WHEELS - I got my Cup1s on the car!!! First impression....

Now I finally got my new cup1 replica wheels on the 911.

First impression: WOW IT LOOKS FANTASTIC - THE CAR LOOKS MUCH MUCH FASTER, NEWER AND EXPENSIVE NOW!!! And all I did was replacing the wheels

A HUGE improvement over the 15" tele dials I used to have on my 911.

So what is there to report? So far I have only driven a relatively short test drive with the new wheels. It seems that the steering wheel vibrates a bit around 100 km/h due to the new wheels. The wheels have been properly balanced and I don't think the tires are to blame. A collegue (mechanic) suggested that balancing the wheels while on the car might cure the problem. However it's still possible that the tires are causing the steering wheel to vibrate. I remember that my old tires often caused the steering wheel to shake around 120 km/h when they were cold. As the tires warmed up the shaking dissappeared. Since I only drove some 20 kms or so in -2 or -3 degree C the new tires might not have warmed up properly? Also I believe that 911s in general are extremely sensitive in the steering and thus sometimes they feel almost nervous in the steering.

With the 195/65x15 and 215/60x15 tires the car was quite soft and wobbling to drive in fast motorway curves. This has certainly changed. The new 215/45x17 and 245/40x17 Dunlop SP Sport 9000 make the car feel much much more precise and crisp. In fact I now feel that the stock Boge dampers are somewhat softer than what you would expect from a sportscar. The steering is so sharp now that the suspension feels like it can't keep up with the quick reacting low profile tires. "The wheels move....and then later the bodywork follows".... But a set of Koni dampers are not exactly cheap

The reason I went for 245/40 rear tires instead of the often seen 255/40 was that the latter size can rub onto the car under certain circumstances. The 245/40 should not rub onto the car under any circumstances, I was told. For peace of mind I chose the narrow size. Anyway the car still look extremely good seen from behind.

I have sometimes read about wide low profile tires that tramlined on poor road surfaces. This is something that my new wheels also do. As I said I haven't driven the car for a long distance with the new wheels yet, but I did feel some tramlining while crossing white stripes and road repair patches. I think I might be able to live with that.

These cheap cup1 replica wheels weigh so much more than the tele dials they replaced, but I don't think it has any impact on the "power feel". The car feels as quick as always and the steering under parking manouvres is still resonable. I feared that parking manouvres would be hard work with heavy steering due to the wider front tires. Not the case.

I can't post any pictures right now, but tomorrow I will. Unfortunately the digital camera at my new place of work is a piece of crap. I used to get so nice pictures with the camera I borrowed from my previous place of work. I guess I'll have to use a normal camera and then scan the pictures if I want any good pictures to post on the internet...

Later
Mikkel

Going to 17" from 15" is quite a change. Before, you can feel the weight of the car in the sidewalls on hard cornering adding to you body roll. Your experience sounds like my own. After one year, I purchased 3 piece Fikse wheels. These were lighter, wider, and bigger then the original 6 and 8 Fuchs. The car felt much tighter, but when I got a chance to see my car being driven hard at the track, (my brother), Holy body roll. It is an important chain in the link of suspension. You'll have to go with adjustable sway bars, stiffer shocks and torsion bars, (which I did), to eliminate the remaining roll.

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8 9 9 1 1, The last of the line.

Hurry up and post that picture.

Here are some quick low quality pictures. Trust me when I say that they do not do the car justice. It looks incredibly good.

Outstanding...Add some crested center caps of your liking and it's perfect.

Mikkel, that looks awesome! Great choice on both the paint and the wheels. It's a great package, now. Well done!

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Jack Olsen
1973 911 T (3.6) sunroof coupe
jackolsen@mediaone.net

Thanks. I think the colour of the car and the wheels combine to make a modern yet still classic look. I like that.

The center caps are in fact with Porsche crests. Just not the coloured ones.

Looks great. Now you just need to lower it...

Mikkel,

Great looking car! The wheels really do make a difference.

Question: How do you keep your car so clean with all the bad winter weather?

Regards, Bruce

Actually I washed the car 2 weeks ago and since then I haven't driven it. We've had a bit of snow and the tempratures are below freezing point. So I don't feel like driving it more than necessary.

I have thought about lowering it. It would make it look seriously mean, but still I think I'll keep it as it is. If I lower the car the frontspoiler will be in constant danger of scraping onto curbs and the likes, and getting the car onto a workshop lift might not be the easiest job either. Also we have many "speed bumps" in residential areas and they are hard enough to pass already.

Anyone got pix of Cups on a Zinc-coloured car? I'd be interested to see if the silver wheels go with that more bronzey paintwork

Cheers

[This message has been edited by Philsy (edited 03-01-2001).]

Didn't someone a while back post the URL to a website where you can see what various wheels look like on your car, or am I imagining it?

A search of the archives might bring it up.

James

Jasmine Motorsport' s site offers this, but I don't think you can choose the colour of the car.

You mentioned getting the wheels balanced on the car... DO IT!

My car was wobbly above 75-80MPH, with the wheels balanced on the car it is gone. Now the only thing I worry about is a light front end. It was amazing to see with a previously spin balanced wheel how much it is off when balanced on the car with the brake rotor. One wheel was close, but the other was off by a few ounces and in the wrong spot.

Looks good! I agree that the wheels look good with your car color.

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Adrian Pillow
1979 911 SC
1966 VW Microbus
PCA - Peachstate Region

Well it's always good with some encouragement. It did spoil the happy feel a bit when I felt the vibration around 100 km/h.

Still I have no idea where to find a workshop that can balance wheels while on a car. And how much does it cost?

Beautiful car. Now just take the ride height down just a little and it will be perfect. I love silver on a Porshce. My favorite color.

Mikkel, I believe I may have your answer to the vibration problem. The same thing happened to me when I changed to those exact wheels. What I discovered was that the wheels were not centering perfectly on the hub when I tightened them down. These wheels use the lug nuts to center them and aren't very accurate.

What I did was loosened all the nuts then lightly tightened them. Then spun the wheel to make sure it was centered and checked for runout. (look at the tire from the side and see if it moves up and down) When it looked centered, I tightened them up all the way. I now have no imbalance. Viola! Give it a try, it may solve the problem.

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Tyson Schmidt
72 911 Cabriolet

Thanks. I will defenitely try that before anything else. By coincidence a Porscheowner from my local area phoned me 2 days ago to ask some questions. I remembered that he had the same cup replicas on his 87 3.2 (3.2 replaced by a 993 motor). I asked what he thought about these wheels and learned that his behaved the same way. He had even replaced his rearwheels to fight the vibration. Still it continued to vibrate, just not as much as before. Maybe it's a common problem with cup replicas

But the cups make my car look so damn good. I'm not going back to tele dials...

If it helps any here is the URL to the tire rack, where you can see your car with different wheels
www.tirerack.com
rgds Ben
PS anyone know a good source for speedline wheels new/used?