1080iAddict

guys,

These 17mm wheel spacers I see posted by members - are they installed for a handling boost or simply because they make the *** look beefier? Does anyone have before and after pictures from the rear? Anyone know the price? Also, I see you can't use the locking theft-prevention lugnuts - at least on a Cayenne post I saw. Is this true for the 997 also?

Any reason not to install? If not, why not? Why isn't everyone doing this similar to the clear side lights?

raffi

17mm is used on the c4/c4s with the sport wheel, also some like coochas use it for winter tire...
coochas found the cheapest price <300 at sunset or suncoast i forgot.
so with the 19in wheels you have I dont think you can go beyond 13mm in the rear, 7mm up front.
I think arling 20C4S tested this out to find the optimal size for rear on stock wheels 67 rear, 57 front...
I have 7mm all the way around only for the looks. H&R i paid less than 140 for all 4 with 7mm longer bolts, (no wheel locks) if someone is gonna try to tamper with my wheels I would rather let them do a clean job and still them without difficulty.
I think someone tried to steal a wheel on my old 993 and stopped when they saw the wheel lock, this ended in my wheel falling off while I was driving.

1080iAddict

is there really a noticeable difference in the look based on 7mm or even 17mm? Forgive me this is my first research into this mod. i need to get a closer look.

raffi

i can tell the difference with the 7mm,
amirgt2 has a pic of his car with the porsche 5mm,
if you put the 17mm on your car it will look like those lowriders with the wheels sticking out further than the fender,
fyi on the techart/cec website it seems as though techart uses 17 or 18 mm spacers on the 997 stock wheels, and when i contacted h&r they said I could go with 15,
however 15 looked like too much to me, 7mm is not enough but i couldnt find something in between at the time and wanted to stay closer to porsche specs (since they only install 5mm from factory)

Coochas

Raffi's right on here Adam.
It was Sunset where I got the 5mm set for $292.
I agree that on a 997 2 or 4 5-7mm spacers can give the car a slightly better 'look.' I'm not sure there's any real performance gain though. As Raffi mentioned, I use the 17mm rear spacer with my 18" based snow tires as these tires are 265 (i.e. 40 mm narrower than a stock tire for the 4S)...the spacers in this case help make it look like I'm not driving on an inflatable spare!!
I do plan on adding the 5mm spacers when I put the summer rubber back on simply because I feel like the stock rubber could come out just a little more.

ngregson

Dave,

I'm going to fit 265/40/18 winter tires on the back of my C2 this winter, and will try out the 17" spacers to fill out the wheel wells more. Did you get the 5" spacers for your 19"s and if so how did they turn out? I use 295/30/19's at the back for the summer and would not mind a tad wider track to enhance the looks. I'm also getting PSS9's fitted tomorrow (I have the base suspension) which should lower it 1" or so. I'm hoping the combination of lower height plus spacers should make it look really good even with 18"s in the winter!)

Nigel

ngregson

Sorry - never mind, Dave. I just saw the subsequent post with pics of your 5mm spacers.

Sunshine

On 997 Carrera S coupe without spacers, is the track wider with Carrera S wheels even though the Carrera Sport wheels and tires are have a wider foot print?

jhbrennan

According to the Owner's Manual (pg 288) the front track is 0.2 inch wider with the 8.5 inch wheel and the rear track is the same.

8.0 et 57 track 58.5
8.5 et 55 track 58.7

11.0 et 67 track 59.7
11.5 et 67 track 59.7

Sunshine

Does that mean that the Carrera Sport wheels don't reach out to the edges any further and actually slightly less on the front than the other 19" Carrera S wheels? Is it the same for the C4S?

jhbrennan

You can play around with different wheel widths and offsets to see the differences at http://1010tire.com/WheelOffsetCalculator.asp

On a C4, the Carrera Sport front extends 8mm more than Carrera S and the Carrera Sport rear (with required 17mm spacer) extends 7mm more.

Sunshine

Very interesting. I would surmise that the wider track of the Carrera Sport wheels contributes to both aesthetics and performance when mounted on a C4. Conversely, bad *** looks aside, Carrea Sport wheels on a C2 are of little benefit. Would you concur?

Bullet

I'd be leary about spacers in the winter for looks. The closer your tires are to the edge (or the more they stick out) the more winter road debris (salt and sand and rocks) will get thrown up to scratch the body of your car.

I'd definitely NOT go with spacers on winter tires.

-B

Coochas

Bullet:
I think most of the cosmetic component of spacers with the winter wheels is to simply make them look a little closer to stock rubber. The difference between my winter rear and summer rear rubber is over 40 mm - hence, when the winter rears are on the car without spacers, it almost looks like I'm driving on a spare. In my case, the spacer offset on the rear winter rubber also gives more 'proper' alignment of the front and rear tracks - thus better traction.
The Porsche solution is to use winter rubber with the same rear width (i.e. 305) thus negating the necessary spacer use. These larger winter tires are probably not as good in the snow!

Sharptt

Does anyone know what happens when you try to put C4S or 997turbo wheels on a C2S narrow body? Assuming the same tire dimensions of 295/30 does the offset difference in the rear from 51 to 67 have the same effect as adding a 16 mm spacer? Anyone try this approach rather than spacers?