Not having any recent experiance with the latest in tire tech, what are the opinions for staying with stock 18" wheels/tires vs. going with 19"ers.

Is the ride "overly firm" with 19"? Is the handling going to be noticeably better with 19"?
Thanks

 

i have both 18 and 19. the 19 is firmer, noticeable for sure, but not jarring.
if you track, 19" tires are harder to find and a bit more $$$.
for street, i like 18" also. why? if you have 19" then you will see the very tiny rear rotors on the cayman S. if the rotors were like the size of GT3 rotors, then 19" would really show it off. not so right now.

 

Our dealer told us that rear tires on the 19s last "about 10k miles". Not sure if that's due to the wheel/tire size/compound or just to the fact that owners probably use them up faster...but there it is. My brother went with 18s.

 

This may be of no value to some but one advantage of the 19" Carrera Classics on the Cayman is that you can easily wash the inside surface of the wheel behind the spokes.

 

Our dealer told us that rear tires on the 19s last "about 10k miles".
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LOL, i got 2900 on it, almost done. by 3500 i will get new ps2's (that's with 750 track miles).

one advantage of the 19" Carrera Classics on the Cayman is that you can easily wash the inside surface of the wheel behind the spokes.
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that's the 19" i got and that IS the reason i like this particlar 19" than any other one's.

however, the 18" cayman s standard wheel is just as easy to wash front and back.
here in CA, most cayman s comes with 987S wheels (additional $380 or so), i dont know why, but they are much harder to clean fwiw.

 

18"s for the street are perfect. I tested non-PASM versions back to back, one with 18"s the other with 19"s. Over expansion joints, semi-rough pavement, etc. the 19"s would be a bit hard to take after a while, while the 18" dulled the rough stuff down slightly but didn't seem to give up anything in terms of grip or feel.

Right now 19"s are pretty much for looks when street driving is concerned. I stayed with the standard 18"s.......they are easy to clean, look great on the car, make the brakes look just the right size (mooty is right.....19"s make them look a bit small), and best of all.......free! If you run out of grip with the 18"s on the street.......you are probably doing something pretty stupid!.....handling and grip with the base wheels is that good.

 

Has anyone seen the "painted" version of the Cayman stock 18" 5-spoke wheel?
On Porsche's website - Build-a-Car it looks like, instead of painting the entire wheel they only paint the surface behind the five spokes - leaving the spokes and outer rim silver.

Might be really nice looking - subtle but different. Expensive though.

 

I plan on tracking the Croc some, but for sure trying to mostly use it as a fun daily driver. Is there any reason (other than looks) to go with the 19 inch wheels? I have heard it said (but for sure cannot confirm) that the suspension etc was optimized for 18 in wheels--wouldn't this mean that for all practical purposes not only comfort but performance would be best with stock wheels?

 

64wrdgerz, ive been contemplating painting my future cayman wheels also. Im gettin my cayman in guards red. Here is a "skilled" photoshop of what it MAY look like... hope someone can do a better job than me. (car is from caymen.net member)

 

Wow -- what an outstanding effort on the photshop! This really shows the detail of how they would look -- thanks a lot.
I think I'll go for it - thanks

 

64wrdgerz, you must be kiddin right? about the photoshop job. Its horrible man! haha

I wish someone would do a better job than I.

What color were you thinkin of gettin?

 

Well -- the idea was the outstanding effort because talking to Pcar salesguy is frustrating at times when trying to get factory photos of these obscure options. "You just have to trust me - they'll look great!" Now, gimme your $1,250.

I finally (at least for now) decided to go Atlas Grey with Sand beige. I saw this combination at the dealer and it was awesome. I'm also going to have the trim strip across the dash, the instrument surround and the trim round the shifter painted in exterior color. So painting the standard wheels out will finish it off.

 

sounds good 64wrd!

 

The 19" wheels with standard suspension ride very well and fill up the wheel wells the right way. Normally I would say 18", but the ride in this car is very well behaved and not jarring at all with the 19s, in fact it rides much much better than my old 993 with 18s. I would say 19" Carrera Classic all the way.