16-inch wheels on early-911

[rs911t]

Anybody have experience running 16" wheels on an early-911?
Say, 7J front and 8J rear? By my calcs, the diameter with 205/55 and 225/50 tires are a little less than a stock wheel/tire combo. I presume width will be the problem...

Greg

[ttweed]

Yes, the width is the problem, not the diameter. Without flares on the rear, you will have difficulty fitting any 8" Fuchs to any early narrow body car. With RS/SC/Carrera flares, you can run 8 & 9 x 16" Fuchs, but the 8" on the front must be the 23mm offset 944T wheels. With this combo and a few minor mods, I can run 245/45-16 front and 265-275/45-16 rear tires on an RS clone.

TT

[chuckw951]

Originally posted by rs911t
Anybody have experience running 16" wheels on an early-911?
Say, 7J front and 8J rear? By my calcs, the diameter with 205/55 and 225/50 tires are a little less than a stock wheel/tire combo. I presume width will be the problem...

Greg

Can 6X16 and 7X16 be run on an early 911, specifically the '69+ models? I have heard that one option would be 6X16 all the way around but have not heard of 7X16 wheels on the rears.

Actually, I understand the 911R 7X16 wheels will work, but those are very expensive. I guess I'm wondering about 7X16 wheels from the 911SCs. Are spacers needed to run these wheels?

Chuck

[marcesq]

FWIW:

Here are 7x16s with 205/55s on all fours, rear lips rolled:



I know that at some point the body changed from no flare to speak of to the "S" style flare which was the predecessor to the SC flares.

[rs911t]

Ok, now I'll ask. A few times people have alluded to 911R wheels. What's the deal with these? Were they designed specifically for narrow bodied 911s?

Greg

[marcesq]

Greg:

The R wheels were 8x15 and had an offset of about 45mm allowing for more of the tire to set inboard, and thus clearing the wheel wells of the time.

Regards

[arrivederci]

Hey Greg,

Nice seeing your car this weekend...good stuff.

I've been looking at moving to 16's as well. I'm planning on adding RS flares to my '72, so from what I hear, I'll have no problems with 8's or 9's on the rear. But the front is another story. I put the 16x7s (with 205/55s) from the front of my 930 on my '72 just to see how it would size up. I took pictures and posted them:

http://members.rennlist.com/jpinkert/Side%20View%20-%20Straight%20sm.jpg
http://members.rennlist.com/jpinkert/Top%20View%20-%20Straight%20sm.jpg
http://members.rennlist.com/jpinkert/Side%20View%20-%20Turn%20Left%20sm.jpg
http://members.rennlist.com/jpinkert/Side%20View%20-%20Turn%20Right%20sm.jpg
http://members.rennlist.com/jpinkert/Side%20View%20-%20New%20Stance%20sm.jpg

It looks like a tight fit. Lots of people say they run these without any trouble...but I think I'll have to roll my fenders, at the very least.

[Randy W]

Actually, the 911R wheel was a 7x15 Fuchs with a 49mm offset. Originally designed for the 911R to run wider tires on the rear, these wheels will allow a 225 width tire to fit on the rear of a early narrow bodied 911, with mods.

I have seen 7x16 Fuchs all around on early 911s with a 205/50-16 tires. I think some suspension mods are necessary, along with fender lip rolling.

The fit is different from car to car. I tried 16x7s on the back of my 70E and no amount of fender rolling or negative camber would have tucked one side in. I ended up with 16x6s all around and it worked well.

[Mike M]

I have flares on the rear of my 69.I tried a friend's 16/7 and 16/8
setup and thought the car did not look right. They fit OK,but the car had a kind of tractor look to it.It looked like no amount of lowering would help.I'll stick to 15/7 and 8's.
I've seen on this BBS in the past that others feel the early cars don't look quite right with 16's.
All a matter of taste I guess...

[marcesq]

Opps Randy W is right, R wheels were 7x15s. Sorry

[Todd Simpson]

Marc-S Flares? I didn't know there was such a thing, just the change in 1969 when the long wheelbase started. I think all 69-77's should have the same rear bodywork, with the difference being in individual cars.

Tom-Your car looks great, it's the first I've seen with 245/265's on 16's. Post a few pictures of it with those 265's on the back!

[marcesq]

Tod:

You are right. I just couldn't remember the year that the swb changed. CRS disease.

Thanks for clearing that up. I better get back to working on the 911 as I am 0-2 on this thread alone.

[964RS]

If you're tight for space, it's worth looking at what the different manufacturers say about the dimensions of their tyres of a particular size. In my experience Michelin make them really big so a 205 section tyre will be >220mm and Yoko smaller around 210mm. This can make all the difference when you are looking for the last couple of mm.

Steve
Narrow bodied 2.7RS Replica: (7 x 16 205/50 all round and LH rear wing blister sprayed out for the last time I hope!!)

Found a pic of the one I mentioned. Rubber is 205/55, 225/50.

[CamB]

The issue isn't fitting the 7 inch wheels - there are plenty of folk with 15x7" and 16x7" wheels. The issue is fitting a tyre wider than 205 under narrow flares.

I have 205/50R16s on 16x6" fuchs on my 69 - no rubbing, about 1" lower than standard.

[rs911t]

Thanks for all the replies. Good info, all. I was researching options to reduce sidewall size without making the speed and
odometers completely useless. The car's with the 16" wheels look fine. But, it's for another day.

BTW, Cam, that's a great photo.

Greg

[ttweed]

Originally posted by Todsimpson
Tom-Your car looks great, it's the first I've seen with 245/265's on 16's. Post a few pictures of it with those 265's on the back!

There are pics on my web pages at http://members.rennlist.com/tweedt/track.htm
The ones with the fully polished Fuchs are the 16" setup. The ones with cookie cutters or black centered Fuchs are 9" Goodyear cantilever slicks on 15" wheels.

TT