I dunno, Brian... I kinda like the way it looks. Maybe a little too "black-rubber-band", but not too bad. And I really like the lower gearing and less sidewall deflection for autoXing.
But, to answer the original poster's question, the 195/50 WILL change the gearing and the speedometer (and odometer) readings. The speedometer will read higher than the speed you are actually going. You may also find yourself turning 3500-4000 RPMs to keep up with freeway traffic--which gets old after a short while. Neither the 50-series, the 60-series, nor the 65-series should rub the stock fenders on most cars. There are specific exceptions, but they are pretty rare. I am not counting tires that rub the inside of the front fenders behind the shock mounts when the steering wheel is turned full-lock; lots of 914s seem to do this with 195s of any kind.
The 195/65 in theory has almost exactly the same diameter as the stock tires (165/78). However, the selection of tires (at least those shown on
http://www.tirerack.com ) is pretty limited in that size. The 195/60 is still pretty close to the stock diameter, and the selection is much better.
The 60-series are in theory just under 4% smaller than the stock tires, while the 65-series are in theory just under 1% smaller than the stock tires. By contrast the 50-series is about 10% smaller than stock. The diameter is what determines the gearing and speedometer/odometer error.
I say "in theory" because actual diameters vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and from tire model to tire model.
--DD
[This message has been edited by Dave_Darling (edited 04-26-99).]