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Forgestar F14 18 x 11 Wheels Front versus Rear Fitment

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Wingrider

'11 GT500, 99% Track Car. Lots of mods & I coach
NFSBOSS said:
Go back and look at post 18 & 33. ;)

Oh yeah…. well I guess there is a bit of a difference. C'mon Rick, get some vendors to each send a wheel and we can do a group mount up…. ;D

Clearly enough interest for a GB or at least a clear direction to vendors after that I'd think. Heck, I just put a new set of 10.5 HRE's on my car and I'd pick up a set of 11's or larger.
 
Wingrider said:
Oh yeah…. well I guess there is a bit of a difference. C'mon Rick, get some vendors to each send a wheel and we can do a group mount up…. ;D

Clearly enough interest for a GB or at least a clear direction to vendors after that I'd think. Heck, I just put a new set of 10.5 HRE's on my car and I'd pick up a set of 11's or larger.
Working on it... ;D
 
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I forgot to add the wheel weights. Each wheel weighed in at 22lbs and the 22mm spacers were 1 lb. each. I believe the F14 version of these wheels weigh in at 21lbs but do not have enough clearance for the 15" brake package like the CF5's do. With the spacers I have at least 1" of clearance from the barrel to the caliper so an easy fit for a 15" brake package. As a comparison my +53 19 x 11 rear F14's weighed in at 25.5 lbs while the 19 x 10 fronts are 24.5 lbs. The Nitto's are heavier than the Michelin PSS so I'm sure the 10lb wheel weight savings has been eaten up. Also keep in mind when deciding a final backspace figure, is the effect on inner fender turning clearance. 8" of backspace in the front will need steering rack limiters.
 
So let me see if I have summarized this correctly.

Using Cortex 315 offset coilovers ...

Is consensus opinion that one could get 18x11" +52 offset wheels. It appears they will be fine in the back no problems with sway bars or any other fitment and run an 305/35R18 Tire without issue. You would have 8.05" of backspace in the rear. Would there be more +offset required in the back?

Up front you could run 18x11" +52 offset wheels, put in a 7mm spacer and be fine on all your clearances and have 7.77" of backspace. With a 10mm spacer you would have 7.65" of backspace. (Vorshlag fitment for their 11" custom offset wheels was guessed at 7.375" earlier in this thread)

Steering stops still required up front? Any clearance issues perceived?
 
I think that's right but I'll let others affirm. FWIW both Wingrider and I have the Stoptech Spec Mustang front brake kit which use 14" diameter and 35mm wide rotors instead of 32mm on the stock Brembos. They rotors are somewhere between 3-5mm further inboard and so are the calipers. So if caliper clearance was an issue and you were upgrading brakes that will give you more room.
 

Wingrider

'11 GT500, 99% Track Car. Lots of mods & I coach
NFSBOSS said:
I think that's right but I'll let others affirm. FWIW both Wingrider and I have the Stoptech Spec Mustang front brake kit which use 14" diameter and 35mm wide rotors instead of 32mm on the stock Brembos. They rotors are somewhere between 3-5mm further inboard and so are the calipers. So if caliper clearance was an issue and you were upgrading brakes that will give you more room.

…and let me add that if you know how to pry a stuck piece of toast out of a toaster, you're almost overqualified to swap pads in the Trophy brake kit. It will take more time to get the jack under the car and pull the 9.5 or larger wheel than to do the swap. (see how I mentioned wheels to keep it on topic?)

Amazingly simple even a caveman can do it. :D
 
Surfergeek said:
Looking good! Thank you for the pics.

I have a lot more confidence in the route we are exploring with the CF5 now. With the Cortex offset struts I think we could have plenty of clearance with an even smaller spacer 7mm or 10mm and the right offset (something between 50-55).

The HRE FF01 & FF15 are heavier than the Forgestar F14 - The actual shipping weights from a same wheel supplier show a min of 2lb per wheel difference.
Among the Forgestar does anyone know which design is the lightest?
F14 or CF5 or CF5V?
 
patrickshelby said:
...Among the Forgestar does anyone know which design is the lightest?
F14 or CF5 or CF5V?

In 18" wheels, the F14 is the lightest due to it's tapered barrel design. The CF5V is not available in 18" sizes. The CF5 has a straight barrel design that weighs a tad more, but can fit a 15" brake.

1810cf5weight-M.jpg

1810f14weight1-M.jpg

DSC_9862-M.jpg

DSC_1109-M.jpg

And for the 19" sizes, here are the weights.

1910f14weight1-M.jpg

1910cf5weight-M.jpg

Here's a good shot showing the black CF5 and the silver F14. You can see the differences in the barrel designs that give the CF5 better clearance and the F14 lighter weight.

DSC_4636-M.jpg
 
modernbeat said:
In 18" wheels, the F14 is the lightest due to it's tapered barrel design. The CF5V is not available in 18" sizes. The CF5 has a straight barrel design that weighs a tad more, but can fit a 15" brake.

1810cf5weight-M.jpg

1810f14weight1-M.jpg

DSC_9862-M.jpg

DSC_1109-M.jpg

And for the 19" sizes, here are the weights.

1910f14weight1-M.jpg

1910cf5weight-M.jpg

Here's a good shot showing the black CF5 and the silver F14. You can see the differences in the barrel designs that give the CF5 better clearance and the F14 lighter weight.

DSC_4636-M.jpg
Is there a 19 x 11.5 or 12 in either CF5 or F14 that will fit the GT350R or GT350 w/track pack? I'm planning to order wheels this fall as my car is being built in August. Since the R comes with 19 x 11.5 and 19 x 11 from Ford, I assume we'll be able to go even wider aftermarket.
 
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Cloud9, How much clearance do you have between the barrel of the 18" CF5 wheel and the caliper? While I did not measure yet, just from a visual it seemed greater than 1" with my setup. It would be interesting to find out how much clearance the 18" CF5 wheels have on the 15" brake package. I'll bet the 15.5" brake package will clear the flat part of the barrel so with less offset to clear the front step the CF5 could fit in an 18" size. It looked like the Multimatic race team is running a large spacer in front to push the small 10" wide wheels they run closer to the edge of the fender and looking at the pictures, have some room left outward. I think a 12" wheel will fit and if the offset works out, possibly in an 18" size.
 
cp85gt said:
Cloud9, How much clearance do you have between the barrel of the 18" CF5 wheel and the caliper? While I did not measure yet, just from a visual it seemed greater than 1" with my setup. It would be interesting to find out how much clearance the 18" CF5 wheels have on the 15" brake package. I'll bet the 15.5" brake package will clear the flat part of the barrel so with less offset to clear the front step the CF5 could fit in an 18" size. It looked like the Multimatic race team is running a large spacer in front to push the small 10" wide wheels they run closer to the edge of the fender and looking at the pictures, have some room left outward. I think a 12" wheel will fit and if the offset works out, possibly in an 18" size.
When I asked Jason about this a couple months ago he indicated the barrel barely clears the 15" Brembos. The GT350 has 15.5" rotors, so I can't imagine that will clear.
 
cloud9 said:
Is there a 19 x 11.5 or 12 in either CF5 or F14 that will fit the GT350R or GT350 w/track pack? I'm planning to order wheels this fall as my car is being built in August. Since the R comes with 19 x 11.5 and 19 x 11 from Ford, I assume we'll be able to go even wider aftermarket.

I can take a guess, but until I see that they are running the same strut housing geometry (which I think they are) and can measure the actual fender clearance I can't really make a recommendation. We should be able to measure a car when it arrives at our friendly, local performance Ford dealer, Five Star Ford. We will also bring a demo 18" CF5 to see if it will clear the brakes, but I doubt it will.
 
neema said:
The fronts should have around ~20mm less backspacing.
= Any wheel that fits fine in the rear will fit in the front with a 20mm spacer.
But then there is the type of strut, the brakes and the camber and how you get it.
 
Did some measuring and test fitting tonight.

Decision made.

Ordering an 18x11 +52 CF5 set of 4.

With my cortex offset strut coilovers, I should be fine with only a small spacer up front 5-8mm.

No problems with sway bar, brackets, etc... in the rear.

I will roll the fenders as a precaution, but I don't think it will be necessary.

I'll update when I get the wheels in.
 
The blanks for my wheels have arrived at the port and are on a priority for production at Forgestar. Hoping to have my wheels in hand by early/mid October.

Once arrived and tires mounted up, I will be posting the results of our experiment.
 
My wheels were done a couple of weeks ago and picking them up and having 305/35R18 NT01 tires mounted and balanced to them.

Then in the near future test fitting. Can't wait to get them on the car and on the track.
 
Here is the quick info ... I'll make another thread with pictures and all the details and link here.

Album on Flickr with all the pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/surfergeek/albums/72157660194695686
Short version:

I ordered Forgestar CF5 wheels 18"X11" +52mm Offset

Wrapped them in NTO1 305/35R18 Tires.

I have a square set-up that fits front and rear, no problems with clearances in the rear (sway bars, end links, control arm relocation brackets, all plenty of clearance).

I have Cortex Racing Offset for 315 tire coilovers in the front. With no spacer, the rim goes on in front, but it's very close to the strut.

You can run the Forgestar center caps that come stock with the wheels, they clear the hub centers in the front with this much offset.

With a 5mm spacer, it has plenty of clearance in all aspects and that could be run.

I'll be running an 8mm hub centric spacer, it gives me a bit more turning radius / scrub radius and keeps me in the factory scrub radius and gives me a touch more clearance for my brake cooling ducts.

Requirements:

Extended Length Studs
I have about -1.8 of Camber and looks like no fender rolling will be required
Steering stops probably a precaution to take just a little out if you have brake cooling ducts or the like. (I'll be putting in a set of Roush stops as a precaution)

Here is the great part that we found today.

Test fit on a 2010 GT on Koni struts/springs with Brembo 15" 6 piston brakes in the front.

1. CF5 in this offset has tons of clearance around the 6 piston calipers. You can run a 15" brake set-up and still run an 18" wheel with these wheels.
2. You can still run an 11" square set-up even on struts springs, but likely would want a slightly different offset.

In our test fitting, 5mm of spacer wasn't enough (Rim contacted the strut).
A 10mm spacer was very close to getting it done but still too close.
A 15mm spacer gave adequate clearance.

For someone without the Cortex offset strut housing / struts springs it looks like you could go with a +55mm offset (be fine in back) and run 8-10mm of spacer in the front. If you are comfortable with 15mm of spacer in the front, the +52mm offset would work for you too.

A quick plug for Auto RnD (source for my forgestar wheels) Rishie (owner) is a great guy and very knowledgeable when it comes to wheels and suspension set-ups. I have done business with him for 15 years and he is a standup guy. He also can source Enkei's in prime fitments or just about anything else you could want.

His site: http://www.autornd.com/ Give him a call.
 

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