BertoneBertoni

We are now a year or more in with the Gen 2. I'm still struggling to find either members or suppliers who've actually put 19" after-market rims on a 'narrow-body' car ?

I'd be interested in people who have actually done it....not could do it, might do it or have heard about doing it: just someone who knows for sure that it's been done and has the info.

And that's emphatically narrow-body....because on the Gen 2 I'd just stick a set of BBS LMs on a wide-body and be done with it. It's the narrow-body's ET76 at the rear which is the problem.

I'd be very obliged if anyone's seen a set of rims on a car in reality ? Thanks in advance.

bkrantz

I would like to see what answers you get. AFAIK no manufacturer makes a 19 inch wheel with the correct offsets for the 991.2 narrow body.

BertoneBertoni

I think your implication is accurate.....I made the mistake (?) of buying a 'basic' narrow-body manual C2 Gen 2. I've recently come back from a trip through Europe and threading a Gen 2 through the back-streets of northern Italy was challenging to a point where I'd simply avoid specifying a wide-body car. The 370 PS means you can rev it out more of the time and, on the other side of the coin, you can hyper-mile off-boost at 70-80 mph in countries where 130 kph is (sadly) the norm. Thank God for the Germans and their autobahn.....!!

I wanted decent ride, steering feel, 'swiss pen-knife' practicality and the purity you get at the lower end of the range....That 19" rim was also going to serve as a 'winter wheel' with a set of same-size summer rims from the 'after-market'...

Now I think I should have gone for a C4 to maintain a more 'normal' rear offset. It, of course, adds weight and width....and I'm not convinced it suits a manual box either.

As for 'off-the-shelf' rims (rather than a set of made-to-measure 'splits') I'm coming across a few suppliers who are proposing a rim drop from 11.5 to 11 J (saving 12.5 mm) and an offset of ET55 on a 19". But nobody has got a pic or an absolute cast-iron "seen it with my own eyes" example. Victory Equipment is one such company but they can't supply a pic...only a "that should work".....Hardly a ringing endorsement....

I guess that's why Porsche always push the 4S and GTS because there's more margin and they want you to spend on their options....not the after-market. Nonetheless, the search goes on....

bkrantz

I do not think your choice is a mistake (mine is also a C2 with standard 19" wheels). And I had the same reasons, including better ride comfort on rougher roads.

But both the 991.2 11.5" standard rear wheel (and the 11" 991.2 winter wheel) have offsets of 76 or 77 mm. So a wheel with 55 mm offset will poke out 21 or 22 mm more. That can work if it is what you want, but will not be in the stock position.

BertoneBertoni

I appreciate the 'solidarity'. It's good to hear that there are people out there who don't immediately accept the market-mantra that you have to an 'S or above' and 20" rims. Not that I'm criticising that: it's just the reality of daily driving that prompted me down the 19" route. (As an aside, my detailer, who's worked with lots of exotica, pointed out that the 19" OEM rims were much easier to clean and maintain.... ).

Forgive my potential misunderstanding here...I thought the lower the ET number the more the rim moved to the outer 'lip' of the wing...? Therefore, you 'lose' clearance space between the tyre and wing if you move from ET76 to, say, ET 55 (ie. the rim moving towards the outer wing by, in this case, 21mm) but 'gain' some clearance back by reducing the rim by 1/2 " or 12.5 mm by choosing an 11J over an 11.5J.....? Of course, I could be understanding this completely ****-about-face here !

Additionally, the design of the rear rim also affects clearance.....I think. BBS Europe, for example, officially confirms that you can use its CH-R rim (which is an ET55 at the rear) with 19". Unfortunately, having had the CH-R on previous BMWs, it's not a design which suits the Gen 2...IMO. However, beggars can't be choosers. Hence the ongoing debate.

bkrantz

Check out this web site: http://www.driverstechnology.co.uk/wheel-offset.htm

Think of a wheel with zero offset, on a hub designed for that. Almost all modern car wheels have positive offset (the surface that mounts to the hub is shifted towards the outer face of the wheel). So as positive offset increases, the rim shifts inward towards the car centerline.

As for the current 991 19" wheels, I just think they look better than most of the 20" wheels.

BertoneBertoni

Very useful link. Many thanks.

In essence, if I'm understanding fully.... ETs are almost (in the modern era) expressed as positive. So, the rule-of-thumb is that bigger the (positive) offset 'number' the more the rim is going to move towards the car's centreline, right ?

And, of course, vice versa. Hence my slight concern over BBS's 'official' recommendation of a 11 J (rather than the OEM 11.5J) CH-R rim with a rear ET55 for a Gen 2. That leaves the rim moving a further 8.5 mm towards the wing.... I've seen their FI-R 20" on Gen 2 Turbos.... but 'real' pics of Gen 2s on after-market 19" rims seem very thin on the ground. I guess that's logical with everything from an 'S' onward coming on standard 20" rims....

As for the current OEM 19" wheels, I suspect that I'll grow to love them. In Europe for every 99 Gen 2s on 20" rims you see a lone C2 on the OEM 19, so you're getting exclusivity (as well as all the practical benefits) for free. And, well.....you don't get much from Porsche for free, do you ??!! Roger

968boy

Just went through this looking for winter wheels. Not many options out there still. Most manufacturers seem to have the wrong information because their "narrow body fitment" will have way too much poke. I know offsets are virtually the same on 991.1 and 991.2 (the .5" width difference makes up for the 6mm difference in offset), but is the hub positioned the same in the 991.2? I see all these guys running spacers on their 991.1, but I look at my rear wheel (stock 20's on 991.2 C2) and the rim saver lip looks flush. Any more and it will be sticking out.