944 rear wheel spacers

[AJLintern]

Is there anyway of increasing the rear track of my car to fill the rear wheel arches better? Can I fit spacers? I saw a turbo racer at Bob Watson the other day which had huge rear tyres which filled the arches perfectly. I know it's only cosmetic but it would really improve the appearance of the car, if it were to be detrimental to the handling however then I probably wouldn't bother. My current rear wheels are the standard 16" D90s with 225x50 ZR Pirelli P7000 tyres.

[dontlift]

Spacers are easily obtained try www.porsch-apart.co.uk

[interloper]

I thought 944's had spacers on the rear as standard? The older ones like mine (1984) seem to have them fitted, the spacers are even mentioned in the haynes manual that I have for the car.

[Thom]

As far as I know spacers were not standard on 944, at least on later models.
Might be different with early cars not fitted with ABS and subsequently with a bigger offset though...

[AndyS2]

The 944 Turbo wheels are 1" wider at the rear ( 9" against 8" on the S2 ) and hold a 245/55/16 tyre. They bolt straight on and AFAIK the offset is the same, should be able to pick up a couple cheap from a breaker. I paid £45 from Lodge sports or PH at Derby had a few in

Andy

[Thom]

245/45/16

What advantages/drawbacks have you noticed with turbo rear rims Andy ?

I'm thinking of retrofitting some M030 and turbo brakes will certainly require wider wheels...

[AJLintern]

So if you put the 9" turbo wheels on the back, does it mean you could put the original 8" rear wheels on the front?

[Thom]

AJLintern said:does it mean you could put the original 8" rear wheels on the front?

M030'd S2 have narrower front tracks, because of the turbo brakes *
Not sure turbo rims would fit with no clearance issues at all...

* edited to add: an S2 with the M030 is exactly the same chassis as a stock Turbo MY89 (or 88 Turbo S)


>> Edited by Thom on Tuesday 29th April 09:51

[AndyS2]

I havent actually fitted the Turbo wheels to my car, when I last had my rear tyres changed they could not get the new tyre to seat on one of the wheel and on closer examination it had a large crack running round the rim. I went to Lodge sports to get a new one ( a memerable mad dash over the Snake Pass at 3.30pm on a Saturday afternoon in my brothers Audi Quattro, but thats another story!! ) and they had S2 and Turbo rims all for the same price. I can't really see the point of putting the wider wheels on as I very rarely have problems with traction and it would just mean the tryes were more expensive.

Andy

[Thom]

A little video featuring two 944 turbo Cup on Easter monday at the Rhein Ring :

http://asarus8.free.fr/video

[AJLintern]

That's not such a little video - 19MB! Have to wait until I get to work() where there is a high speed PH connection

[diver944]

Andy, a simple non scientific answer would be - try it first. Jack up one side of the car and swap the wheels front to rear and check the clearance of callipers and arches on full lock etc

Then go for a 'gentle' drive to double check.

I have the 17" cups that are 9" rear with 255 section tyres and during a tramlining experiment I found they fit fine on the front. The car looked very strange though, and I'm sure would have felt wierd at speed with the narrower tyres on the rear.

[AJLintern]

I Suppose what I really want to know is if increasing the rear track using only spacers will cause any handling or tyre wear problems. How do you fit spacers? and wouldn't you also need longer hub bolts to attach the wheels to?

[Thom]

AJLintern said: I Suppose what I really want to know is if increasing the rear track using only spacers will cause any handling or tyre wear problems. How do you fit spacers? and wouldn't you also need longer hub bolts to attach the wheels to?

One thing for sure it will increase the UJs' bearings wear. It depends on the use you do of your car. It will for sure look better but might not be essential if you never take it on the track. The basic handling is already excellent and good enough for road use.

For the rest needless to say you will have done a geometry check after having fitted the 9" rims so no uneven tyre wear should be expected

There are different types of spacers depending on their width. 20 mm are IMO the upper limit for the rear and such ones include additionnal hubs for the rims. Example :



>> Edited by Thom on Wednesday 30th April 09:53

[AJLintern]

Thanks for the info - I probably won't bother with the spacers then. Maybe upgrade to wider wheels when my tyres need replacing, which won't be for a quite a while.