.... because it doesn't pertain to any camaros at all. But I've got to know. Why do all front wheel drive cars have the back spacing they have? All of the wheel is on the inside. My 69 ElDorado has the same "flush" wheel design. So did Toronados.
The only reason I could come up with is that, because of width of the drive train & axle length, the wheels would have to be designed like they are to keep the tire under the fender.

I have seen a 67 ElDorado with 7" slotted mags on it & it looked nice, tires didn't stick out too far.

Maybe it's a drive axle bearing load issue?

Anybody know?

I'm tired of scratching my ass, er, ahh, I mean head. :D

It is what they have to to to make the u-joint fit and work. With a steerable drive axle, you have to have a u-joint, and that u-joint has to be in the steering axis. If you draw a line thru the ball joints, that's where the u-joint has to be. The bearings have to be outboard of that. It pushes them out pretty far. Then, the center of the tire has to be where the line we drew hits the road, so it has to be pushed in. Thats why the offset is like that.

Thanks Jim. So if I put say, 16x7's on the 69 Eldo it would probably handle allright, but might start eating drive axle bearings?

If you put on wheels with the proper offset, the car will handle great.

If you put on near zero offset wheels, like we'd use on a camaro, the steering would be very strange. When you turn the wheel, rather than pivoting in the steering axis, it would be running in an arc around the axis. The caster and camber when you turn the steering wheel, would do weird things.

The bearings would take it, that thingsa tank!

'course, you'd have to use the right offset, or the tires would stick way out past the fenders, right?

93 and up F bodies, and Vettes since 84 have also had that deep offset- due to the sealed bearings they use on them, i think.
either that, or the engineers did that to keep people from putting old Keystones on their beautiful creations.
imagine a C5 Vette with air shocks and 15X8 keystone Classic rims with L60 tires out back, and 14X6 Keystones with 215/75/15's on the front.
kinda makes one cringe, doesn't it?

The reason for the large offset of the wheels is do to the suspension design and the desired amount of scrub radius. Here's a little reading you can do to learn more.
http://www.hrsprings.com/site/technical/scrubradius.html

Thanks spitfire. That makes sense. My friend who had 8" slotted mags on his ElDorado said it handled like a slot car. He must of had alot of positive scrub I'm guessing. And for what it's worth, the car looked killer with those wheels & tires on it. I'll ask hiom if he can remember how it ate tires. This was back in 76'. :rolleyes: