Jan 26th 2025
Everything You Need to Know About Staggered Fitment
Wheels for your car aren’t just about looks, they’re about upgrading performance, handling, and making your car drive like it’s on rails. One of the most common setups you’ll hear about when dealing with wheels is ‘staggered fitment’. What does that even mean? Is it just for aesthetics? Or does it really improve the driving dynamics of your vehicle?
Today we’re going to break down everything you need to know about staggered wheel & tire setups. Starting with: what they are, but also getting into why people run them, and finally how it affects the looks and feel of your car.
What is staggered fitment?
It means having different wheel and or tire sizes in the front and rear of the car. ‘And or’ because technically you could keep the tires the same width, and only increase wheel width, or vice versa; but normally, both will be wider.
Traditional staggered setups
Typically this uses a wider wheel and tire setup on the rear axle, compared to the front. For RWD applications, a wider rear tire translates to more grip during acceleration, resulting in less tire spin.
Velgen Classic5 - F:20x9.5 +32 // R:20x10.5 +45
The same goes for tires. You could have a 245 wide front and 275 wide rear. In both cases, whether the rear tires and or wheels are larger, these would be a ‘ traditional’ staggered setup - or simply just ‘staggered’.
Reverse staggered setups
If you take what we just talked about and flip it so the front wheels or tires are larger than the rear, you are left with a ‘ reverse’ staggered configuration. Of course, this doesn’t make any sense unless it’s for a FWD car. You might see this application would be on a Honda, or other FWD car, used for drag racing.
Volk Racing TE37 - F:18x10.5 +42 // R:18x9.5 +33
Double staggered setups
The final type of staggered fitment is ‘ double’ staggered. If you have dabbled in Corvettes at all you’re bound to know what this is. When the width of the wheels is staggered AND the diameter, you have a double staggered setup.
An example setup would be 19x10 front and 20x12 rear. Note how both the width and diameter are larger in the rear.
Vettes come equipped from the factory with a double staggered setup, starting with the C4 and going right up to modern times. It gives a unique look that has also been applied in other car communities. You might find double-staggered wheels on an S13, for example.
Volk Racing TE37 - F:17x9 +0 // R:18x10.5 +15
Why run staggered fitment?
Why would anyone run staggered fitment in the first place? Regardless of which type you have, there are some downsides, which we’ll get to. But first, the motivations to run them are:
- Performance
- Looks
Performance benefits
If your drive wheels have a larger wheel & tire, you increase contact patch. This means more grip, mostly during acceleration, but also when braking and cornering.
From the factory you’ll find staggered fitment on BMW M cars, GR Supras, Scat packs, etc… Basically any meaningful RWD sports car (and some AWD as well). The front tires deal with steering and braking - they don’t need to be as wide because they aren’t transmitting power.
If you have an AWD performance car, for example, a GT-R or R8, some of the power is going to the front wheels, however, these cars are RWD-biased (with a conventionally-mounted engine instead of transversely-mounted).
By keeping the front tires narrower you are able to reduce rolling resistance, improve turn-in response, and bring down the unsprung weight by a few ounces, up to a few pounds.
Depending on your use case, staggered setups could give better driving dynamics.
And they look pretty cool too
Let’s be honest. They also look pretty cool.
A wide stance with deep-dish rears and slightly more narrow fronts just creates a muscular, planted appearance for your car. Heck, you’ll even see modern FWD cars rocking staggered setups from time to time - just for those style points.
Vossen HF5 - F:19x8.5 +30 // R:19x9.5 +40
But make no doubt, RWD applications are their natural habitat. Oftentimes the lines of these cars, plus actual dimensions, will beg for wider rear wheels. On sports cars and performance-oriented builds, staggered wheels add serious visual drama. Even show cars and stance builds will often feature staggered setups for that iconic ‘super-fat-rear-tire’ look.
But the staggered life isn’t for everyone
Mustangs, Nissan Zs, and AMG Mercs are all perfect candidates for this type of configuration. Staggered wheels complement the car’s power delivery and body lines.
Unless you’re drag racing your Civic, we can’t recommend going for staggered wheels. Wider rear tires won’t really do much as all the power is going to the front. There could be a marginal improvement in braking, but the front mostly does that, too. A staggered setup could actually lead to understeer on FWD cars, making it harder to control in corners. Not to mention the additional weight.
Square vs staggered wheels
You should really be using a ‘ square’ setup on FWD cars. Square wheels and tires refer to everything being equal front and rear; that means wheel diameter, width, offset, AND tire specs.
You’ll find squared configurations on FWD, AWD, and a lot of track builds (even if they’re RWD). This setup puts emphasis on handling balance front to rear and gives the added benefit of being able to rotate tires. This helps get more life out of your expensive tires, for both street and track-duty vehicles.
Square setups give more neutral handling. In other words, the car is less likely to have understeer or oversteer, compared with a staggered setup.
But, how much to stagger?
Here, we’re talking about how much wider the rears should be. The tire size should be based on wheel size. This is a summary of how wide you should size the rear compared to the front.
Mild stagger
This is when you use wheels that are 1.5” or less wide in the rear. This is what we generally recommend for most builds. A mild setup like this is ideal for your street-driven sports car. Tires will be very easy to pick out, even if you’re trying to achieve equal tire diameter.
Work Meister S1 3P - F:19x10 +11 // R:19x11 -3
Aggressive stagger
A 2”+ staggered setup is what we consider to be aggressive. You’re going to find these on cars like a Porsche GT3, Corvette Z06, and sometimes on BMWs. This is for serious performance builds that make a lot of power and need some serious grip in the rear.
SSR GT3 - F:19x8.5 +37 // R:19x11 +31
Wrap up
Staggered wheels aren’t optimal in every application. Even if your car is built for them, they come with some tradeoffs. Here’s a quick recap of the pros/cons:
Cons
- Can cause understeer
- Can’t rotate staggered tires
- Adds weight
But the benefits…
Pros
- Improved contact patch on drive wheels
- Aggressive look
Some car communities are divided on whether to run square or staggered fitment. If you're part of one and can’t make up your mind, good news, we got resources to help you out! See if your car is featured in a Fitment Guide - we show both types of fitment when it’s possible. Or, if your car isn’t there, check out our Fitment Gallery. Still not sure? Feel free to contact a Fitment Expert to get recommendations tailored to your vehicle.
Regardless of what type of setup you’re after, we got it in stock. When you’ve made up your mind, our site makes it super easy to order wheels for square or staggered setups. For staggered, just pick out the front and rear specs you want, then order them in pairs with the ‘Buy as a pair (2)’ option.
If you’re new to the world of aftermarket wheels, or modifying cars in general, check out our Fitment Fundamentals section - learn everything you need to fit wheels like a pro.