Today's 911 discovery (tires)

[Porsche-O-Phile]

225/50/16 tires won't quite fit under the front fenders of a '74 911. It's close, but they'll rub my a couple of mm. Admittedly this car has been lowered to Euro spec, but just figured I'd share. You're best using 205s in the front if you're considering it.

205/55/16 fits fine without rubbing. YMMV.

[Dixie]

Interesting. I wonder what's the difference between a '74 and an '88? 225/50/16 fit under my '88. It's below Euro height. The fenders have been rolled.

[stlrj]

I'm using 225 60 16's on all corners on my 74, but I did have to raise the front back to stock height.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Yea, it's irritatingly close, but the tire does touch the fender lip by about 2mm. It's that close. Heck, if the tires were worn, I bet they'd fit, but they'll still rub when hitting an undulation/bump so I guess it doesn't matter.

I may eventually try 225/45/16 if I can find them. The width is fine.

[Hebrewhomeboy]

With a fender roll and 951 8" fuchs, the 225 should fit on the front.

[Bill Verburg]

the way a tire fits has as much to do w/ the wheel, alignment and ride heaight as w/ the tire itself

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

the way a tire fits has as much to do w/ the wheel, alignment and ride heaight as w/ the tire itself

Agreed, and a lot has to do with the tire. When I had my 84 Targa at 24.25 in the front, rolled fenders, I had 3 different tire makes on it, all 225/17's.

Michelin Pilots: very narrow tire, great predictable grip/release

BFG SO3s: wider tires, always felt a little greasy at the limit.

Kumho Victoracers: very wide, probably wider than a Pilot 235. Never hit their limit. these were awesome tires after warm-up.

Jeff, you may need to roll your fenders to get them in there. Post some pics.

[IROC]

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

the way a tire fits has as much to do w/ the wheel, alignment and ride heaight as w/ the tire itself

Absolutely. I have 245/45-16s on 8x16s in the front with no rubbing.

[IROC]

Here's how close 245s/275s are on my car:



No rubbing!!!

[Hebrewhomeboy]

Holy crap, with standard SC/Carrera flares? What rims and offsets are you running?

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by Hebrewhomeboy

Holy crap, with standard SC/Carrera flares? What rims and offsets are you running?

245 on 8s want as much lip room as can be had, the higher the ET the more lip room but the less room inboard. All the 225 -245 on 8s will rub on the inner wall, at the wide end of the tires the shock covers need to come off, they can be replaced w/ flexy silicon covers.

8 ET23.3 is going to be really tight at the lip even w/ 225 so you need lots of neg camber too.
8 ET31 is going to be really tight on the shock covers w/ the larger tires

using shorter tires of the same width adds additional room

235/45x17 on 8ET25 is very tight, 235/40 has plenty of room on the same wheel

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Interesting... These are on BBS RS wheels, one set I have has the 205s, the other (built exactly the same) has the 225s. I'll post some pictures later. Maybe using different wheels would make a slight bit of difference but I figure it'd be pretty close either way...

[IROC]

Originally Posted by Hebrewhomeboy

Holy crap, with standard SC/Carrera flares? What rims and offsets are you running?

The wheels are old HRE Fuchs replicas with custom offsets. The fronts rub the inner fender well at full lock, but then again so did the original 185/70-15s on 6x15s, so it's effectively no different than stock.

I still have the stock shock covers installed (and no rubbing there either). I've run a variety of tires (mostly R-compound stuff) and nothing has rubbed. Many people running this combo report rubbing on the oil lines, etc. in the rear but I haven't had any problems with that either.

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by IROC

The wheels are old HRE Fuchs replicas with custom offsets. The fronts rub the inner fender well at full lock, but then again so did the original 185/70-15s on 6x15s, so it's effectively no different than stock.

I still have the stock shock covers installed (and no rubbing there either). I've run a variety of tires (mostly R-compound stuff) and nothing has rubbed. Many people running this combo report rubbing on the oil lines, etc. in the rear but I haven't had any problems with that either.

That's pretty unusual, to use 245/40x17 on 8 ET25 my shock covers had to come off, 235/45 barely clears

in back 275/40x17 on 9.5ET19 are centered in the available space, lips on the outside and trailing arm bolts and oil lines on the inside all needed work to clear.

I wouuldn't bother w/ any of the extreme sizes except on a dedicated race car.

[IROC]

Originally Posted by Bill Verburg

That's pretty unusual, to use 245/40x17 on 8 ET25 my shock covers had to come off, 235/45 barely clears

in back 275/40x17 on 9.5ET19 are centered in the available space, lips on the outside and trailing arm bolts and oil lines on the inside all needed work to clear.

I wouuldn't bother w/ any of the extreme sizes except on a dedicated race car.

Yeah, I put this tire and wheel combo on over 12 years ago and didn't know any better at the time. It was the popular thing to do out west (POC) so I bought some wheels and tires and just put them on. They fit, so I never thought any more about it. I just assumed they fit on everyone's car.

[911st]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

225/50/16 tires won't quite fit under the front fenders of a '74 911. It's close, but they'll rub my a couple of mm. Admittedly this car has been lowered to Euro spec, but just figured I'd share. You're best using 205s in the front if you're considering it.

205/55/16 fits fine without rubbing. YMMV.

It takes rolled fenders and negative camber to run 225's up front.

How much neg camber are you running?

Each added deg of neg camber should get you about .2" of added room if my calc's are right.