18" wheels

72bluNblu said

The 17x8 doesn't clear the tie rod. The OEM Mustang rims that are 17x8 have a backspace of 5.72", and pretty much everyone I've seen run them has to add an 1/8" spacer to put the backspace at ~5.6" to clear the outer tie rod. A 17x9 with a +24mm offset has a backspace of 6". You'd need to get the backspacing to ~5.6" to get it to clear the tie rod, at which point you wouldn't be able to run 275's because of fender clearance, you'd be maxed out with a 255 and even that would be tight.

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Just to be clear, I agree that 18" wheels makes this a non-issue.

In this post in the huge 17" wheel thread Anybody running 17" Cobra Bullit rims on a Duster, the Leadfoot Rally guy (Duster346) says he could not fit his OEM 17x9 wheels on 2 cars, but they worked fine (if a little close) on his '73. This is what I remember reading is that some cars work fine with an OEM wheel, but others don't. But it didn't mean that none did; maybe most, but not all.

I was going to add that I have had a set of '97 Mustang 17x8 wheels on my Valiant when I was working on my big brake kit that never had a problem, but realized that part of that setup includes a 13" slip on rotor, which is effectively a wheel spacer.