Staggerd wheel set up verses square

I am looking at wheels for my GT40 project and all the GT40’s that I see have staggered wheels with large tires on the rear.

After a lot of reading, many believe that a square wheel setup on the track gives the car a more neutral feel with less understeer.

I’m building my car for the track so my question to all of you is this; does or has anyone run a square wheel and tire setup on their GT40 when tracking the car?

I’m looking at 9” wheels and 275/45 17 tires.

Any thoughts should be appreciated.
 
The short answer is: it all depends.....

It depends on the car, basically. Front engine cars with different f/r weights and weight distribution are different than rear engine cars with different weight distribution. Remember, it's not just the f/r weight, it's also the distribution of the weight that matters....and makes a difference when it comes to tire size selection.

f/r staggering is typically done for a performance reason. Many rear engine race cars have larger (wider) tire patch on the rear for a reason....better f/r balance.

And, of course, there's a whole world of suspension factors/considerations, designs, and settings that affects tire size selection too. It all works together.

I've run both staggered and non-staggered cars on the track.....and all I can tell you is that it depends on the car. There's no universal rule. I will say, I'm pretty sure you'll find non-staggered tire sizing on a GT40 replica to be sub-optimal on the track.
 
equally, putting a 275 on the front of a GT40 may result in not enough heat in the tire to make it work. Unless you do some aero mods, a GT40 will have lift at the front. A big tire will only make the problem worst. Ultimately, race cars run tires that make them as fast as possible, and conventional wisdom indicates staggered sizes, at least to some degree.
 
I thought I'd read that just the real early ones had front end lift and that was corrected by 1966. And didn't the bolting of the plate on the rear spoiler area keep the back end planted?
 
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