When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
World's Largest Retailer/Distributor of BBS Motorsport & Street Wheels from 2015-2023
Huge Inventory: BBS, Kline, Brembo, Soul, Recaro, KW, Akrapovic & 200+ brands. Installation available ** Retail & Wholesale ** Global Delivery ** We match/beat any authorized dealer's price **
Your all have some amazing wheels on your 911s and I have learned a lot about what options are available and also the various fitments that would work on these cars. I do however have to admit I am a newb when it comes to wheels, fitment, and suspension so I wanted to ask you more experienced guys (and gals) a few questions.
1. If I wanted to keep my OEM tires which I believe are 245/35 ZR 20 for the front 8.5" wheels and 305/30 ZR 21 for the rear 11.5" wheels, what is the largest aftermarket wheels I can get that could safely fit these tires? Would 9" and 12" work?
2. If I kept stock wheels widths (8.5" and 11.5") what would be the best offset to get the wheels as flush as possible without using spacers and have no rubbing?
3. I see a lot of you guys also lowered your 992 as well. If I do not plan on tracking my car, would it be ok to just use lowering springs or height adjustable springs as opposed to coilovers? I know many say coilovers are the best way to go but just not sure I would want to dish out $4k for something like the bilstein eco coilover kit. I believe I saw someone say on a suspension thread that getting simple lowering springs could degrade your OEM shocks faster. Is that true even if you have no plans to track the car? If it is true would height adjustable springs be a better option?
Thank you all in advance for your comments and insights!
Your all have some amazing wheels on your 911s and I have learned a lot about what options are available and also the various fitments that would work on these cars. I do however have to admit I am a newb when it comes to wheels, fitment, and suspension so I wanted to ask you more experienced guys (and gals) a few questions.
1. If I wanted to keep my OEM tires which I believe are 245/35 ZR 20 for the front 8.5" wheels and 305/30 ZR 21 for the rear 11.5" wheels, what is the largest aftermarket wheels I can get that could safely fit these tires? Would 9" and 12" work?
2. If I kept stock wheels widths (8.5" and 11.5") what would be the best offset to get the wheels as flush as possible without using spacers and have no rubbing?
3. I see a lot of you guys also lowered your 992 as well. If I do not plan on tracking my car, would it be ok to just use lowering springs or height adjustable springs as opposed to coilovers? I know many say coilovers are the best way to go but just not sure I would want to dish out $4k for something like the bilstein eco coilover kit. I believe I saw someone say on a suspension thread that getting simple lowering springs could degrade your OEM shocks faster. Is that true even if you have no plans to track the car? If it is true would height adjustable springs be a better option?
Thank you all in advance for your comments and insights!
1. 9" F and 12" R rims would work fine with the stock 245/35/20 and 305/30/21. If you go to tirerack and search the tires designed for a Porsche 911 like the NA0 spec Michelin PS4S, you can then look up the specs for each tire which includes the "measured rim width" which is the recommended rim size for a particular tire and the "rim width range" which is the range of rim widths that a specific tire can safely fit. So looking at these stats, the 245/35/20 PS4S recommends an 8.5" width but can be fit on rims from 8" to 9.5" wide. The 305/30/21 is optimally fit for an 11" rim, but can also safely fit rims from 10.5" to 11.5" wide. While 12" goes beyond the recommended widths for a 305 tire, it will still be 100% safe IMO.
2. I am running +15mm spacers F and R on my car and I think that gives a very flush, no rubbing at all look on a lowered car. My stock Carrera Classic rims are 20x8.5 +50 F and 21x11.5 +67 R. With +15mm spacers all around, they effectively become 20x8.5 +35 F and 21x11.5 +52 rear rims. I think rims ordered in this size would give a very nice, flush fitment. But again, this is personal preference, most people run slightly less aggressive offsets whereas other have run +18 and even +20mm spacers all around and report no rubbing. You have to just look at the pictures of everyone's cars and decide for yourself (if they are willing to share offsets - some people treat offsets like the Pepsi formula or something). Here are pictures of how my car looks with these effective offsets. Some may think it looks too aggressive but I think it's fine. If this is too agressive for your tastes then order rims with +40F and +57R offsets if you plan on sticking with the stock 8.5" F and 11.5" rear widths for your aftermarket rims.
3. With respect to lowering springs, it really doesn't matter if you track your car or not. Running shorter springs with higher spring rates will wear out your stock dampers faster. It's just physics. If you take a set of dampers that are designed around say a spring rate of 400 lbs/in (making these numbers up b/c I have no idea what the stock spring rate is on a 992), then switch to springs that are 1" shorter static ride height and 800 lbs/in, of course it will wear out the stock shocks faster. Dampers are a wear and tear item. Contrary to what some people think, they are not designed to last the life of the car. Even on stock suspension, stock dampers start feeling pretty worn out to me by 30K miles but some people drive 60K+ miles on stock dampers. Also, the stock dampers are not designed around a spring that is 3/4" to 1" shorter. So, you will automatically be putting more stress on the shock by compressing it further even at the statically lowered ride height. You may think this is all in theory but I have found all of this to be 100% true in every single car I've lowered... which is pretty much every single car I've ever owned. Literally every single time I've installed springs only, I have ended up re-buying a complete coilover kit w/ springs and matched dampers b/c the ride quality and handling went to crap in about 10K miles or so. Now, I am personally much more sensitive to changes in ride quality and the typical person who lowers their car may feel the car rides and handles exactly the same at 20K miles or 50K+ miles.
Basically, my point is, do as you please. MANY people are totally fine w/ lowering springs. If you're like the vast majority of people, You will be totally fine w/ springs too. If you're like some members here who change Porsches annually, then yeah, springs only makes total sense. Hell BMW even rebadges KW HAS coilover kits as M Performance springs and sells them like a OEM upgrade that everyone seems to love. But me, personally, my KW HAS kit on the M3 felt great for about 1000 miles... then I came to despise them after about 5K miles or so b/c the stock dampers felt like they lost a good 50% or more of their damping force and the car became a wallowy mess on the fwy and would crash super hard over railroad tracks. Will the KW HAS kit have the same result on a 992? I have no idea b/c I've never tried them and I've vowed to never buy another lowering spring kit or HAS kit ever again. I've wasted way too much money buying springs, paying for install and alignment... then having to re-buy full coilovers and paying for installing and alignment 2x. This happens... literally... every... freaking... time. So for my 992, I went straight to the full coilover solution.
Good luck and enjoy the process. I love researching mods, learning from others, and trying different things. One lesson that I've learned time and time again is get exactly what you want up front and stop worrying about costs... or you will end up having to rebuy what you wanted in the first place and wasting even more money than if you just bit the bullet up front and went for the more expensive choice that you really wanted.
1. 9" F and 12" R rims would work fine with the stock 245/35/20 and 305/30/21. If you go to tirerack and search the tires designed for a Porsche 911 like the NA0 spec Michelin PS4S, you can then look up the specs for each tire which includes the "measured rim width" which is the recommended rim size for a particular tire and the "rim width range" which is the range of rim widths that a specific tire can safely fit. So looking at these stats, the 245/35/20 PS4S recommends an 8.5" width but can be fit on rims from 8" to 9.5" wide. The 305/30/21 is optimally fit for an 11" rim, but can also safely fit rims from 10.5" to 11.5" wide. While 12" goes beyond the recommended widths for a 305 tire, it will still be 100% safe IMO.
2. I am running +15mm spacers F and R on my car and I think that gives a very flush, no rubbing at all look on a lowered car. My stock Carrera Classic rims are 20x8.5 +50 F and 21x11.5 +67 R. With +15mm spacers all around, they effectively become 20x8.5 +35 F and 21x11.5 +52 rear rims. I think rims ordered in this size would give a very nice, flush fitment. But again, this is personal preference, most people run slightly less aggressive offsets whereas other have run +18 and even +20mm spacers all around and report no rubbing. You have to just look at the pictures of everyone's cars and decide for yourself (if they are willing to share offsets - some people treat offsets like the Pepsi formula or something). Here are pictures of how my car looks with these effective offsets. Some may think it looks too aggressive but I think it's fine. If this is too agressive for your tastes then order rims with +40F and +57R offsets if you plan on sticking with the stock 8.5" F and 11.5" rear widths for your aftermarket rims.
3. With respect to lowering springs, it really doesn't matter if you track your car or not. Running shorter springs with higher spring rates will wear out your stock dampers faster. It's just physics. If you take a set of dampers that are designed around say a spring rate of 400 lbs/in (making these numbers up b/c I have no idea what the stock spring rate is on a 992), then switch to springs that are 1" shorter static ride height and 800 lbs/in, of course it will wear out the stock shocks faster. Dampers are a wear and tear item. Contrary to what some people think, they are not designed to last the life of the car. Even on stock suspension, stock dampers start feeling pretty worn out to me by 30K miles but some people drive 60K+ miles on stock dampers. Also, the stock dampers are not designed around a spring that is 3/4" to 1" shorter. So, you will automatically be putting more stress on the shock by compressing it further even at the statically lowered ride height. You may think this is all in theory but I have found all of this to be 100% true in every single car I've lowered... which is pretty much every single car I've ever owned. Literally every single time I've installed springs only, I have ended up re-buying a complete coilover kit w/ springs and matched dampers b/c the ride quality and handling went to crap in about 10K miles or so. Now, I am personally much more sensitive to changes in ride quality and the typical person who lowers their car may feel the car rides and handles exactly the same at 20K miles or 50K+ miles.
Basically, my point is, do as you please. MANY people are totally fine w/ lowering springs. If you're like the vast majority of people, You will be totally fine w/ springs too. If you're like some members here who change Porsches annually, then yeah, springs only makes total sense. Hell BMW even rebadges KW HAS coilover kits as M Performance springs and sells them like a OEM upgrade that everyone seems to love. But me, personally, my KW HAS kit on the M3 felt great for about 1000 miles... then I came to despise them after about 5K miles or so b/c the stock dampers felt like they lost a good 50% or more of their damping force and the car became a wallowy mess on the fwy and would crash super hard over railroad tracks. Will the KW HAS kit have the same result on a 992? I have no idea b/c I've never tried them and I've vowed to never buy another lowering spring kit or HAS kit ever again. I've wasted way too much money buying springs, paying for install and alignment... then having to re-buy full coilovers and paying for installing and alignment 2x. This happens... literally... every... freaking... time. So for my 992, I went straight to the full coilover solution.
Good luck and enjoy the process. I love researching mods, learning from others, and trying different things. One lesson that I've learned time and time again is get exactly what you want up front and stop worrying about costs... or you will end up having to rebuy what you wanted in the first place and wasting even more money than if you just bit the bullet up front and went for the more expensive choice that you really wanted.
thank so much for the useful info and pics! Your setup looks great! I appreciate the informative write up and will use it making my decisions! Thank you again for taking the time to respond to my questions.
Finally got around to taking some decent pictures of the car with the HRE R101LW in dark brushed clear. Shout out to David @WheelsB for speccing these for me.
Not mine, but I saw this beautiful chalk Turbo S at the Chandler Porsche 75th Anniversary Event this morning rolling w/ these 21/22" HRE R101s which made me second guess my choice for the rims I ordered. The details of the gloss brushed finish of these wheels are incredible!:
05-28-2023, 08:39 PM
