CMC Wide Body Owners...

A 5.5 x 15" wheel simply does not look right on a wide body.  I'd look to 7 x 16" wheels and 60 or 65 series tires.

What Greg said x2! 

Ron O!  You hear that?  You and me, Dude....We be cool!

Frank:

You know, it's funny....I always thought that 7" X 17" would look cool on my Speedster.  Never thought about how hard they might ride.

But that's not what is on there now - I'm running 7" X 16" with a 5/130 bolt pattern  That is the official pattern size for Porsche (and not a whole lot else).

I used to run 205 55 R16's on the front and 225 65 R16's on the rear, but you can't rotate anything with that set-up, so with my last set of tires I went to 205 55 16's all around.  Tire pressure is 18 front and 24 rear for the street.  

Personally, I chose this size because it comes closest to replicating the tire diameter that was on my '69 beetle originally so I thought it might come closest to getting the speedo speed right, but I think it's off by 5%-7% or so anyway.  Additionally, it has a nice sidewall which fills the wheel well nicely, gives a great ride and looks "period" (at least in MY memory!)  Trust me - 205's look pretty big on a 356 from the front or real.....They're definitely NOT narrow!

I'm hoping you had a typo in your bolt pattern size - you typed 5X120 which is a BMW size while Porsche is about the only outfit running 5X130 (Volkswagen runs 5X130 on the Taureg SUV, but that's just a Cayenne in disguise).

My rims are from an '89 911 and are now megabucks to replace.  The reproductions are much cheaper (although heavier and weaker, too).

Here's a good site for bolt patterns used in the industry:

http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread/t-117406.html

Sorry, but I don't have any decent side-view photos of my car.  If you want one, let me know and I'll take her out and shoot a few.

Are you lowered?

NO, currently I'm sitting up.

OK, seriously, Bill........  I think just about every speedster seen on this site is lowered, otherwise they would be sitting REALLY high.

I have no idea how many inches I lowered Pearl - it's been 20 years, now - but I messed with the height 2 or 3 times til I got it sitting the way I wanted it to look (kind-of squat, ready to pounce on any Cobra meandering by).  It's about as low as anyone's wide body but just high enough that I don't rub the tops of the rear tires on the top, inside of the fender well on hard bumps.

gn

Frank - almost forgot spacers......

I have an IRS rear suspension so I don't have to worry about the tops of the wheels doing nutty things under there with suspension travel like a swing-arm, so my rear tire rubbing was pretty predictable.

That said, I'm currently running a set of four, 1-1/4" spacer/adapters (they space the wheels out and go from 4X130 to 5X130 bolt patterns.  they get the rear tire to about 1/2" from the well lip (index finger width of petite hands).

They're made from 6061 Aluminum and I got them from Pelican Parts.  About $80 each IIRC.

Gordon---I feel like my VS might look better lowered some---I am lucky because I have the welded adjusters so it's a easy and simple affair to change the rear of my car.  I just measured the amount of tire wall visible under the top of the wheel wells and it's 2 1/2"

What's considered low or "best" if there is such a thing?  

Impala posted that a good set up is having the top of the wheel rim the same level as the wheel opening.  Is that close to what you prefer, Gordon?

Jack, I've followed you many times and one reason your car is up so high in the rear is that your fancy Type-4 exhaust hangs down quite low.  I'm sure Jake raised it up for that reason as I don't recall it sitting up so high when you had the Type-1.  Be very careful about lowering it.

Well Lane the exhaust is the A- Sidewinder and I had it modified a few months ago.  A good muffler shop heated the pipes cherry red hot and was able to easily bend them up and way from the ground.  So now that the muffler isn't so low to the ground I want to lower the rear a bit.  The change in the muffler gave me well over another inch so I can go at least that much lower.

I have read that lowering the rear can (or does) change the caster which is what you were warning about, I think. 

Hey--I made my Eurofest reservaition--Alice and I are looking forward to seeing everybody there!

If you have the adjustable springplates like I do, changing the rear ride height is super easy.  Lowering the rear will increase your caster, which will make the car track better, but you might want to get it realigned just to be perfect, particularly given the distances that you travel.

Looking forward to seeing the both of you in about 5 weeks.

Jack:

The various builder's body shapes are different around the wheel wells.  The wheel opening on the rear of a CMC wide body is almost round.   Most "classic" bodied cars have a flattened top to the wheel well.

So you can see that what might look good for me as a distance from the rim lip to the wheel well lip might look really different on a classic car.

So, too, will it make a big difference what tires you're running.   50-series is going to look a lot different than a 65 or 70-series with their taller sidewalls.

I guess the end is whatever suits YOU.  While I think there is such a thing as "too low", I still like them sitting down there like they're ready to pounce.  Kinda like Hobbs......

Thanks, Gordon.  Good advice as always.  Jack

Thanks guys.

Gordon,

I love the way your car looks as well as Ron's.  Both have Fuchs wheels which are the style I would prefer.  I do have a 5X120 bolt pattern on my car(no typo) as the spacers (about 19mm) were put onto the 4X130 VW rotors.  So, I have a set of four 17X8 inch. basically BMW rims (Bayern). Tires are 225/45 17 on the front and 245/45  rear.  I would go with the same size all around also...just for the reason you mentioned.

 Apparently the previous owner (not my doing) bought the car with some sort of Corvette rims on it that he didn't like (are they a 5X120 pattern also?) so he went to a local Town Tire up in Maine and bought the 17 inch. deals.  I don't mind the look as they are color coded to the car basically but the ride with little sidewall is not conducive to New England roads. Jack and Lane make good points about ride heights and adjustability also.  I would like to get a little height back or at least soften the ride.  I'm not too old but would like to keep my teeth.

Since my car is a CMC the top axle beam tube was cut and re-welded basically straight downward.  Thats part of the reason for the recent addition of caster. I'm currently considering removing leaves from the top tube also. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that this car has been around since about 1990 and these issues were never sorted out but I aim to do right by this car. Anyway, I was looking at the CIP1 website and they had the repro. Fuchs wheels, in the finish like yours, in a 5.5X15 for about $80 each.  That got me thinking.  I guess I could only get a185/xx tire on there though and Greg and Jim suggested at least a 7X16 inch. wheels which is not on offer.  I wanted more sidewall but the width would be the issue.  I figure a 205/55 - 60 or so would look ok. I have a new GPS driven tach that I've yet to install so not worried about speedo error as such.  Just trying to achieve a decent balance, look and ride that makes me want to keep the car for a good long while.....or at least until my kids are out of college!

Frank, you mentioned that you want to keep the car for a while, so if you like the look of Fuchs wheels I'd recommend getting your rotors/drums switched to a 5x130 bolt pattern and look for something like this:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/cla...etail.php?id=1682029

16" Fuchs are a great compromise (I'd like to run a set of 16x6, front and back) and they're still a bit cheaper that 15" Fuchs, but getting up there.

To fill the wheel well you could also install longer studs and spacers to move the wheels out towards the fender lip.

40 or 45 series tires are great on new cars (until you hit a good sized pothole) but for a decent ride, with our antiquated suspension, I would recommend at least a 50 series tire.

Hey Ron,

I have considered that as well.  I have spacer/adapters for the 5X120mm on the car already so I could just switch over to a 5X130 adapter/spacer to get the bolt pattern (I think the rotors are the VW 4X130 underneath). Pelican Parts has a Euromeister replica in 16X7 for about $170 each.  Then its tires and such all over again too.  I almost wanted to consider a 15 inch rim only in that the aspect ratio of the tire could be that much bigger for added ride comfort but its been suggested that it too small.

Frank- There's a lot more choices in 16" tires- in 15" there's not a lot of summer performance choices in most of the sizes. 

this is true Al.  Most of the larger distributors don't carry 15" wheels either...