Why spacers?? school me please.

[irl]

Why do you put these on your car, wider wheeelbase for performance? Cosmetic looks? Could someone talk a little on what they are and when someone would consider them.

Thanks.

[Canuck_Targa]

I put 21mm spacers on the back of my 84 to bring the wheel to the edge of the fenderwell, purely cosmetic, but that little bit looks so much better. You have to change wheel studs when adding the spacers, but it was a 1/2 hour job per tire.

[Bob Kontak]

I bought mine for the front only to give a bit of clearance with larger calipers. I think I bought the 5mm ones on this website, for which you don't need longer studs. Ended up I did not even need them for the calipers but I kept them on the front anyway

When I lowered the car a few years back, I found the front wheels would rub on the fender lip and I moved the spacers to the back. Just fills out the wheel well a little better but not that noticeable.

[5:04]

I've never run spacers since I typically buy wheels with an already aggressive offset, but spacers do the same thing. You don't change the wheel base, you widen the track. This typically makes the car feel more stable and in my experience has helped with the compromise of ride height and change of suspension geometry.

[hesaputz]

Wider stance/filling out fender wells
Inner bodywork/strut/shock clearance for tires or wheels
brake caliper clearance
making incorrectly offset wheels fit the car
changing the understeer/oversteer characteristics of the car

[KTL]

Aesthetically for a stock SC/Carrera with 16x7 rear wheels, the spacers go a long way toward improving the looks by filling out the flares. Do a search and you should find some pictures of people showing the difference. Here's a few that I recall

Wheel Stud replacement...A pictoral..

Anyone have 928 21mm spacers on a 911?

[Oh Haha]

I had spacers to correct the late model offset of my Cup wheels. When I went back to the factory style wheels I installed .25 spacers in the rear to bring the 8 inch wheel on the 245/45 tire out to the fender lip.

[911st]

Most people lower there car and or widen the track for cosmetic reasons.

However, lowering a car and widening the track do the same basic thing.

They both improve the angle of the center of gravity to the tire contact point.

This should help improve the tire's relationship to the ground in a corner and increase cornering potential.