hacker-pschorr

+1
Unless you are really hooked on original phonies, I see little reason to modify a modern 18" wheel with so many custom options available.

Group buy?

Coker offers some odd sizes, like a BFGoodrich 285/60-16

I think they still make the Goodyear "Bollboard" tires popular with the Cobra crowd.

I read about a "group buy" the Pantera / Lamborghini group put together years ago to persuade Perelli to make a batch of super wide tires for their cars.



This is with 255/50 - 16 on the back. This pic is from the day I bought it - those are S4 calipers too

ender928

Thanks hacker, that makes sense for some reason I imagined a large lip on the outside. Which I still think would look cool. Nice car and wheels.

Randy V

My same thought when I saw the original hypothetical.

hacker-pschorr

About the only option for a wide rear (that I've found) is the Hoosier A6/R6 race tire. Available in 255 & 275 @ 16"

Hoosier also makes a 255/50R16 radial wet tire. At $240 each I would really have to be in love with phone dials to go that route.
That's a lot of work & money to only have a 255 on the back.

123quattro

I like a lip on wheels as well. However, the welding is always on the backside of the wheel.

ender928

Im assuming that its done that way for looks? Or else you would have to powdercoat the wheels or is it a safety issue just curious.

MrGST

Here's a company that widens wheels:
http://www.weldcraftwheels.com/index-1.html

No experience with them personally.

123quattro

Yes. Look at the wheels from weldcraft. The welding bead is still there. You wouldn't want to see that on the lip. To do the front side you'd have to chuck the wheels up in a lathe and cut that back off. That could be difficult to do and make look nice. Then you would have to finish that surface. It would add a lot of cost to something that is already expensive.

That's the company that did the wheels on the Camaro at my house. They do nice work.

brad@tirerack.com

Sounds like for the cost and trouble you could just buy good knockoffs. To each their own, but I'd be sure the place doing it isn't cutting any corners.

123quattro

We only did it on the Camaro because he likes the Halibrands that are on it. For something that you can already buy in the correct size it makes no sense. That, and you start to border on what custom wheels cost so that gets to be an attractive alternative. I wouldn't have done it, but it's not my car. I'd have bought Fikses.

slate blue

The reason I bought the thread back instead of a new one was so we don't get a gad zillion threads on the same topic. I thought that is what we were supposed to do?

Back to the question at hand and why, the reason of why to use the genuine wheel is that I like it and I wanted to keep that look. The weight for the front is reasonable at 23 pounds for the 10" and around 25 for the 11" rear. They are a simple design that is also easy to clean which helps too.

The front would end up with 82 mm offset which I think should be good and with some work to the inner and outer guard the offset of 51 mm on the 11" rear should work out also. By the time I turn 6 wheels into 4, my cost will be a bit over $2K then add the cost of welding and painting. So my guess was $3K with some paint.

Unless I import them especially, there is nothing custom available and the magnesia wheel that is made for Porsches didn't have the right offsets. They were $5K a set. How much are nice set of custom wheels out of the States? Just remember that anybody importing probably has to add another $1K for freight and customs. BBS wanted $6K btw.

For the engineering types do you think the rim should be re-heat treated? I would definitely want the weld on the outside machined down. I would have thought they would need to put the rim back in the lathe to make sure it was true. Thanks in advance.

Mike Simard

There is no duplicate of the Porsche phone dial and besides, "knockoffs" are often 30 pounds of questionable roundness and quality. Some of the Porsche wheels are damn nice forgings and it would be ashame to 'upgrade' to 50% heavier crap.

Do any of those nice lightweight wheels in your GRM ads fit Porsches?

Randy V

Yes, indeed.

I'm guessing you have watched the video in the FAQ topic.

Jon B.

As for reasonable custom wheels out of the states I would look up CCW (Complete Custom Wheel).

Brad W

I had my phone dials widened to 9.5 rears and use a 1.5" spacer.
I too am thinking that 16" tires are going to kill my use of the Phone Dials. When it is time for new tires I will probably buy 17 oor 18" wheels.

Look at the gold with the 9.5" PD
Silver with 9.0" Twist
Black with 8" Manhole covers.