Experience with Eric Vaughn widened Super Snake wheels

[Snoopy49]

Eric Vaughn Machine
Located on the West Coast in Southern California
111 N. Myrtle Ave. Monrovia, CA 91016
For more specific info, call Eric at Vaughn Machine:
(626) 358-6413

CLOSED FRIDAYS

 

[MovingZen]

I realize not the same wheel, but just to show what an 11" wheel and the 315 r888s looks like. This is with my suspension aired out completely, but with my normal ride height I get no rubbing at all. The r888s are great tires even for lowered cars.

Normal ride height -

 

[paluka21]

Pretty nice. What did he charge?

Give him a call. He quotes based upon the work you request.

 

[paluka21]

I realize not the same wheel, but just to show what an 11" wheel and the 315 r888s looks like. This is with my suspension aired out completely, but with my normal ride height I get no rubbing at all. The r888s are great tires even for lowered cars.

Normal ride height -

I think the offset of the Alcoa super snakes would be the difference as the rim itself sits flush with the fender. If there were any kind of tire bulge on the Alcoa wheels you'd get rubbing when suspension is compressed as you depicted. An 11" Alcoa wheel *may* be ok with a 315 Toyo, but I would probably go a little wider just to pull some of the sidewall in.
Here is a (very poor quality) shot of the tire/wheel, with the lip of the wheel protruding slightly past the tire...ie stretching. It still looks really good IMO, but the 11.75 is pushing the tire to its limit.

 

[MovingZen]

I think the offset of the Alcoa super snakes would be the difference as the rim itself sits flush with the fender. If there were any kind of tire bulge on the Alcoa wheels you'd get rubbing when suspension is compressed as you depicted. An 11" Alcoa wheel *may* be ok with a 315 Toyo, but I would probably go a little wider just to pull some of the sidewall in.
Here is a (very poor quality) shot of the tire/wheel, with the lip of the wheel protruding slightly past the tire...ie stretching. It still looks really good IMO, but the 11.75 is pushing the tire to its limit.View attachment 88748

That picture definitely tells a different story. From the others it looked like the tires were tucked like mine. Now I'm seeing why you rub, I thought maybe you meant on the inside because that's where my MPSS used to rub. my bad mang

 

[Ghoust]

This is great. I am in CA so this review gives me confidence to use him if / when I am ready to widen my wheels! Thank you OP.

 

[paluka21]

That picture definitely tells a different story. From the others it looked like the tires were tucked like mine. Now I'm seeing why you rub, I thought maybe you meant on the inside because that's where my MPSS used to rub. my bad mang

It's all good. But, you would be correct about the inside as well, as I had to remove the shock dust boot cover and also "alter" the bump stop bracket to allow the wheels clearance. When the suspension is fully unloaded, I have about 1/8" or less clearance between the wheel lip and the bump stop bracket.

 

[paluka21]

This is great. I am in CA so this review gives me confidence to use him if / when I am ready to widen my wheels! Thank you OP.

You're welcome. Eric tends to be a little behind sometimes, but he's a one man shop and doesn't mind customers following up with him. I am pleased with his craftsmanship and communication throughout the process. Only thing I would change about it all was the amount of protective packaging provided when shipping across country. The double cardboard boxes just weren't enough protection for heavy expensive wheels in my opinion.

 

[tomshep]

Dan,

Looks great! Those Alcoas look really good. Why didn't you do the 10" front and widen the 9s?

I also did the L rears for a while and finally decided to put the fronts on as well. I don't think it dropped even .4" It maybe have been .25 or slightly more. Very minimal. However, I am glad I did it. The car did drop a little and gave it a little rake.

This is 315/35 on 11" rear and 275/30 on 9" front.

Tom

 

[paluka21]

Dan,

Looks great! Those Alcoas look really good. Why didn't you do the 10" front and widen the 9s?

I also did the L rears for a while and finally decided to put the fronts on as well. I don't think it dropped even .4" It maybe have been .25 or slightly more. Very minimal. However, I am glad I did it. The car did drop a little and gave it a little rake.

View attachment 88942

This is 315/35 on 11" rear and 275/30 on 9" front.

Tom

Thanks Tom. I was going to put the 10" wheels up front but didn't want the extra weight over the nose of the car. The Alcoa wheels are heavy as is, and I'm currently thinking of ways to lighten the car up particular in the front. I'm considering light weight brakes and perhaps an after market battery.
I currently have about 1/2 inch of clearance between the front lower splitter and the pavement when pulling in/out of my driveway even when angling the car. Im concerned about tearing up the front splitter, especially if I end up going with a super snake carbon fiber piece in the future. So I'll probably keep the existing stance.

 

[Chuckieduck]

I picked up a set of R888R 285/35-20s today for the front so I could test fit them on the rear to check the spacing before sending my other wheels to Eric to have widened. I already had TSW Nurburgring wheels on my car but in 19x19.5 with 40 offset which I thought sat perfect with 275/40-19. I bout the same exact wheels but in 20x10 which also has a 40 offset so I was worried about the wheel sticking out some. Turns out they fit perfect. I think the Alcoa wheels depending on which version were about the same. The tires look good but I wish they had a rim guard on them. There is no bulge on the tire and the wheel is just at the point where the wheel sticks out too much conspired to the tire. So it makes me wonder if I should stick with getting the wheels widened to 11" and sticking with that plan. Assuming that a 10" wheel is called out for for the 285 and a 11" is called out for the 315 if it is all comparable to the amount of bulge between the two.

 

[paluka21]

If you're flush at the fender with the wheel due to the offset, you most likely will have a little sidewall bulge with an 11" rim on a 315 tire.

 

[Thabeast]

Dan,

Looks great! Those Alcoas look really good. Why didn't you do the 10" front and widen the 9s?

I also did the L rears for a while and finally decided to put the fronts on as well. I don't think it dropped even .4" It maybe have been .25 or slightly more. Very minimal. However, I am glad I did it. The car did drop a little and gave it a little rake.

View attachment 88942

This is 315/35 on 11" rear and 275/30 on 9" front.

Tom

Which brand/model tire are you running now Tom?

 

[CobraBob]

Definitely some serious tire back there. The rims look really nice on your (gorgeous) GT-500. Very nice looking setup.

 

[tomshep]

Which brand/model tire are you running now Tom?

Nitto Invo.

Tom

 

[paluka21]

I also did the L rears for a while and finally decided to put the fronts on as well. I don't think it dropped even .4" It maybe have been .25 or slightly more. Very minimal. However, I am glad I did it. The car did drop a little and gave it a little rake.


Tom

Tom,

Well it looks like I'll have to chance it and swap out the front springs after all. Stance on the car suits me well but there is an evident rate difference between the front and rear, so much so that it doesn't feel stable when changing lanes at highway speeds. Rear is much stiffer while the front feels sloppy now. Worse case scenario I need to remove the lower splitter even though I really like how it looks.

 

[tomshep]

Is yours PP? Mine is and it seemed fine with the PP front and FR rear. They are supposed to be the same rate, just lower than PP.

Also, when I originally installed them I did the rotate the strut plate 180* to help with camber. Problem was the drop was minimal and the tires had almost NO camber. I went back and installed the plates the same as factory and the camber is fine. It helped tuck the upper edge of the tires under the fender. I haven't had it to an alignment shop yet. From a visual, it looks like it is towed out a little more than I would like, but I am driving it for now.

Tom

 

[paluka21]

Is yours PP? Mine is and it seemed fine with the PP front and FR rear. They are supposed to be the same rate, just lower than PP.

Also, when I originally installed them I did the rotate the strut plate 180* to help with camber. Problem was the drop was minimal and the tires had almost NO camber. I went back and installed the plates the same as factory and the camber is fine. It helped tuck the upper edge of the tires under the fender. I haven't had it to an alignment shop yet. From a visual, it looks like it is towed out a little more than I would like, but I am driving it for now.

Tom

Tom,

Mine is not a PP car and I'm honestly not certain on the spring rate difference between PP and non-PP cars. Are there any differences or is the shocks/struts the only thing that separates them?
I couldn't feel any difference in the way the car handled until I was in a passing situation where I went WOT and merged lanes. When I did the car just didn't feel right in the front end, kind of loose/sloppy. In addition, I hit a semi-large pot hole on the interstate and it felt as though the rear may have hit the factory bump stops, and the front just felt off compared to how stiff the rear is. The Toyo 30 series profile will also make the rear of my car feel stiffer compared to the 35 series I ran previously which may help to explain in.

 

[tomshep]

The electronic shocks/struts and I believe different spring rates. Plus other items. I used to know this stuff off the top of my head. DUH!

Tom

 

[paluka21]

Tom,

I gave in and lowered the front over the weekend. I'm glad I saw your cars ride height with the L springs or I may not have bothered, even though I wasn't satisifed with how it handled.

I have to say, I'm much more pleased with the look of the car and the handling. The ride height isn't as low as some other aftermarket springs, but I'm very pleased with how this cars stance is. I also do not scrape when pulling in/out of my driveway. There appears to be about a 1/2" of clearance which is good enough for me. I also measured from the ground to fender and the L springs so far have dropped the front of the car between .4 - 5." which is what I was hoping.

One thing I did notice, is that the passenger side tire seems to stick out slightly further than the drivers side. It's not by much, maybe 1/8", but I can notice it. Perhaps loosening everything up again at the spindle and strut tower and trying to push the spring assembly inward may do the trick. Anyways, here is the final product with the Ford "L" springs.