My '87 has dish wheels. I think they look OK, but the car would look a lot newer whth some different wheels. Also, with all of the variety of wheels available, it gives you a way to make your car look a little different from everyone else's,

A long time ago I had an MGB with chrome wire wheels and knock-off hubs. I loved the look of that car. Now I want to find come 17-inch multi-spoke wheels for my shark. I'll keep the dish wheels in the garage in case it ever needs to be restored to original.

 

The standard dishes look a little dull, but the chrome dishes really liven up and look great on the S4. I'm real happy with mine ,but I do like the look of the more open agressive Cup wheels with clean calipers and rotor hats.

 

The flat wheels are probably much better for top speed runs with less drag....turbulence

 

Bingo! They were designed at a time when the aerodynamic craze started, and everybody wanted to improve their products' aerodynamics (In Europe, at least). The downside were - at least in some cases - brake cooling issues.

Eventually they were able to measure aerodynamics with the wheels turning, and probably found that the difference between flat dish and open wheels is not quite as significant as expected. The latter is part of my theory why they went away - apart from customer demand/taste.

It's usually the accessories - mirrors, bumpers, lights, and wheels - that change because we get tired of them. But the bodies stay the same for a longer period of time.

PS: One more thing: The forged wheels were VERY expensive, and with the Dollar exchange rate leaving less margin for Porsche towards the end of the 80ies, they were probably happy to move to cast wheels - as most customers would not know the difference anyway.
Anybody ever looked-up what a replacement flat dish wheel costs? Ouch!

 

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Sounds like unless you need more space for brakes, want lighter wheels for decreased unsprung weight, or need a bigger contact patch (probabably all 3!), it's an aesthetic issue. In other words, unless you are racing, you certainly don't need different wheels, especially since they are reasonably light, strong forged wheels.

 

I think it comes down to personal tastes. I have polished dish wheels on my '87 and they're hard to keep clean and they look terrible dirty. They just don't make the car look sporty enough IMHO. If I had two 928's, I'd leave the polished dish for the Sunday driver and put 17" cups on the Mon-Sat driver.

 

I liked the dish style wheels alot back when they came out. And still like them today as long as they are well cared for. The only downside is they are 16" which looks small compared to the 18's and 19's on sports cars today. My car came with them and I decided to change them to the 17" cup wheels. The cup wheels really updated the car as others have mentioned. But it's really a matter of taste and again I have no problem with the look of the dish style ones. The fact that they are forged makes them even sweeter.

 

I still remember the first time I saw a 928 with the dish wheels back in the 80's. The car was platinum gold with like dish rims and it just looked so exotic and at the time so beyond my reach...I might as well have been wishing for a Countach. When I finally found the means to aquire my 928 almost 8 years ago I couldn't have been happier to find a black on black "S" model with those beautiful (and somewhat rare) platinum gold dish rims. I personally wouldn't replace them for any other...to this day I still find myself staring at the car with the same feeling the first one gave me.

 

Out of curiousity, what are a set of S4 chromed dish wheels worth? I have a set that I just took off the '82 in favor of C2's, and am planning on trying to sell them, but I have zero idea what the market will bear for them. They have almost new Dun(g)lop SP5000's on them and one of the tires has a runout problem, so the rubber isn't worth much on them.

Regards,

 

The only problem with the dish wheels is that they don't allow you to see the brake discs, which is fashionable as of late. In the UK, it is all the rage to fit Porsche wheels to your GTI; the 16 inch discs are the hot fit since they look good when chromed.

Frankly, I'm totally after a set of 17 inch phone dials-!

N!

 

If you see a set of 17" D90's in your search let me know

 

I'll ammend my statement. I think the dish wheels look awesome and apporpriate on the ('77)'78-'86('86.5) 928s, but the S4 styling calls for something newer looking. It would have been nice to have seen something on there that no other Porsche model had, but I like the look of the Cup Ones and Cup Twos. The Club Sport wheels are probably my favorites, but alas they are only 16x9". In a better world, there would have been forged alloys in 17x8" for the front and 17x10" in the rear available in offsets we can use.

 

I have the polished dishes and like them. I loved the phone dials on my 951. But I'd like some D90's or some C2's in a 17... sometime.

 

Handling...the 17" wheels use tires that have smaller sidewalls and less overall flex.
My car handled noticeably better when I switched to the 17" 993 style. More precise control, IMHO.
Abiding,
D

 

In earlier years I really liked the phone dial 16" wheels, they looked kinda like lambo wheels but better. I also liked the 930 turbo wheels, mostly shown with 5 spoke or alloy BBS type wheels. The GTS wheel looks especially nice in black chrome powder coat, and I personally enjoy the 996 sport wheels. Worfs rims on his avatar are seet looking 5 spokes.