gota911

HT - hell, we could have told you that if you would have asked!


Just kidding!

htny

hahaha


well i pulled the trigger and put down the deposit, booked travel, flying out next Thursday to settle up, take delivery and blast out past the Joshua Tree to LA to do wheels on Friday at Wheel Dynamics, and then enjoy a couple of months in la la land. I figure I'll have to make s decision on spacers by then.

TheSpeedDemon

Congrat's...keep us posted.

In regards to spacers, I am just one of those individuals that will buy wheels that have the correct offset so that you do not need to add additional items (spacers) to make the wheels fit correctly within the wheel well. To me it is not a safe thing to do, that is extend your wheel out from the hub using longer bolts/studs and a spacer...some will say I shouldn't be so worried, but if there is a correct way to do it then that is the best way IMHO. However the after-market wheels that do not require spacers are usually the more expensive ones where they are more custom made to your application (i.e. O.Z., Fikse, BBS). If you have to use spacers or want too, then I would only recommend using the correct spacers that support the wheel (in that they have the hub centering piece, hub-centric is what I believe it is called, as in the factory hub - it's not the bolts/studs that center the wheel on the hub), I would not trust spacers that rely on alignment of the wheel using just the bolts/studs. So get the correct spacers for the car. I know several people that use spacers that are on this forum and have never had a problem with them. They can chime in on what spacers are best for you to use.

jrok

Porsche makes 5mm and I think 17mm spacers for a number of wheel fitments. I think some 19" wheel options on the 997 C4S have both of them. I used 14mm H&R spacers and bolts for two seasons of competition without issue. I have also used H&R 14mm and RUF 23mm spacers for my RUF wheels on the street for years without issue.

For the street, you would probably be fine with any reputable, high quality spacers and bolts -- but do your homework about proper bolt lengths and torque specs. Even though I never had a problem, I didn't really like using spacers on the track -- so I eventually ordered a couple sets CCW's for track work. I don't think twice about running them on the street though if everything is right.

There are many custom spacer makers out there which could be good or bad -- and a lot of cheap crap out there too. I would say Porsche, H&R or RUF would be good places to look for offset help because they have the time and money to engineer everything properly -- the last thing they want to do is hurt somebody in a Porsche.

gota911

Adding 7mm for the fronts will keep the outside of the "new" wheels in the same location (relative to the fender) as your current 8" wheels with 50mm offset. You could actually add a 15mm spacer to the front would extend the front wheels 8mm father out than current.

I got my brushed aluminum Carrera logo from Eric at BumperPlugs.com. I think it was $20. To remove your current logo, it would be best if you heat it up with a hair dryer to soften the adhesive. Then use dental floss to "cut" through the adhesive tape. You can use 3M adhesive remover, or a similar product, to remove the residual adhesive.

htny

I may roll the dice here and just directly fit on the fronts. I don't know if this sounds like stupid logic, but I think I'm not afraid of 7mm, i mean that's a hair over a quarter inch, that has to be within tolerance for an 8 inch wheel, 3.44% error? Conversely it's not that much of a spacer to worry about either.

That is a great price on the logo, and bumperplugs seems to have all sorts of useful stuff! Picked up a bottle of Rejex, which I've seen work wonders on boats and planes, and a pair of clear side markers, I mean sh*t while I'm at it I figure I might as well.

cdodkin

I thought the same - ended up fitting 15mm H&R spacers in the end - much better look, and the handling was way better.

BTW - I used WD for my take off 19"s - great shop and great guys to work with.

Before spacers:



After Spacers:

htny

I can't argue with better handling, and I can always go back later if necessary. did you get the spacers from WD as well?

[QUOTE=cdodkin;4891225]I thought the same - ended up fitting 15mm H&R spacers in the end - much better look, and the handling was way better.

BTW - I used WD for my take off 19"s - great shop and great guys to work with.


After Spacers:

htny

OK, some takeoffs came up on ebay, offsets are different (I'm assuming these are off a widebody 997)

wheels fit?

http://tinyurl.com/32skox

"4 Like New Factory OEM Porsche 997 Carrera Classic wheels with Used Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 Tires; The front wheels are 19x8.5 Parts #997.362.156.03 with an offset of ET51 and the rear wheels are19x11 Parts #997.362.162.08 with an offset of ET57"

"Front tires are USED Michelin Pilot Sport PS2. 235/35ZR19. These tires have about 8/32 tread depth or 80% treadleft.. Rear tires are USED Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 295/30ZR19. These tires have about 7/32 tread depth or 70% treadleft"

I am guessing the rears will be too tall, but I'm not that good at aspect ratio calculations, and I'm not sure I want to take anyone's word for 70% tread left on ebay, esp. from orlando, and I guess it's not THAAAT good of a deal (not the 1200 number at least!)

Nicolaasdb

If you buy spacers that TUV approved you don't have to worry about safety, because id the germans approve it is super safe!! Don't forget there are road without speedlimits in Germany and TUV makes sure nothing happens even at 200MPH.

htny

Agreed Nicolaas, do you happen to know if the H&R units are aproved by TUV?

Mind if I ask if you're Deutsch or Dutch?

- Hans

gota911

The OEM wheels you are looking at are very nice, but the reads may not fit. The front wheels will EXTEND 5mm more that your curent wheels (not a problem) but the rears will EXTEND 21mm which most likely could be a problem.

htny

Yeah I think you're right, and they are also in orlando. Nice carrera GT in the picture though!

gota911

Yeah, when I first saw the pic, I was wondering why there wasn't a pic of the wheels!

Benjamin Choi

there's nothing inherently wrong with spacers... it's just that i find them to be extraneous, a band-aid for wheels that don't truly fit the car.

people will say race teams run them... they're a damn race team, you drive a street car with street wheels. people say even porsche runs them. porsche wouldn't if they could hand the cost down to the customer to get proper fitting wheels and their contraints are much more limiting than the aftermarket. no OEM wheels look better than an aftermarket offering so long ast he aftermarket wheel is built by a quality firm.

i only choose to spend my hard earned $ on wheels that fit:

-even when lowered, full lock, under compression the wheels should NOT rub

-wheels should push out to the edges as far as possible while still meeting bullet point above

-wheels should be as wide as possible within the physical constraints of the chassis/panels

so spacers help to push the wheels out and make it look better, but why bother if you can get proper wheels that do all that without having to use this bandaid?

people usually choose to pick these wheels taht require spacers because they don't take the time to research properly because they're too busy, ignorant, on a pretty tight budget whatever.

but then they come online and say oh it's awesome, it's great... for someone like me, that's not the whole story and they're doing a disservice to others by propagating misinformation.

good luck