I bought my 07 ss in April, and am finally having new tires put on. When the new ones got put on and installed on the car, the mechanic noticed that there is only a 1/2" gap between the tire and strut on the right side and probably 1 1/2" gap on the left. The right rear didn't have any spring compressors on it but the other 3 do. He wondered if this car was set up for the track or what was going on. So we put the old tires back on it.
one thing of note: the right rear was a 235/45r18 and the left rear was a 235/50r18. Does anyone have any ideas about this??

 

I can barely get my finger between the strut and my tires on the rear. I wanted to go from a 235/55 to a 235/60, but they won't fit. I also thought about thinning down to a 225 and see if that gives me any more room. I need to figure it out soon because these tires are REALLY bad.

I really wish I could get rid of these 17's and put 15's on so I can get some white letter Cobra tires, but I don't think the rotors will allow it.

As for your issue, it's always amazing to find the crazy things that people have done to old cars.

 

Spring compressors - like the tool you use to compress the spring to remove it?

That's definitely not factory and sounds unsafe. Gut feeling is it sounds like a poor man's lowering kit.

I'd definitely do more investigation as to what's going on there and get it put back to stock.

Definitely not for drag racing tracks as its going the wrong way (ideally you'd want the rear suspesion opened up more than stock, not collapsed).

I dunno what kind if racing youd want 1 wheel totally different than the other 3. Thats why it really sounds like either a poor lowering kit that maybe fell off or broke on one, or someone's hack job repair.

Also not stock, but TBH not totally uncommon- especially if we're going by the poor man's repair theory above. They could've got a flat on one side and that was the cheapest used tire they could find.

 

My Z had those "spring compressors" on it.. Didnt notice them till about a week after I had been driving it around.. Lucky I didnt die.

 

Ok. Finally got to replace the rear struts. The right rear was actually a strut for 16" wheels, not the 18" that's on the car. I misspoke when I said the car had spring compressors on it, their spring spacers, the kind you can adjust to open them up. They were on 3 of the 4, not the right rear. Long story short, the rear struts are now in, and correct for the car, the tires are the correct size and no longer an issue!

 

Spring compressors are only good for removing springs or disassembling a quick strut. The mismatched tire sizes wont hurt anything other than wearing the tread faster and throw the alignment a bit. I recently put on 4 Moog quick-struts and it raised everything a couple inches, which I like the results. I always forget how nice it feels to have new shocks. Congrats on your upgrade.