and speed you up… 
Speaking of that my Coupe had wicked bump steer when lowered.:ohnoes:
Ok, sorry, back on topic.
Most of this thread is :picard:
215 width is way to thin for an 8.5" wheel. I’m ashamed I’m running 225 Azenis on my 8" wides.
There’s a difference between “barely touching the suspension” and “touching the suspension”. If its the former, you’re fine. Those distances are static. They don’t change unless you crash your car. You have to worry about the fender, but if you offset your wheels correctly then you shall be fine.
This calculator will fix you: http://www.wheelsmaster.com/rt_specs.jsp
For the love of god don’t use a 15mm spacer without extended wheel studs. And especially don’t use it if you’re worried about rubbing against your suspension, because you wont. And it would kill your wheel bearings and more than likely make you rub against your fenders.
I like to play with my camber at night when no one is looking. I give it a turn and a stroke and make sure it feels right in my hand. I like to make sure it doesn’t rub me the wrong way when its wet or when its dry. Sometimes, I don’t mind if my camber makes me rub up against something I should be rubbing up against but usually I like to see a bit of clear space to let it all hang out.
Oh wait…back on topic. Any usage of a tire wears. Camber wears unevenly. Toe scrubs and chunks tires. Bad toe will wear tires considerably more than bad camber ( positive or negative )
why would you buy such wide wheels and then such a skinny tire?
and careful with spacers, there comes a point where you’ll need extended studs.
It’s simply what tirerack recommended for an 18in wheel. And I haven’t bought tires yet, hence doing the research so I can make sure I don’t F anything up.
The rims have a 43 offset, looks like for s13’s I need to stay under 35, so I’ll have to get a 10mm spacer to bring it down to 33mm to make the inside fit correctly. Do I have this right?
honestly, i would just return the wheels and buy something that fits better without spacers. 18’s look like shit on s13’s anyway imo 
you should be looking in the 235-255+ range for tires.
but yes, you are correct.
check zilvia for more offset info though, i think you can run a much lower offset.
a little off topic, is there a way to measure camber using a tape measure and a bit of math? or do you have to put the car on a rack?
Why didn’t you call me when you noticed this? My SSR’s are only 1mm away from my strut on my S12 and the tire is just as close. Never had rubbing and I drive the shit out of my car, as you can personally attest to. You would have felt just fine after seeing it for yourself. If you’re concerned about stretching tires, c’mon, my Corolla is the king of stretched tires. There’s nothing that runs tires stretched like that and gets driven that hard except for the 86. Don’t worry bwout a ting mon.
You can measure camber with a good sized carpenter’s level, an accurate caliper, and maths (or Google). Ideally, you’d want a level that is as long as your rim is diameter. Say a 16" level. Place one end of the level on the bottom lip of the rim. Bring the level up so its running through the center of the centercap, and level straight up and down. Now measure from the end of the level, to the top lip of the rim.
Put into google “arctan(x/16) in degrees” where 16 is the length of the level (not the rim, the LEVEL) and x is the distance from the top of the level to the rim. This will output the camber angle.
This kind of sucks because its not all that accurate, and you’d have to remove the rim to adjust the camber at home. It would be best to buy a good magnetic camber gauge to stick to the rotor and is calibrated to measure the degrees with a bubble.