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Bill Verburg Bill Verburg is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kroggers View Post
I see a growing trend for people to try and fit 18" wheels on their cars with very low profile rubber. Whilst a load of track cars are running 15" or 16"

I currently have the RUF SpeedLine wheels on my car, and whilst they look nice, they are rather heavy! I am looking to replace the wheels, and trying to understand what is better for a track focused car - is it smaller wheels or larger wheels, and why?
There's no one right answer, the interplay of wheels w/ trans & cwp and engine and chassis is complicated and there are many compromises that are going to be made made


For track use and only looking at wheels and tires you generally want the widest wheels w/ the widest lowest profile tires that you can fit with the lowest weight, that will usually mean an 18" wheel/tire it you are talking about an SC/Carrera fendered 911 something like 8 & 9.5 x18 w/ 245/35 and 275/35 x18 is going to be the max

but you could also go w/ 8 & 9.5 x15 w/ 225/45 & 275/35 tires

the latter setup has a much shorter drive wheel height which alters final gearing quite a bit from the 18" option and is somewhat lighter but it has an issue insofar as front tire width being a bit narrow wrt the rear but you are stuck w/ it because there are no 245 x15 that fit the front wheel and wheel well

now this might be an advantage and it might not, it will depend on the trans/cwp gearing and the chassis, particularly weight.

Most of us do a compromise somewhere in the middle
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Bill Verburg
'76 Carrera 3.6RS(nee C3/hotrod), '95 993RS/CS(clone)
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