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As DR quite rightly says "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and when it comes to wheels and the 928 my personal take is that the car looks as though it was intended to run 18 inch wheels given it was ahead of its time on just about anything and everything. However, to my taste, the 19 inch wheels just look wrong- I cannot explain this so it must be purely emotional. I have nothing specifically against 19 inch wheels- indeed they look well on the BMW M3 for instance.
I think the wheelbase length is the limiting factor in terms of aesthetics. The 928 has a fairly short wheelbase. If the wheels are too big relative to the wheelbase beyond a certain point it starts to look like a cartoon. Which is not to say I think 19" looks bad. It's just slightly beyond that limit, IMO.
DR has the best looking OB 928 I've seen.
it really pops!
Its in the eye of the beholder agreed..for me its not just about the size, but the 315 tyre width on the back..
I think the wheelbase length is the limiting factor in terms of aesthetics. The 928 has a fairly short wheelbase.
If the wheels are too big relative to the wheelbase beyond a certain point it starts to look like a cartoon. Which is not to say I think 19" looks bad. It's just slightly beyond that limit, IMO.
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Puzzled as to how you conclude that the 928 has a short wheelbase- end to end it is quite a long car and the front and rear overhangs are quite long. You may well be onto something that explains my perception that 19 inch wheels just do not look right on the car. Cars like the M3 that are visually well suited to 19 inch wheels have short overhangs. Aesthetics do influence designs - ever heard of "the Golden Section" and the Fibonacci series? Maybe we can connect this to the discussion.
One thing people may fail to consider is the increasing stiffness of tires with shorter sidewalls. Going from 16" to 19", without changing shocks and springs, would really change the ride quality .
I've got 2 sets of 18" Porsche wheels. One off a Cayman and one from a Panamera. I think they look really good. And with nowadays-modest 8" and 9" widths, there are lots of tires choices.
All the pro racing 911s that I've seen locally use 18" rims. Makes you think why they stopped at 18.
Tire rules & availability are the primary reason in every racing series.
Originally Posted by GlenL
One thing people may fail to consider is the increasing stiffness of tires with shorter sidewalls. Going from 16" to 19", without changing shocks and springs, would really change the ride quality .
I've read that a lot but honestly never really noticed.
I change wheels a lot on my 928's, kind of an odd obsession of always playing around with different wheels on my cars. I've had stock 16's, modified 16's, 17's and 18's on most of my cars. Ride quality is also affected by the tire itself, the ultra high performance tires are stiffer than lesser tires in the same size. I generally never buy the top 10% tires since IMO a stock 928 doesn't have the suspension to make use of such aggressive rubber.
Also the endless offset debate. Right now I have widened phone dials on my 87 with the stock et65 offset. I've gone back and forth with my et52 & et55 17's and et56 18's. As far as handling is concerned, yes I could notice a subtle difference in tramlining, but again, so subtle the tires themselves could be causing part of it too.
Unless I buy three sets of the exact same tire and do the test, one is only guessing it's all from the offset. I'm also not a qualified enough driver to offer 100% actual empirical feedback in such a test.
Bottom line, the various offsets have never impacted my driving experience in a negative way. Even during DE's with my 79 which has modified suspension and I've ran some of the same wheels there.
Thanks. Have a Porsche 944 with 19" replica Fuchs wheel with the (almost) same tire dimensions. (When I have my 928 in Florida, probably will swap around the wheels/tires.)
I think, 235/35/19 & 295/30/19 tire/wheel is not a bad combination for older cars like the 924/944/968 and 928.
Porsche increased the tire/wheel circumference, I believe, with the 997/987 models, later wheels/tire combination might not fit well to older cars.
Going from 16" to 19", without changing shocks and springs, would really change the ride quality.
Certainly will be firmer - whether this is for the better or worse depends. (My 944 started off with 15" Fuchs, went to 17" Carrera 5-Spoke, and now 19" Fuchs.)
Aesthetics do influence designs - ever heard of "the Golden Section" and the Fibonacci series?
And perception too. Flashier wheels do look larger. Many/most who change their tires to larger sized tires also get "flashier" tires, which in combination may optically/aesthetically overpower the car. My Carrera Classic 19" on my 928 would look even more "stock" if in grey (it's on the To-Do-List).
And yes, I heard of "Fibonacci numbers", "Golden Section Numbers", and "Golden string" in my math classes. But these are in principle mathematical number theorems with at best some limited applicability in aesthetics.
12-09-2017, 02:42 PM
