New 18" wheel line, give me your thoughts, PHOTOS

[Wheel Dynamics]

Give me your feedback please....

We are bringing in our own wheel line this year and will introduce two new designs minded towards the early Porsche customers that most other wheel manufactures have lost sight of.

We are in the final development stage of introducing the new 18x8.5 & 18x9.5 Porsche direct application for the early 993/964/928/944 and even the early 911 cars.

The wheels are scheduled to hit the US shores sometime around June 2012, and so I'm looking for a few of you who might be interested in sharing your vehicle for a fitment or who might be in the market for a set.

Let me know what you think about the design. Sorry I know the photos are a bit raw. The color is gun-metal in the centers.





Thank you for your feedback!

[flash968]

i love to see new stuff, and those are pretty enough for sure. they look like sport classic 2s. i have a similar design on my denali and i like it.

that being said, 18s are pretty dicey for a 944. porsche issued a memo warning against doing that. for the street it may or may not be an issue. many people are doing it, though they may not realize what the problems are.

a first consideration would be weight. how much do they weigh? heavy wheels mean a slower car starting and stopping. for an already underpowered 944 that could be a bummer. for the higher powered 928 and such it won't be such an issue.

good on ya though either way

[9FF]

Those look good, 17's would be better for the 944's. Forged? Weights? Estimated price point? US distributor?

[GorillaFoot]

I second that. Pretty wheels and a classic look, but you'll need 17's to hit all of the 944 and much of the 911, 964 and 993 market. Along with mechanical reasons, and maybe it's just me, but anything larger than a 17 looks a little odd on our cars.

[mytrplseven]

I bought a set of 18's a year ago and they rubbed the rear outer lip of fender well. I agree that the 17's look much better for this car. Mine are now from a Cayman. my car is an '87 and required a 1/4" spacer on the front due to the rounded shoulder on the hub. Keep that in mind for the later (85 1/2 and up) cars.

[73Javelin]

The above poster's front fitment issue is only an issue on 87 and later 944's. The 85.5 and 86 still use the same backspacing and shoulder designs as the early 85 and older cars.

To the OP: The wheels look good, but 18's are too big for a 944. You won't sell many. 17's is the absolute max these cars can handle. Even then, realistically, 16's would probably be even better, although there's no good staggered tires in that size.

[Rasta Monsta]

Originally Posted by 73Javelin

16's would probably be even better, although there's no good staggered tires in that size.

Hankook RS3

[johnkoawood]

So you all feel this: OE 16 inch PDs


looks better than this: OE 17 inch Boxter / Carrera twist style


Which looks better than this: OE 18 inch MY02


And before anyone asks, YES all 3 tire sets are within 1/4 inch diameter of each other, and speedometer is acurate to well above postes speed limits...

I am a fan of 18s on the 944 family, but they have to look right for the car... and IMHO the BBs SC2 style shown would look great on a dark 944... light car not so much, but to each his own.

Now if only they were available for late offset... oh wait...

[Wheel Dynamics]

While I understand there may be some concerns regarding 18" wheels on early production cars believe it or not we receive more request for 18" wheels for the 944/968 than we do for 17" & 16" wheels.

Most customers we receive calls or E-mails from express interest in updating the look of their Porsche cars by increasing the diameter of the wheels and absorbing the difference in a smaller tire size.

Since we only had a pre-production sample (back-spacing not to spec.) we don't have exact wheel weights just yet but "estimate" them to be around 24-front 27-rear.

They are manufactured using a low-pressure cast technique commonly found on most OEM wheels these days.

I'm providing some sample photos of 18" on 944/968 cars from our customers.

Thank you for your feedback, please add more.





Also added a 928 in the mix:

[73Javelin]

Originally Posted by Rasta Monsta

Hankook RS3

I run R-S3's. I said staggered tires. Meaning one size on the nose, and a larger size in the rear. 911 and 951 guys are dying to get decent staggered 16's, which is why the 16" Fuchs are so cheap compared to the 15's or even the aftermarket 17's.

[9FF]

While I understand there may be some concerns regarding 18" wheels on early production cars believe it or not we receive more request for 18" wheels for the 944/968 than we do for 17" & 16" wheels....

18's will fit but Porsche do not recommend them for these cars. Even with 17" Porsche issued a tech bulletin that required changing a couple of critical suspension parts and changing the castor. I know lots of people have 18's on the early cars but I hope they just didnt slap them on, align and go. There's a bit more to it than that if you do it safely and correctly.

[73Javelin]

To both of the pic posts posted above:

Yes, the 18's in all of those pictures look too large. The 17's look just right, IMO.

And for anybody that cares at all about performance, the 18's will never do. Most of us have lowered suspensions and want to run a wider wheel and tire.

Make a good 17" set where we can run the common staggered sizes (like 245's and 275's), and they will sell very well to the track guys. 18" blingers that are barely wide enough to fit a 225 without rubbing will only go over well with the show crowd. They'll sell them off after a few ball joints break...

[RM512]

I'm also a 17" fan. At those weights, I would probably stick with oem.

[johnkoawood]

Originally Posted by 73Javelin

And for anybody that cares at all about performance, the 18's will never do. Most of us have lowered suspensions and want to run a wider wheel and tire.

While my 951 is late offset, it is also significantly lower than most others I have worked on or seen.. as in 1.5 inches lower than in the picture at last adjustment.

And I have little issues with either the 245s in front or 295s in rear...

Perhaps I am missing your performance reference, as these wheels and tires are lighter than the narower 17s pictured per wheel with tire. The wider tire, while increasing rolling resistance, also has stiffer sidewall... little to no concern on a modified car.

FWIW, in my pictures, the fronts are 8 inch wide, rears are 10..

As it pertains to the OP posting of the wheels being offered...again not sure why you would say a 9.5 (or 8.5 for that matter) is "barely wide enough to fit a 225"..

While it is MUCH easier to adapt late offset to accept safely 18 inch wheels, it isn't impossible for early cars..

[Streetcrawler]

I run 18s on my 951 and love them. 9s in front and 10s in the rear. They have seen lots of track time and been on this car for many years.

Would love to see more 18" choices out there, especially if there were a wide deep dish set up for early cars Those charcoal grey ones could look pretty sweet on a red 951!

"Porsche" would not approve of many things we do to these cars. Certainly not all the power enhancers, brake and suspension mods So why should the wheel sizes be any different?

[9FF]

..."Porsche" would not approve of many things we do to these cars. Certainly not all the power enhancers, brake and suspension mods So why should the wheel sizes be any different?

On the wheels it is more to do with the inferior spindles, hubs and bearings Porsche used on the pre-87 944's. They obviously thought better on the later models and made them bigger and beefier when they went to late offset. The castor blocks and camber bolts were also uprated for the turbo-s and 968 I think for the same reason - to safely control a bigger wheel.

[Streetcrawler]

Originally Posted by 9FF

On the wheels it is more to do with the inferior spindles, hubs and bearings Porsche used on the pre-87 944's. They obviously thought better on the later models and made them bigger and beefier when they went to late offset. The castor blocks and camber bolts were also uprated for the turbo-s and 968 I think for the same reason - to safely control a bigger wheel.

Well, to be honest the diameter of the rim alone has little to due with the ultimate stress. You run much higher stresses with race tires even on a smaller wheel than you the same total rolling diameter tire/ wheel combo, with relatively slick street tires on a bigger diameter rim. It's all about the leverage that can be generated. You will put much more stress through the components under track use and sticky tires.

Also, when was the Porsche publication written? (edit, it was 1993 and nowhere did it say "dont use an 18" wheel, it speced out how to run a Porsche brand wheel)

Did any Porsche at that point come with a factory 18" or larger wheel?

What is the official Porsche stance on running a bigger turbo? Bigger injectors? Bigger brakes? Bigger sway bars? Coil overs? Rear torsion delete? Bigger intercooler? Deleting the cat, race seats? How about the use of modern paints?

My point is simply that just because there is a very old document that says Porsche approves of something, it's not the ultimate answer to whether many current builders of these cars would like to run an 18" wheel....or a hundred other things Porsche did not approve of.

[Streetcrawler]

Originally Posted by 9FF

18's will fit but Porsche do not recommend them for these cars. Even with 17" Porsche issued a tech bulletin that required changing a couple of critical suspension parts and changing the castor. I know lots of people have 18's on the early cars but I hope they just didnt slap them on, align and go. There's a bit more to it than that if you do it safely and correctly.

I don't see here where Porsche is advising against the use of 18" wheels. All the document seems to do is tell the technician how to set up the alightment And fitting with a specific Porsche brand set of 17" wheels.

Unless all you guys running 17s have rolled your fenders, installed these spacers, and alignment blocks with these specific wheels and tires, then you are also running non Porsche recommended wheels.

How many of these specific tires are still available today?

This document is also specific to 944 with M30 option. So unless your 944 has M30 then you you are outside the rules too!

[Cocacolakidd]

17" max. they look better, they ride better, and it's much easier to set-up my 944 to run 17" rims than to go even further out for 18" rims.

Back in the 1800's when Americans were heading west in their Covered Wagons they had the larger spooked wheels - To large of a rim on a 944 looks like a old wagon rim...

Can you please them all and have 17's and 18's ??

My .02

[Streetcrawler]

Originally Posted by Cocacolakidd

17" max. they look better, they ride better, and it's much easier to set-up my 944 to run 17" rims than to go even further out for 18" rims.

I love the "ride better" argument. In this case you are talking the difference of 0.5" of sidewall. Tire choice alone can make a world of difference here a hard worn out 16" tire will ride much worse than a new soft better compound 19" tire. It's just not as simple as "larger wheel = poor ride"

I've been in cars with 15s that rode like crap and cars with 22" that we're a dream. There are a lot of variables to take into account.

Also, personally I like a more precision driving experience and not the slop that comes with large soft side walls. You an have a 16 or 17 with an extremely stiff performance sidewall that will ride much harser than an 18" with a softer sidewall, and vise versa. It's all in the tire choice.