DANNiE

Ok so after some debate in the Turbo Forum; I decided to Email Porsche Germany Directly and I asked them Exactly what Size Wheels they NOW approve for Fitment on the 944/968...

To my surprise I was Emailed back Promptly today... In the email was a PDF attachment of up to date wheel fitments for all Vintage Model Cars as of 2/2008...

Now I dont Have a Membership to upload larger files so I just made a JPG of the 944/968 page... But if a Moderator or someone with the rights wants to upload this file to the community please do -just PM me & I'll email you the PDF- there is a wealth of great wheel size fitments in the file for 911's 959's 924's 928's & 914's

Here You Go..!

jsaindc

Nice, thank you.

MAGK944

Did they send you any 15in tire recommendations?

Lemming

"Wheel Size Fitment Ends Here..."

Don't kid yourself

Van

If anything, that's just the starting point!!

All it lists for my car is the stock wheel size - and I already knew what that was!

What if I want to know if aftermarket 964 cup car wheels will fit my car?

PorscheDude1

Not even close to all of the possibilities.
That's just a list of wheels Porsche offered for the cars during production.

DANNiE

They did not send any information about 15" wheels as pertains to the 944... But for other model cars I think there is...
Porsche Never had 17"s on the 944, Wish they did though...

This is a 2/2008 updated list of recommended Wheel/tire size fitments...

See I read the TSB about larger wheels on the 944 it says to upgrade the control arm bushing to the 968 one since it has lesser material...

None the less this is what porsche germany sent me as what they have "approved" for wheel/tire fitment...

Dont get me wrong the debate in the turbo forum was that the 944 was "Too Small" a car to fit wheels larger than 16"s many argued that 17"s were NOT recommended and the 18"s was overkill/pushing it...

So in my hunt for REAL FACTUAL information I contacted Germany... and this is what they sent me...

From what I gather is since the later 944's are just about the same as the 968's in frame underneath; that 18"s wheels/tires are OK to fit to the car since the 968 Turbo has them listed on the Chart...

Dont get me wrong I still feel that +1, +2, or +3 from the Stock 16" size is acceptable...

All this document does is kill the argument about 17"s & 18"s being "overkill" or "Too Much" for the car to handle...

Litespeeds

If I remember right, I think the absolute widest fitment on a 944 NA is something like 10" wheels in the fronts and 10.5" on the rears. This custom size was on a set of Fikse wheels. It was something crazy like that.

I think the best fitment for an early 944 na would be 15x8 23.3mm front and 15x9 23.3mm rear but it would be extremely hard to find tires for this and nobody makes wheels these sizes that I know of.

16x8 23.3mm front with 225/50/16 and 16x9 23.3mm rear with 245/45/16 would be the best if you want lightweight and find a set of the forged club sport wheels.

17x8.5 and 17x10 would be good if you want to go with a larger wheel but the unsprung weight is not worth the looks IMO.

Van

I didn't see the thread in the turbo forum, but there is a point of diminishing returns on wheel sizes on NA 944s and their speed on the track. Wider and larger wheels need more weight and HP to actually turn a faster lap time (utilize that extra rubber for grip and cornering G force).

From a practical stand point, you're wasting money (on wheels and tires) putting 285/35 R18s on the back of a 944. But that doesn't mean that they won't physically fit.

racer

So.. now despite having "factual" information about Porsche approved wheels, you will now assume that 18's are ok? huh?

The list also does not include the standard 16" rims for the 968? Does that mean everyone with 16"s is in trouble

ritzblitz

PorscheDoc

IIRC Porsche also has an updated oil list that shows only 0-40 oil (5-30 might be in there as well IIRC) is to be used for all cars ever produced as well

DANNiE

Obviously the argument of 16" wheels/tires isnt an issue at all; No one disagrees that they ever were... Not even me... LoL

However the Engineers & Rocket Scientist members of this site "Assume" that 17" & 18" wheels are "Not Good" or "Not Recommended" by porsche some have even had the ***** to say porsche advises against even 17" inch rims...

So this is just to bust all those peoples ***** to the point that 17"s & 18"s are OK by Porsche Recommended Standards... Thats All...

Straight 40 oil Sounds good to me; but then again I live in south florida where a cold front is 88 Degrees...

Next...

67King

First, thanks for looking this up. Second, I didn't read your last post in the other thread. Both of us got (WAY!) out of line, so I figured it was best to just leave it alone.

Having said all of that, I have to take issue with your extrapolation. I don't know how much you know about the four 968 turbos that were built, but they were purpose built race cars. Lightweight, full cage, all the goodies. Even if it weren't, the duty cycle of those cars, and the replacement rate for wheel bearings is such that the cars are NOT good comparisons when it comes to how much is "too much" for the cars. If you've got an extra 125 horsepower, 300 fewer pounds, larger brakes, and an infinite supply of wheel bearings, sure. The hubs might fail, too. I know that Racer's Edge sells beefier hubs, as they are a part that tends to fail.

Now, there are basically two reasons people put bigger wheels on any given car. One is performance. At some point you hit an inflection, where bigger makes the performance worse. Most of the SP2 and B-class 944's I see at races run 15" wheels, leading me to assume that anything bigger adds more inertia than the cars can overcome. I don't know what that size would be with E/F-class and SP1 944's, but the cars I see run 16's, 17's, and 18's. I've never seen anything bigger, but the guys on 18's are running 30 profile, and are already 1" bigger in rolling diameter. I just don't see any possible benefit from getting bigger. And as inertia = F(mass, radius^2), your inertia goes up exponentially with wheel size. FWIW, the E-class record holder at Road Atlanta runs 18's.

The other reason people put bigger wheels on there is aesthetics. Many of us who were commenting on wheels being "too big" for the small car were speaking purely from an aesthetic perspective. FWIW, that was what I was trying to get at the whole time. And as they say, de gustibus non disputandem est.

Van

I think that's only for variocam engines... Something about needing a thin enough oil to make the variocam pistons work in cold weather...