16 inch Turbo Wheels?

[yundar]

Hey There, Does anyone know off hand if the 16 inch Turbo phone dials will fit on an 87 NA that came stock with the 15 inch phone dials. I love the phone dial look and a local junkyard has come up with a set of the staggered 16 inchers. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Andy.

[J1NX3D]

Hi Andy,
You'll need to do one simple check. Your car is late offset. Phone dials came in early and late offsets, even the turbo 16" ones. late offset PD's don't have as much dish as early ones. Check your part numbers here:
944racing

[GTR34]

Greetings,

I do not have early phone dials, but I can tell you about my experiences of refinishing a pair of early offset (They only come as such) cookie cutters and installing them on my '87 NA. I've been driving the car for a bit now and there are no issues to speak of. Every once in a while I do get a small rub when I hit a large pothole or divet in a brick street whilst going a bit quickly.

Here's a chart of information that is very useful (Came across it on TheSamba.com)

14.0 Performance Modifications

You'd be in the same boat with me as it appears early offset wheels are all 23.3mm.

If you decided to go this route, I'd suggest selecting your tires wisely - select a tire with minimal side wall bulge and you're good. The lip of the rim is flush with the fender but as a result, the tire bulge sticks out a tiny amount.

If you want to be one of the guys that insists on OEM factory original, as-the-car-was-off-the-line, then I wouldn't suggest putting an "incorrect" alignment wheel on your car. I chose to because I like cookie cutters much more than phone dials and I quite like the look of my car, but to each his own.

[cockerpunk]

id stay on 15s, better tire selection.

[9FF]

One other thing that doesn't get bought up is, if you manage to fit early offset to late cars you are increasing the "track" of the car by about 2in from the stock set-up. This will induce more body "roll" in corners and bends so you really should up the sways also.

[racer]

Originally Posted by yundar

Hey There, Does anyone know off hand if the 16 inch Turbo phone dials will fit on an 87 NA that came stock with the 15 inch phone dials. I love the phone dial look and a local junkyard has come up with a set of the staggered 16 inchers. Any thoughts?

Thanks, Andy.

Turbo wheels came in 7" fro front an 8" rear. They came in "early" offset (10-23mm et) and late offset (50-65mm et). Stock tire suize was 205/55-16 front, 225-50-16 rear. most upgrade to run 225/50-16 front and 245-45-16 rear. Finding matched sets of staggered tires in 16" can be a challenge.

With an '87, you are late offset, so you need to look for late offset. if the offset is correct, they will fit without issue. Same is true for the 17"boxster/996 wheels.

The caveat? yes, early offset 7"s will fit, the effect being that the wheel is pushed out towards the fender lip. So, a early offset 7" on all for corners will fit. imho, its not the correct way to do it. I would think it would increase wear on tierods and balljoints because the unsprung weight is moved farther out.

[yundar]

Thanks all! Those two websites provide a lot of info. Looks like I need to find a late offset set of wheels to make it work right. I know the car that the junkyard wheels came off of was an 86 so probably early offset. They are the deep dish ones which would back that theory up. Didn't realize there was an early and late turbo offset. Good to know.

GTR34... I too like the cookie cutters. I have four of the 7 inch wide ones on my 74 911. I think they have that 70's race look. On the 944 though I really like the phone dials. Those deep dish ones look super cool.

I always thought the tire choices were better for 16s but sounds like maybe not? Will look into it.

[GTR34]

In my opinion you should do what makes you most happy. You seem to be pretty keen on phone dials so that is what I would do. They do look pretty spiffy when polished as well. I think what I would do for phone dials is get late offset 16s (if they're around - could those be found?) and use spacers in the rear. My biggest problem with my 15" phone dials was the amount of space under the rear fenders that wasn't filed, it sort of bothered me. Again, weigh the pluses and minuses of using spacers, etc. I think another neat option would be staggered BBS wheels. I love the look of those.

[Rasta Monsta]

Consider D90s. . .they fill the fenders, look sweet, and are a dime a dozen.

FWIW, I have had zero problems finding 205/50R16 and 225/45R16 in a variety of brands.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by Rasta Monsta

Consider D90s. . .they fill the fenders, look sweet, and are a dime a dozen.

FWIW, I have had zero problems finding 205/50R16 and 225/45R16 in a variety of brands.

Yep, some people like to on subjects that are completely clueless about. I too had no problem getting the correct sized 16" tires for the 7&8 Fuchs on my Carrera, and if you can get the 7&8s cheap from the junk yard off the 86, I'd trade my 7&8X16 D90s for them.