MAKHNO

Hi, new to the forum and Porsche in general, but have 12 years of Tracking BMW's.

But now I am the proud owner of a 997.2 C2S and I am looking at new Wheels and tires.

Currently I am running the 19" "lobster forks" (as they seem to be called) and MPSS in 245 front and 305 rear.

After the the August issue test in Sport Auto of 19" R-compound tires on the 997.2 S I have decided to go for the Trofeo.

They come in 245 and 305, but they also come in 265 front and 325 rear.

So question is can the 997.2S handle 265/325 or maybe 245/325 ?

For wheels I am looking at either Manthey MM-1, BBS FI or OZ superforgiatta, all forged. Any recommendations between these?

For the rim size how wide can you go on the 997.2S, can it handle 19x12 on the rear and what for the front.

Also what ET should they have?

Maybe the 997.2S can handle the same wheels and tires as the 997.2 GT3 as it is also NB?


Sincerely,

Michael Frandsen

kosmo

245/305 will fit on the the stock rims.

I dont think 325 will fit, perhaps 315.

The GT3 is a WIDE body.

Lastly try posting this on the 997 forum. Good luck

mdrums

Never seen the Manthy here in the USA.

I've gone through a lot of wheels and fitments on my last C2S and now my GTS. Yes you can use GT3 fitments on your C2S...same narrow body car. the GT3RS, Carrera GTS, Turbo, Turbo S, Carrera 4's are the wide body cars and require a different REAR offset.

1- have you installed GT3 lower control arms so that you can get at least -2.5 degree of camber up front? If not, don't waste your money on any R-Comp tire. Been there done that. Toyo R888 did ok at -1 degree but the edges got chewed much too quick as I pushed faster each track day with more seat time back when I was starting out.

2- get a 9" wide front wheel with a offset of et50-52mm. I just did a test fitment on OZ 9" wide et47 and since we can't rotate our front struts like GT3 car can the et47 9" wide sticks out of the fender slightly at the top with a 245 tire.

3- OZ, BBS, Forgeline all make great wheels. Forgeline will do special offsets for you. Also you should look into CCW wheels. They are forged, well respected racing wheel and priced very well.

4- I just sold my OZ 19" track wheels. I liked them, zero issues, great wheel but 19" R-Comps for the track are stupid expensive. Actually I liked the feel of 18" tires on the track and all my faster laps were on 18".

Mamba

Isn't the GT3 a NB GT3 RS a wide body?

Mamba

Mike you beat me the punch about the NB vs. WB

mdrums

GT3 is NOT wide body...the GT3 RS Gt2 and GT2RS along with Turbo, Turbo S, Carrera 4's and Carrera GTS are the wide body cars.

GT3, and Carrera (rear wheel drive) are the narrow body cars

MAKHNO

Thanks for the info.

So 19x9 with ET 50-52 on the fronts.
What about the rears, can I do 19x12 and then run 325?

I know I am in the GT2/GT3 forum, but it looked like the 997 forum was more focused on ICE, where this one seems to actually use the cars as intended :-)

chardonet

mdrums is the resident expert on the C2S and GTS's. So you found the right man in the right forum!

mdrums

Mako, I have a GTS and am in the GT3 forum because I track my car and those are my interests...it is cool that us "lowly Carrera" guys invade the uber baller boys over here...LOL

I'm not sure you can get 325's on the back of a stock GT3 with out rolling the fenders maybe cutting some of the liner and of course having some custom wheels made.

I'm going back to running 255/35/18 and 315/30/18. 9x18 and 12x18...I will also run 245/40/18 and 305/35/18 too.

997gt3north

You can make 325 in the rear work but you are going to have to do a lot to make it work - but it does fit.

There is really no need as if you want to run Hoosiers just run the 235/315 R6s in 19s.

Your bigger issue, as was pointed out above, is the lack of front camber - so order RSS 2pc lower control arms now and be done with it from day1 - you will be much happier you did - just get it done now.

The 245/305 PSS setup works on 8.5 or 9" front and 11-12 rear - no problem.

Standard NB GT3 spec offsets are good specs +- a few mm in either direction.

Gt3 front is 53
GT3 rears is 68+5mm spacer=63 (on mk1 cars)

Since your C2 is more softly sprung that a gt3 in the front, a taller tire such as the 245/35/19 PSS 'may' bottom out in the wheel well versus a 235/35/19 - but your higher ride height will most likely make it work with no issue.

There is another thread on here about a c2 owner spending money on his car to 'make it work' on the track - you may want to read it.

tcsracing1

personally, i really like the clean look of a Carrera with the lobbie forks.

for a second set of wheels on a carrera i dont know what i would use..... depends what look you are going for.

mdrums

I ran CCW 9x18 et50 and 12x18 et62 on my 2007 and 2009 Carrera S. This was GT3 fitments and they worked perfectly. New you can get CCW forged mono blocks for $2900...used ones show up sometimes for around $1700-1900

MAKHNO

So let me try to recap all your information:

Front rims: 9x19 with ET 53
Rear rims: 12x19 with ET 63 or 68+5mm spacer

Are these sizes with no modifications to the car?

regarding tire sizes, I read that the user "Utkinpol" runs 275 front and 335 rear on a 997.1 C2, it seems that the only thing he did was to use GT3 upper mounts and reverse them. This is in the front only so his rear is still stock?

The idea of using 315 is not possible as the Trofeo R is either 305 or 325.

In regards to the other mods such as LCA, etc. I want to do that too, but these parts have short delivery times, tires and especially forged rims have a very long delivery time, so I just wanted to get those ordered and then continue to figure out what I need to do with suspension and aero.

In regards to the wheels I am not too concerned with looks, just weight and strength.
I track mostly at Nürburgring and that is a very fast track which is also very hard on wheels and suspension bits because of the very bumpy and rough tarmarc, curbs and compressions.

The reason I looked at those three models, is that Mantey MM-1 is made by BBS and BBS and OZ is almost exclusively the only rims I see used in VLN, GT, F1 etc, I guess they know motorsports requirements.
But the new forged rim from BBS, the RI-D, just seems so thin, I would constantly be nervous about them breaking when running over the sidewalk high curbs on the ring.
I would actually prefer something like the CH-R, which to me seems to be modeled closely after Motorsport rims with lots of support, but they are very heavy.

tcsracing1

if you can afford it, get BBS monoblocks or Manthey MM-1. (BBS E88 are nice but have soft lips).

265 front, and 325 rear ( this is a good combo for RS, i suppose it will fit in Narrow body Carrera??)

you may need to stick with 245 and 305 combo if you do not wish to roll your rear fenders....

MAKHNO

So heres a follow up to what I ended up doing and why.

I have just returned from a two day closed trackday at the Nürburgring organized by Porsche, where many of the instructors are VLN drivers (like ALMS, DTM, etc. only all sessions are on the nordschleife :-) )

I went to Manthey Porsche who are located just a few minutes from the entry to the ring.
I guess for most of you no explanation of Manthey is necessary, but for those who don't know them, Manthey won 5 of the last six 24H races at the Nürburgring (well counting 2012, 5 out of seven, but this year no GT2 class, so they could not run their GT3 RSR, only the GT3 R). They are also a development partner of Porsche Motorsport and tests most new parts coming out of the motorsports division of Weissach. Manthey ran the GT3 R Hybrid on the ring too.

They recommended the same size wheels as you all did, 9x19 and 12x19.
So I went for the Manthey MM-1 forged rims (8.2KG front and 10.6 KG rear)

For the tires they said 325 rear would rub a little on all NB cars (even 997.2 GT3) so would require light modifications to wheel arches and inner plastic. They would stick with the 305 which I ran with the MPSS, the 305 on a 12" rim would also strecth the tire sides a little compared to a 325.
For the front I ran 245 MPSS and asked for 265, but they would not recommend either, they would use 235 for increased high speed stability. Since I use it as a DD doing 250KM/h cruising on the autobahn in germany with 285 stints here and there high speed stability sounds right.
Also the Nürburgring northern loop is the track with the fastest avg. speed in the world (yes some ovals in the US are a little faster, but, not trying to offend any one, race tracks they are not).

I thought I would get the Trofeo R but I couldn't source them at the ring, but the MPSC are in stock many places. So I got the MPSC+ N1 (Manthey said the N-rated Cup tire is very different from other Cup editions).

To counter udersteer in a 235/305 combo thet slightly increased offset from ET67 to ET68 in the rear but on the front rims they decreased it massively frm ET57 to ET45. Let me tell you, those rims extended so far out of the car while it hung on the lift I thought they were crazy and had to remind them it wasn't a RSR.
But they got two lumps of wood and placed one under the front right and left rear wheel and lovered the lift, to compress the dampers completely and you could just barely get something between the tire and arch, but technically there was air between the two.

For those of you who hve driven the Nürburgring you know the compression at the end of Fuchsrohre and the g-forces in the Caroussel are insame and will make your wheels rub if in any way possible - but they didn't.

The result: :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

Understeer gone, planted, imense stability and confidence, increased front rear track diffenrece of 26mm
It's like having a 991 only with mechanical telepathic steering.

Hope this all makes sense.

Thanks for all your help and comments ... now on to all the suspension and aero bits ...


Sincerely,

Michael