16" Fuchs for Early 911

[HarryD]

I am considering getting some 16" (16x6 and 16x7) Fuchs from my 1973 911.

Will I be able to get tires to fit in my unmodified body? What size tires are suggested?

TIA

[svandamme]

i have em , no problems at all...


http://members.rennlist.com/1976c38/index.html

[Jim Chambers]

I have used 4 6's on an early car with 205/55x16 with no difficulty. I used 55 series because I wanted near stock diameter for speedo/gear ratio reasons. You may want to go with 50 or 45 series. I wonder if 7's might be too wide (depending on tire size) without SC flares. From the post above, apparently 7's are OK.

I tried 7's on the back of my '70. No way/no how. I've seen others it worked for though.

[dd74]

I've heard 16x7s work fine - in fact they along with 45-series tires were suggested to me for my narrow body. A setup like this should tighten up the ratios pretty nicely. Plus there's a nice selection of tires out there in the 16-diameter series.

[rvanderpyl]

Sometimes....

205/50 and 225/50


Who knows why it works? Maybe because they are fachs.

[CamB]

I've got 6x16s with 205/50 and it fits easily. 205/55 would also fit easily.

Unless I raised the car or ran a lot of negative camber and rolled the arches, 225s would probably not fit (it all goes "outwards").

Gratuitous photo:

[tangerine911e]

My usual pic. I really have to get out more!

205/55/16 front, 225/50/16 rear.



Ash

[palle7688]

They'll fit. But remember that when you fit larger dia. rims the tire needs to go down in ratio. Say you have 185/70-15 and want to change to 16" or 17" you can use 205/55-16 or 215/40-17 otherwise your speedo won't indicate correctly (numbers out of my head, not sure they're correct). Any tire shop can tell you that.
The overall size should be within some percent.
If you're after wider wheels that's another talk and since I have a widebody (car, that is) I don't know for sure.
Most importently is wheel offset.
If the offset incorrect you'll have blisters 1½" up from your fender lip, or worse cut your tire.

[mjshira]

make sure you are careful in the back, you'll need major camber if you run 225 on 7's in the rear. Especially if your car is lowered like mine is. I would recommend that you take some careful measurements before you buy anything.

good luck

James

[svandamme]

anyone know what the diameter should be on older cars?
what's default? 15 inch with what tires?

[mjshira]

15, not sure, 165 maybe?

[Reg]

I believe the OD of the rim and tire should be about 25"

[svandamme]

OD? overal diameter?

[HarryD]

Originally posted by svandamme
anyone know what the diameter should be on older cars?
what's default? 15 inch with what tires?

The factory tire fitment? I think they ranged from 165 to 195's orignally in the early cars on 15" wheels.

[greenmonster]

Originally posted by svandamme
anyone know what the diameter should be on older cars?
what's default? 15 inch with what tires?

A nifty online tire size calculator is here:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

You can use it to see how far off your speedo will be when changing tire sizes and aspect ratios. It's great to see what the OD of tires are.

Sorry that's it's a link to a miata site. I know how you guys feel about miatas

[Jim Chambers]

OE size on earliest cars was 165x15. By '69 it was 165's or optional (later standard) 185/70x15. Both had the same diameter, about 26". I think this was true up until the advent of 16" wheels with the SC.

The standard rule of thumb is +20mm in width requires -10 reduction in profile ratio to maintain same diameter/gear ratios/speedo reading. Thus a 205-60x15 would be OK.

I have had success looking up a specific tire in a given size on Tire Rack's web site, then checking their "specs". You will learn the diameter of that tire on a specified wheel width. You can then compare that diameter with 26" to learn approximate % change in gearing/speedo reading. You can also compare widths with width of standard tire to get a pretty good idea what will fit your car.

[Randy Webb]

Here's my question -- how much ride comfort do you give up when you go from 15" to 16" wheels?

Conversely, how much better is the handling feel?

[Jim Chambers]

The ride comfort is a "profile" issue. Since you will likely have a lower profile tire on a 16" wheel the ride will be stiffer. Handling will be a bit better because of less sidewall flex on lower profile tire. Frankly, for a road car, I prefer comfort over the small increase in steering response. But I have been driving these strange cars for 35 years so my age has to be factored into my opinion.

[tangerine911e]

They'll be a fair bit stiffer riding. You'd need to drop from around a 60 profile on 15s to 50 on the 16s (depends on tire width of course!). No only that, but if you are looking to go for 225s (or even 215s) you would really want to look at stiffening up the suspension (a lot) to keep that rubber away from metal (and paint!!!!!!).

Up to about a 205 seems to work well on the early cars without a need to uprate the undercarriage. Cam's car looks great with the 16s and 205s!

On my daily driver I recently went from 16in up to 17in. Profile dropped accordingly. Big deacrease in ride comfort (not that I mind, I like it that way ).

Ash