Fender flare designations vsM wheel width

Forgive my probable dumb questions...I'm just getting into my first 911 (a 72' T). I bought a book titled ORIGINAL PORSCHE 911 BY Peter Morgan. This book documents the development of the 911 from 63'-98' complete with body, tire, interior, exterior, and engine and chassis serial number info. This is a good reference tool assuming it is accurate and it seems to be.lP>My real question (remember, I'm new to this ground)is in preparing to convert a 72' 911T to a 73' Carrera RS look-alike I've been doing the usual research and find that the aftermarket fender flares refer to 9" rear flares and the book remarks that these cars came with 7" wide rear wheelsM Similarly, the 930 flare kits reference 11" flares and the early cars seemed to be equipped with 9" rims from what I read. Is the reference made by the flare mfg. simply the maximum wheel width that the respective flare can accomodate or have I missed the boat completely?lP>Thanks,lP>

Yes, 9 & 11 inch flairs will accomodate 9 & 11 inch wheelsM

[This message has been edited by RarlyL8 (edited 07-27-2000).]

The 73 RS came in two flavors, flare-wise. The 'Touring' version was only flared in back, accommodating 7-inch tires in the back, and 6-inch tires in the frontM The 'Sport' version (I think that's what it was called, at least) had flares front and back, which allowed bigger wheels -- I think 9-inchers in the back and 8-inchers in frontMlP>If you curl the lip of your fender (bend up the part of the fender that's perpendicular to the wheel), you can sometimes squeeze slightly bigger wheels (8-inchers and 7-inchers on an RS touring set-up, for example), but you're into hazy territory and some wheel/rim/tire combinations won't workMlP>Complicating things further, you can use a combination of Fuchs designed for the 944 in front, and for the 911 turbo in back that have different offsets (the distance from where the lug nuts bolt on to the center of the wheel, more or less) and will allow an additional inch of rubber to be squeezed inMlP>To see some of the steps involved in an RS body conversion, take a lok at my web site. I did something like itMlP>------------------lBR>---------------lBR>Jack OlsenlBR>1973 911 T sunroof coupelBR>lA HREF="http://members.rennlistMG S/jackolsen/Jalopy.html" TARGET=_blank>http://members.rennlistMG S/jackolsen/Jalopy.htmllP>

The most common RS wheel size is 7x15 in the fron and 8x15 in the rear. Do you want 15' or 16' tires and wheelsM Some of the guys are using 8x16 From the 944 front and 9x16 from the 930 Turbo rear, not every car will carry these (rember these cars were not made on a CNC mill they were semi hand built) I don't think there are any 9x15 Fuchs Porsche wheels that will fit the back of a RS style car. The 9x15 Fuchs Porsche wheel was used on the 930 Turbo and they had 11' fender flairs in the rear. I'm running 7x15 wheels and 195/65 tires on the front and 8x15 with 225/50 tires on the rear. If I remember correctly the 1973 911RS had stock front fenders with 9' flairs in the rear the 1973 RSR had 9' front flairs and 11'rear flairs and the 1970 911 ST had 9' fronts and 9' rearsM

[This message has been edited by RLJ (edited 07-27-2000).]

Hi Guys.lBR>Jack, the '73 Carrera 2.7, be it a RSH (homologation), a RS (lightweight) or a RSL (luxus-touring), had all front wings the same width as the 2.2 and 2.4 liter models; in the back they had flares the same width as the Carrera 2.7, the SC and the Carrera 3.2. Only the RSR had wider flares front and rear, accomodating up to 9 inch and 11 inch wide rims respectively.lBR>RLJ, the Carrera RS had standard 6 inch front and 7 inch rear rims, with 7 and 8 being an option from beginning of 1973, when these were homologated by the FIA. The 911 turbo never had 9X15 rear rims. Only some rare pre production prototypes had these, as they used the body of the Carrera RS 3.0 liters, which carried these rims. Of course, a 9X15 would fit the rear of a 911 turbo, albeit with some care as the offset is not the same as the 9X16. lBR>Yes the 9X15 can sometimes fit the rear of a 2.7 RS. The 1/8 inch spacer is removed, and sometimes the rim fits. These cars were handbuilt, remember, with the flares being hand welded on the narrow rear fenders.lBR>As a rule of theumb if a 6- 7- or 8-inch wide rim fits in 15 diameter , the same fits in 16 diameter. lBR>Hope this helps, GeorgelBR>