Hi, my first post here.
Is thinking about buying the facelifted ST and fit it with 18" alloys.
The problem is that I haven't seen any ST with 18, so is it possible without modifications?

Thinking about ACE Dino, painted white with 215x40x18 tyres.
If u want to see how it looks...not painted white.


/tjalve

There was a thread about this very subject here:

http://www.fordfiestast.co.uk/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=18262&an=0&page=1#18262

The general consensus was 18" defintely possible, and maybe even 19"

18 will fit perfect with a 3,5cm lowering and some bump stops, friend of mine has it this way

Why???

Thanks for the replies.
Exactly what Im planing, 35mm lowering and 18"
Why?
Because the car would look awesome....

-->DirkxKe, any pics of that car?

/tjalve

Yeh fair point...each to their own and all that...you do realise the negative affect it will have on handling and performance??

yea its tru i had a golf that i lowered 35mm uprated wheels n all that! the the wheel bearings collapsed due to the pressure. got them fixed then everyday i seem to acumulate a new knock or squeek!! by the way the new wheel bearings are starting to squeek! so much work

Personally I wouldn't do it cause of the performance loss! and the possible problem as mac said, But then thats me

You won't lose any performance by lowering the car, in principle the handling should be better as you've got a lower centre of gravity. The only real negative effect is on the ride quality really.

If you want to put 18s on you'll need a 35 rather than a 40 profile tyre.

I was talking about the wheels not the lowering affecting performance

If you buy a light enough wheel, something by OZ Racing or whatever, then its likely to weigh less than the standard ST rim. Have you felt how heavy one of those is?

I agree a lighter wheel is going to help...as this is unsprung weight... but you then have to take into consideration of the tyres weight going up a size..my guess is it would be heavier than the 17" oem tyre so you could end up at stalemate.

but thats not the only factor to be considered when going up a size though...

You have to think where all the weight is on the wheel..which is the rim..by shifting all that weight further out your moving your rotational mass, which inturn requires more power to turn it...

We have had this argument time and time again on the ITR fourm...and yes a larger wheel looks better and probably gives you more grip...but grip and handling are two very different things Which ever way you look at it increasing the wheel size will lose you slight acceleration sadly too.

If I could lay my hands on some I would love to swap my ST wheel for the 16" Zetec S wheels to see how the car performs..in theory it should be a slightly more compliant maybe at the expense of some turn in feel and slightly nippier acceleration..

Would be interesting to see

The increase in diameter would take more to do one full turn decreasing the acceleration... wouldn't it?

Well by lowering the profile size of the tyre you should be able to maintain within 10% (hopefully lower) of the oem rolling radius, so this aspect shouldn't be too much of a problem.