Anyone go from 17s to 16s??

[ruby911]

I am considering going from 17 inch Boxster wheels I have now on my '84 Carrera to original 16inch Fuchs. Has anyone made the change from 17 to 16 and was there a noticeable difference in ride, handling, acceleration, etc?

Thanks, Farrell

[sc_rufctr]

I haven't done it on my 911 but I did go back to 15s on my VW Golf.
I was running 17s for about three years and regretted every drive.

On 15s it rides great... Not sure why I ever considered bigger wheels.
I guess I bought into the bigger is better BS.

You would notice a difference for sure. The ride especially would be more compliant.
As far as handling and acceleration I'm not sure... but I would expect some differences.

Did you ever have 16 inch Fuches on your car?

Someone should chime in who has done this.

[ruby911]

the car had 17s on it when I bought it. I always liked the look of 17s, but spoke to a lot of people at my last DE about why my car felt like it was lacking some bite coming out of the turns when compared to my instructors stock engined SC. Many people felt my 17s vs his 16 inch Fuchs were the difference. So, I am now considering 16 inch Fuchs - I always liked the look of the fuchs better than the wheels that are on it now.

Thanks for the feedback.

[450knotOffice]

I use my 16" Fuchs for the street and my 17" Cup 2 clones for track work and autocross. The 17" wheels with the larger tires (225's and 255's) weigh about eight pounds more and I do notice a slight decrease in acceleration coming out of corners and a slightly heavier feel to the steering, although I suspect that may have more to do with the 225's I run up front as compared to the street 205's.

[ruby911]

thanks for the feedback 450

[Todd Simpson]

There are some very fast club racers that still run 15's on their SC's. The 15's are significantly lighter and give a distinct gearing advantage-as the stock classes require stock gearing, it's almost like an R&P change.

Now that Hoosier is selling a 275/35/15 I expect more people to ditch their 17's and 18's to go back to the 15's.

[Phil Blacklock]

My 80 SC came with 71/2"x17" front and 9"x17" rear twisted turbo style wheels.
Car looked great-the wheels really filled out the guards.
However the steering felt heavy and the car "tramlined" (followed camber changes excessively).
I swapped back to a set of 6" and 7" x 16" Fuchs and the improvement was dramatic.
Steering now felt responsive and tramlining disappeared.

[WIL84911]

Sorry to interrupt but what's "tramlining". Whatever it is I suspect that's happening to my car also with 17's. Thanks.

[Phil Blacklock]

It's when the steering wheel tugs in your hands as the road wheel follows camber changes on the road surface.
It seems heavy road wheels exacerbate the tendency-my 17" wheels were much heavier than the 16" Fuchs.

[WIL84911]

Yup. That's it. I thought I needed an alignment. Thanks.

[Noah930]

I thought the increase in tramlining was due to the width of the "larger" wheel, as opposed to its weight.

Certain tread patterns can also cause this. I had an awful pair of Nittos that did this enough for even passengers to comment.

[efhughes3]

I find my car to be much more responsive with 17's vs 16's. The ride is harsher though.

From an aesthetic standpoint, your particular 17's do not have enough "dish" IMO, and the 16's would look much better.

[88-diamondblue]

Agree with Ed on being much more responsive and more traction. I would have a really hard time going back to a smaller wheel. I have my original 15's but the ride actually improved with the 17's. The wife commented on the ride being better with out me saying anything. Rubber selection is far better with 17's as 16's are getting hard to find as well. Will not get any better only worse as has happened with the 15's. Yes there are tires available but not the extreme performance tires like there used to be.

I do think the cars look better with Fuchs or one of the replica options.

[450knotOffice]

Tramlining is usually related to wider tires and/or tread pattern. I have to agree that, while the steering is heavier with the 17's, it is also noticeably more responsive. I suspect that this has to do with the greater tire width and stickier R-compound tires.

[Dkennel]

PO on my car had traded in 16" Fuchs for 17" Fikse, very nice wheels, look great on the car, but I just purchased a set of 16" Fuchs wheels and will try them out. Wanted to have original wheels and have test driven a 86 Carrera with fuchs wheels (I think they were 16") that seemed to steer a lot easier than mine and handled very nice. Steering is a little hard at slow speed (parking) but very responsive with my 17", I do get noise from the rear tires (which is probably also the rubber more than the size).
I'll keep you all posted how things feel with the 16"....

[WIL84911]

I'm staying with 17's and would love Fiskes on my car but I know they are expensive. Oh well just thinking out loud.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I've done 15s, 16, and 17s.

8x9x15s were quick but didn't get a chance to evaluate fully as the rear offset pushed the tires too far out and allowed the fender to bite on bumps and hard corners at speed. There were very light and made the car feel like a go kart.

7x8x16s. These made the car feel very light and nimble and enjoyed the heck out of them, but found I could find the S03 limits too easily.

7x9x17s. By far my favorites. With both Victoracers and Pilots, I wasn't able to find the limits, they made the car very fast, but more importantly, planted, and predictable at all speeds. Sometimes ponderous at low speeds, but in a good way.

Going from heavy 17s (Cup II's with spacers) to 16s will make you feel like your car lost 500 pounds. It's fun for a week.


17s vs. 15s
My $.02



16s (only pic I have of the car with these)

[WIL84911]

Shaun, nice! Cup1 (no spacers) was on my list as they are inexpensive but hard to find. What size spacers are you using if you don't mind me asking?

[450knotOffice]

WIL84911, in my case, I have the Cup 2 replicas with the proper offset for our Carreras. They are called Borbet and have ET23 front offset and ET17 rear offset, iirc.

I found mine used and they were very inexpensive.

Also, my experience mirrors Shaun's. The grip and stability of the car is much better with the wider tires. Every time I take off the 225/255's on 17's and put the 205/225's on 16's back on, I have to recalibrate my sense of how much grip I really have - and that's with sticky Potenza RE-01R street tires. The car certainly feels a bit more tossable with the smaller wheels/tires, but the grip is certainly diminished somewhat.

[WIL84911]

Cool! Thanks! I'll move that up a notch on the list below Fuch replicas.