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So there's a lot of wheel and tire choices... Diameters 13", 14", 15", 16", 16.5", 17", 18", 19"....  so on and so forth... Widths from bicycle tires to 395 and even larger... Sidewall profiles 30, 35, 40, 45.... so on and so forth..  What does that number even mean? Let's first discuss a general "goal" for replacing the wheels and tires on your ride. Are you setting your car up for a motor sports application? If so, what type of motor sports? If not, what sort of driving will you be doing?   Do you have a ride quality expectation? All...

Today's voodoo/black magic topic is pinion angle.  In my experience, some guys just "get it".  The rest of us, have no idea the positive and negative affects pinion angle has on your drive line until it strikes and we have to blindly chase a vibration, rub or bind in the drive train. For those that are tinkering with lightly modified street cars, you'll find that with OEM type suspension components, engine mounts and transmission mounts that your pinion angle isn't affected enough to create problems unless something is broken.  Even upgraded components that match OEM sizes and geometry maintain the...

There's a few things we confessedly and unabashedly DIG around here. 1. Fast Cars 2. Passion 3. Family 4. Fast Cars 5. Passion 6..... I think you get my point. Valerie Clements of VCR (Valerie Clements Racing) combines all of the above into a cool story of growth and development while pursuing something she and her brother/tuner are passionate about. Valerie started her racing career at 2001 at the tender age of 8 in Jr. Dragsters.  From 01-07, she bracket raced Jr. Dragsters, then started heads up racing (330 Outlaw Jr. Dragsters). She loved the competitive nature of heads up...

Wheels can be a huge headache.  Particularly, laying out the specifications to clear big brakes, custom suspension components, fit within fenders and allow full travel of the suspension. One thing that got me frazzled in the past was offset versus backspacing. I grew up learning from old men and working on classic cars.  You never heard the term offset and anything metric discussed when looking for Cragars at the swap meet. The term you would always hear would be backspacing. It's a very simple measurement.  Take the width of the wheel, divided by two and that would give you a...

So you're wheel shopping for the project and you get overwhelmed by the number of options? Not only is there tons of options, there's different construction types and between the two basic construction types, there's a large price variance.  What gives? (CCW D240 3pc Forged) Let's break it down real quick so you can narrow down your choices a bit. In this little diddy, we're not going to get into multi piece race wheels or different material types.   We're strictly going to compare forged aluminum versus cast aluminum for the sake of simplicity. (XXR 521 Flat black cast wheel)...