928porschepatrick

I currently have 16 inch wheels,but I was thinking chance to 18 inch.
I see many of you drive 18"
What's your experience with 18" tires? when it comes to comfortable ride.

Thanks for advice

123quattro

The ride will definitely get harsher. The handling will be less mushy and you'll have better tire selection for high performance stuff. I wouldn't upgrade unless you wanted to move to ultra high performance summer only tires.

AO

I think John hit on the issues perfectly. Plus I think they update the look of the car.

Mattman928

On my GT I had the factory wheels, and was frustrated with the ride (soft in the corners, etc.). So I purchased and installed a Bilstein/Eibach setup. Loved the ride! Then I upgraded to 18" wheels, and the ride got so harsh that I removed the B/E setup. I now love the ride. It's definitely harsher than factor setup, but I love the handling (especially for the few outings I had at the track).

I recommend it. Also, in my personal opinion, the factory wheels emasculate these cars!

Tampa 928s

86 has 16's
85 has 18's

I preferred the 16's, better ride but less selection, you have to ask how many times will you be doing 135 sustained driving. Although the wheel selections are great with the 18's. If I could find some decent rims in the 16 size I would jump on that!

928porschepatrick

I have installed a red Koni/stock spring setup wil that be good enough or do i have to chance the stock spring to... ..??
Any tire recommend for 18"

Green Goblin

Go with 17's, i have a set and it has a great ride quality and handling, kind of the best of both worlds. i also have the B/E set up and its great.

Just my .02

Andy
83 Euro

z driver 88t

Kind of my thought on it. Mine is driven several days a week. Love the look of 18s and selection of tires, but will probably go with 17s later this year if I can find some I like.

Cosmo Kramer

^^^ What Andy said, I have had 16's, 18's and have settled on 17" Cup 2's. BTW even with a supercharger and no LSD I still got decent traction with 225/50 16's on the back. The super wide rears with a ton of front/rear stagger isn't necessary on a car with 50 - 50 weight distribution, unfortunately a lot of the modern wheels available to us are off 911's.

brianrheffron

I have 16, 17 and 18" wheel sets.
My 89 S4 was far too harsh on 18" wheels.
Changing to 17"s brought a big improvement
to ride quality so much so that I bought a set of 16" D90s
and am looking forward to getting them on.
The downside is that there isn't a good selection of tyres
especially if you stray away from the premium brands
like Michelin and Continental.
One other point is that the 928 was designed for 16 wheels
with 50/45 section tyres. This means that a good proportion
of suspension compliance is in the sidewall of the tyres and
that the bushes are relatively stiff. Modern cars with large
dia. wheels and very low profile tyres have much more compliant
( i.e. soft) suspension bushes to make up for the stiff tyre sidewalls.

Randy V

Go with 18s.

Updates the look of the car.

Improves handling significantly

Much larger selection of tires (and cheaper) in 18" size.

xschop

18's and bigger brakes.

Don Carter

Honestly, I've been having 2nd thoughts lately about my 18's. Not sure if it's just me, but after almost 2 years, I've had the following issues:

Balancing - have a hard time getting the wheels to balance, and stay balanced, always seem to have some slight shake in the steering wheel.

Curb rash - Much easier to brush up against a curb with the wider wheels.

Bent wheel - same wheel as the curb rash, so maybe caused by brushing a curb. These wheels do bend easier than the stock ones though.

Tire noise - My tires have gotten REAL loud in the last month or two. Maybe unrelated to wheel size, but you can't rotate the tires after you go wider in the back, maybe related.

Higher Tire cost - obviously

I love the way the wheels look and handle, and I don't find the ride any harsher, but sometimes I miss the simplicity and low maintenance of the stock setup.

Speedtoys

I wouldnt be so quick to blame curb rash on the wheels.

You're the driver.


Tire noise is by brand..not by size. Its the tread patterns.

Leon Speed

Aside from the looks, 18 inch are nice when it comes to handling. They will rattle your teeth out if you have old shocks. With new shocks the ride is not harsh. THe roads in Holland are very good, no potholes (when winter is over ).