Focus Fanatics Forum banner

Cobra r's

8K views 42 replies 13 participants last post by  focusmaniaczx3 
#1 ·
I'm going to pull the trigger and buy a set of 17X9 cobra r's.....I haven't seen anybody do this...thoughts, feelings, suggestions....im all ears
 
#4 ·
They did make some replica sets in the correct bolt pattern for the MN12 Thunderbird (5x108) but the mustang used the 5x114.5 mm bolt pattern which won't work for our cars without changing the hubs or using adaptors which isn't a great idea, even if the offsets would work.
 
#27 ·
those ^^^^ are 17's. they look smaller because they have a beefier tire on them them what we would run on our cars. the svt foci wheels are almost identical other then them being 17x7 and not 17x9 and i also know the offset is a lot lower the focus wheels. many have run the cobra on mk1s but i think you should go with the chome ones which come on the terminators (like the 04's). i think the fatter spoke would look better on the mk3
 
#29 ·
is there more than one Cobra R?
i went with regular SVT centre caps, but anything the right size will fit
 
#30 ·
sorry to kind of thread jack but this has been irking me for quite awhile now. i would love to run some 4x108 cobra 5 spokes on my zx3 but ive not looked very hard into it because im not sure how far they would poke out of the fenders on a zx3. the old early 90s late 80s fox cobras had the 5 spoke 17s in 4x108 right? were they 17x8 or 17x9? what offset? just wondering if anyone has done this with a mk1 yet who is willing to share lots of into. i will be needing some pretty wide wheels for the front at least when i get my car back from being built and im fine with rolling the fenders out some but i would prefer to have none or very little rub and still be able to turn from lock to lock.

ive found some in 17x8 with offset of 15 and some in 17x9 with offset of 20. i would prefer the 17x9 obviously. however where would those put me? i have a pair of 30mm wheel spacers but offset confuses me for some reason. ill understand it one minute and the next i cant wrap my head around it. if im not confusing myself again i believe that they are gonna bug WAY out of the fenderwells with a LOW offset like that and spacers arent gonna help me any. is it possible to have some of the wheel mating surface that contacts the hub machined off to raise the offset? if this can be done safely then who would do something like that?
 
#31 ·
DO NOT BUY MUSTANG WHEELS FOR YOUR FOCUS!!!

You cannot fit 17x9 et24 wheels on a mk1 focus. Unless you have functional flares on your car I don't care if you run micro tires, lots of camber, coilovers, and a Cabbage Patch Kids doll on your dash board. They DO NOT fit correctly.
 
#33 · (Edited)
I did machine down my wheels by 4mm. making it a 17x9 with approx 23mm offset. It still required functional flares.

heres another teaser but I'll have a thread up in a bit, once my photographer finishes with post production.
 
#34 ·
what stopped you from having more machined off to get the offset to around 45? i think that a 9 inch wide wheel with a 45mm offset would not rub the shock. i seem to remember figuring it out awhile back but i cant remember for sure now.
 
#36 ·
#1 You cant machine nearly an inch from the hub, there is nowhere enough material to do that.

#2 you will hit the shock/strut long before you even get close to bolting up the wheel. 17x9 et35 is just about as close as you can get on a mk1. And that's only with stretched tires.
 
#37 ·
like Nick says,

there wasn't enough material. I did all that I could. I wish I could have done another 5mm.

more on topic. Chaos's wheels sound like they are a very good fit for the OP. It if were me, I would get the 4 mm milled off them to fit perfect, but then again I do have machinist friends so it doesn't cost me anything except beer.
 
#38 ·
okay then what about the 17x8 cobra wheels?

also i think we got a wire crossed somewhere. im not talking about milling down the hub of the car. i was talking about milling down the actual wheel. surely there is enough material on the wheel to take off a pretty good bit. and even if not im just rolling ideas around. the svt 5 spokes are my favorite wheels for the focus and i think it would be kickass to be able to run 17x8 or 9 on my car. if it wont work then it wont work, its just an idea.

im gonna see if i can work this idea out. stock 15's are 6 inches wide with a 56mm offset. i ran 7.25 inch wide tires on them (radials) with no spacers and the tires just BARELY touched the shocks. 1in = about 25mm. running 30mm spacers on the stock 15s puts the offset at about 25mm and they will still tuck in the fenders with some mild fender rolling. so if i run wheels that are 25mm offset and are 8.5 inches wide i could theoretically tuck them in the fenders without rubbing the shocks and have minimal fender rub. which, if my thinking is right, means the 17x8 cobra wheels would fit and i could still run a pretty meaty tire. or am i completely off base here? somehow i think im figuring up how offset works wrong because i ran some 18x7.5s with an offset of 42mm and had pretty good shock clearance and they rubbed the fenders a bit. but the fenders werent rolled tho. shit i dont know. i need to stop trying to do math right before passing out after work... feel free to put me strait... g'night
 
#39 ·
i dont think we crossed wires. We're talking about maching the backside of the wheel. if i removed any more material, i would start taking away the seat of hte lugnuts. if I removed 10mm, the lugnuts would pass right through the wheel. of course every wheel is a little different.

and 8" wheel would need about 40mm offset to be close to the strut.
for every half inch width, offset needs to change about 6mm.
example
6" - 52mm (OEM fitment)
7" - 45-49mm (accepted and OEM fitment)
7.5 - 45mm
8" - 40mm
8.5" - 35mm
9" - 30mm would be ideal, but i made do with about 23mm
10" -my race wheels have 10mm


edit: i just realized i have a lot of sets of wheels in just about every fitment(16x6 x2, 15x7, 15x10, 17x7 x2, 17x9)
 
#40 ·
i would really REALLY like to get more info from you on how you got those 17x9s to fit in there. because thats what i would like to go with. they look badass on the car and i bet they stick like crazy too. if i have to do some flaring on my fenders, at this point i wont mind. ill fab up some custom if i need to. did you flare yours out with a roller or did you have to cut and weld flares in? after flaring your fenders do you get any rub at all? its also kinda hard to tell in the pic but did you have to stretch the tires or could you run a full size tire if need be? im pretty well set on the cobra wheels one way or another at this point. its pretty much just down to whether they are 8 or 9 inches wide. it beats the hell out of paying over a grand for something else with a more "correct" offset that i dont like the looks of nearly as much.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top