's not often I reach out for help because I like to figure it out as I go, but with such an investment, I'd like to see and hear others ideas and opinions first. As far as performance goes, I have no clue where to even start. All I've got so far is an Injen intake Haha. I have been researching forced induction, whether it be a gte swap that will definitely cost more than the car. Or an NA-T build which, after reading forums I'd have to research on building my own kit rather than getting a pre made kit such as CX racing and whatnot. I dont want to nickel and dime myself and keep spending a few hundred or so to dyno the car after every upgrade.

 

GTE swap is expensive and not that great IMO because of the cost of getting "stock supra" horsepower into your car. The price goes up even more when you want a big fuel system and big turbo. Likewise, turbo'ing the stock GE engine is pretty pricey to do right as well. Keeping the auto trans requires keeping the OEM ecu in the car which requires you to keep the Throttle Body, MAF, and O2 sensors happy.... all of which people usually ditch when boosting an engine. I'm not saying you should get rid of those things, I think you shouldn't..... but it's common that people do.

Switching to a stick shift from a manual requires quite a few parts as well. I'm not sure where to guide you on this because the budget determines everything. I can tell you that I paid $4000 for my IJM 2001 in 2012.... and then spent ~$25k turbo'ing it with the "right parts" 6 years later. I didn't cheap out on anything. No chinabay turbo kits, no SAFC's, no chinabay exhaust parts, etc..... If you want to actually race the car and be competitive against newer vehicles, you're going to have to get comfortable with the idea of "you have to pay to play". I had no idea going into my turbo project that I'd end up spending that kind of money to get it done the way that was satisfying to me.

Oh, and guess what wheels I went with after spending all that money? I got stock 5-spoke replicas that look exactly like the factory wheels. They look fine and with a good set of tires they perform fine..... and I'm also not a target for wheel thieves that way either.

 

I had planned on making my IS a "project car" eventually. But of course, if you have a project car you NEED a backup vehicle. In my case I do not have one yet. I'm currently researching BC coils and the megan racing front and rear camber kits. I'll start from there and work my way into the engine after the suspension is done. Much appreciated input guys. Edit: I had a facepalm moment and had to think about IJM for a second. I previously owned a 2001 IJM IS300, unbeknownst to me I had a pure gem. I really miss the color of the car. I eventually got rid of it due to financial reasons but eventually picked up my current IS300 in thundercloud metallic. I dont think I'll ever NOT own an IS300. Fell in love from the beginning.

 

Man, same here.... I had no idea when I bought the car that I was getting a color that was only used on 4% of 2001 year models. It's actually hard to even find pictures of them online, that's how few there are. I think it's a great color. Good luck, keep us updated.... I feel like this community is pretty slow/dead.

 

My 2001 IJM

My current 2003 Sport Design in Thundercloud Metallic

I absolutely love these cars

 

^^Wow, your 2003 looks very nice/clean. I like the black lip. I bet if you painted the door sills black also it'd look pretty slick. It looks great as it sits though.

 

Thank you. Much appreciated.