It's often been said that the wheels make the car. This isn't really true, since even the most expensive billet rollers can't save a ride that has a funky stance. But what makes a good stance is hard to define. When you see it done right, it's like the gates of heaven are open and spilling light down on the car in front of you.The PHR mailbox is stuffed with pictures of cars that are killer, except for a bad stance. The money is already spent, but the look isn't there yet.
When we talk about stance, we're really talking about two things: rake and track. Rake is the angle of the car relative to the ground. When buying wheels, tires, and suspension parts, most guys realize that rake needs to be built into the attitude of the car, with the front being lower than the rear. What's ignored is that the gap between the rim and the fender, which is more important as a visual cue than the angle between the chassis and the ground. Virtually every car built since the '30s has a taller wheelhouse in the front. In most cases, the visual beltline of the car is interrupted by the front wheel arch, but not the rear. To solve this visually, you must compare the space between the top of the rim and the bottom of the fender-as well as the angle of the chassis relative to the ground.
Track is the width between two tires on the same axle. From a visual standpoint, this looks best when the track is maximized and the outside of the tire is just inside the fender. A tire that is recessed too far into the fender looks goofy, and may even have a negative impact on cornering. Of course, the same can be said for too much track-you don't want so much dish on a front wheel that it negatively impacts scrub radius.
If you're running different diameter wheels in the front and rear (for example, 16s up front and 18s in the rear), it's really important to pay attention to sidewall height. Even if the 18s have a taller inflated diameter, it could still have a shorter sidewall compared to the 16s, due to differences in the aspect ratio. This creates the illusion that the front tires are taller. Most tire companies have this size information on their Web site. If you don't know the sidewall height, it's easy to calculate. For example, in a P-metric tire size, the first number (the "275" in a 275/40-17, for instance) is the width in millimeters at its widest point (275 mm in our example). The second number is the aspect ratio of width to height, so to find sidewall height, all you have to do is multiply the width by the aspect ratio (275 x .40 in our example). The result will be in millimeters, so you'll need to divide it by 25.4 to get inches (110 mm / 25.4 = 4.33 inches).
When all the rules are followed, the reward is a car that just sits right and looks like it's hauling ass even when sitting perfectly still. Best of all, getting the right stance doesn't have to drain your bank account. Here's how we did it on our new '70 Ford Fairlane 500 project car.