I swear I don't know how many time I have to say this. The front fender tabs are not the problem. The tiny lip between the 2 highest fender tabs is the problem. That is what the tire will grab and if you cut the liner and just bend up the tabs you are making it that much easier for the tire to grab that lip. As I said before do what you want but if you want 'no fender modifications" stick with AP2 OEM wheels and OEM tire sizes and don't completely slam the car and you'll be fine. Lowering the offset by 20mm and widening the wheel by .5 all around is enough to require a fender roll. If you do it right it looks fine but if you wait till your tire grabs it it will look much much worse and require a body shop to fix it.

 

Last I checked with factory alignment there was approx. 27mm clearance from fender lip with stock ap1 wheels and 21mm with ap2 wheels in the rear. The front is a bit more dubious due to the shape of the fender and mount tabs. Offset aside, when you run same width tires on a wider rim such as these rpf1, the top crown of the tire and profile is better conducive for clearance, its more pulled in, stretched in other words. When your talking 3-5mm of leeway, moving up one tire size to a 225/255 makes all the difference on whether your going to rub or not. Rather then debate this to death, if I were the OP I would install the wheels with the suggested with tires, and jack up a corner of the car and check the fender clearances on the compressed side to see exactly if its going to make contact and if so where, so it can be addressed either through fender modification or simply alignment or driving habits. This is a close fitment, but its totally possible. Back when I first got my RPF1, I didn't need to cut my rear fenders with a 245 on my 9.5 +38, but did anyway because I knew I would run 255 later. This is a significantly more aggressive wheel then the OP. But its all about the tire to rim width ratio, not just the offset. You have roughly same fender clearance by putting a 245 on a 9" wide wheel at the same offset as a 8.5" wide wheel, due simply to the tire profile/stretch change.

 

You didn't need a fender mod with 9.5 +38 and a 245? I call bullshit or you just lived with it rubbing or you cut it before driving much on it. Sorry I have rolled to many cars and seen to many with wheels on it that are rubbing in these exact specs. Sure you can run a crap ton of camber and maybe solve the problem in the rear but thats not an ideal solution. OP can do whatever he wants.

 

It was within a few mm yes. Was because the tire was a shorter 245/35/17 as you can see in sig, but was only lowered 1" at the time, so the wheel/tire profile had time to travel up and tuck/clear. I was running more aggressive then stock camber, but less then you are now.

 

I ran the 8"/9" with 215/245 with Espelir springs and rubbed both front and rear. This was with an alignment that was more aggressive than stock also, fairly close to UK spec. Front was fine until the day I made a quick turn into a parking lot and discovered it had a steep entrance. Blew out the sidemarker and fender grabbed exactly as described by Manga.

I think we can all agree it's borderline but better to be safe. Especially when doing the proper fender work will allow you to safely step up to 225/255 which is a better fit for the wheels IMO.

 

Wait wait wait. You ran a 245/35/17 tire? Thats a pretty important piece of info. You just love running tires that have next to no companies make that size. Or was that a typo?

So either you are misremembering or once again your S2000 is somehow magically different than everyone else's. It is things like this that are not helpful. A 17x9.5 +38 does not fit without a fender roll even with a 245/40/17 (no idea about 245/35/17 since that is significantly shorter than stock and not a good option in my book) instead of a 255. My guess is you cut your fenders at the same time "just in case" and didn't put any real miles on without modded fenders or you put very very few miles on before cutting them. Either way doing static measurements is not the same as what happens when the car is in motion. I am done arguing this.

 

Yep 245/35/17 and ran a 215/40 up front to match it with the 8.5 +40. This was back in the early days when I was experimenting with gearing on this car, there was no such thing as a Hellaflush and your Mom was still wiping your butt lol