Spring means new wheels and tires

My SC has been running the same 255/45-17 Goodyear F1GSD3s on 17x9 10th Anny Cobra wheels for over 8 years, so it was time for something new. I bought 18x9 Enkei PF01s back in December, and now that I've paid my taxes, I was finally able to get some tires to go with them: 255/40-18 Bridgestone RE71Rs.

When you add the wheel and tire weights together, the new ones are only 4 pounds lighter for the set. But I did this more for tire availability than weight savings, so I guess I'll take what I can get.

Looking forward to autocrossing a bit in CAM-C with the new combo.

That looks great, I forgot how nice those cars can look. I haven't seen a clean one in years

Wow...that is a pretty T-bird! Wheels look very nice on it, 4lbm savings is good too - every lbm counts!

Thats super cool!

Dude, going from 8 year old cinder blocks to the "Hoosiers with tread" that the RE-71s are...... You're gonna have fun.

Looks good too!

Glad someone is making/keeping one of these nice. Something a little different. Cool car man, nice brakes, nice wheel/tire combo.

Beautiful! What are the brakes off of?

Thanks for all the compliments. I know this platform typically isn't very popular on this forum.

My front brakes are Focus RS calipers (mechanically identical to the '00 Cobra R calipers, just a different color) with 94-04 Cobra rotors. Parts interchange FTW.

I like those Thunderbirds, it's one of the few coupes I like that can actually fit people in the back seat. (I'm tall)

Great looking SC!

Did you have to change hubs to get the Cobra bolt pattern? I seem to remember the MN-12 'birds having their own pattern.

In reply to snailmont5oh:

Yes. The SN95/MN12 bolt patterns are different, but the cars use the same wheel bearings, so the swap is simple as can be.

Will wrote: In reply to snailmont5oh: Yes. The SN95/MN12 bolt patterns are different, but the cars use the same wheel bearings, so the swap is simple as can be.

That's one of those things that just makes you ask "why the heck did they do that?"

This thing looks like the modern iteration of a lead sled and I love it!!

In reply to rslifkin:

The rumor is that Ford didn't want people using Mustang wheels on the T-Bird because the offsets are different. Not sure how true that is, given the Mustang was 4-lug at the time the MN12 was developed, but it's what I've heard.