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Four wheel wide five disc here we come!

FM Former Member
Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to my first VW drag day. Actaully this was my first drag race I've ever been to. I got to say WOW!!!!! I really enjoyed this becuase it showed that everyone could go out there and give the track a whirl. Some of the cars yesterday were really fast, I mean ripping fast. I've found new appreciation for the VW scene. Some cars there were pulling the front wheels of the ground in second an sometimes third. The crowd itself were mostly young people while the really serious cars were owned by some older people. The people were pretty nice and there were many stock vintage type rides out there that really made me think about getting one. The cars were great, and had an incredible sound & speed that would frighten any V8 owner.

Also there were many vendors there at the show. Of course CB performance was there (they sponsored the event) and brought many of their new products to the show. I got a chance to actually see their future wide five rear disc setup and let me tell you the brakes were excellent from what I could see. The brakes have the same caliper as on their rear four bolt disc setup so the emergency brakes still work, that's the key. Also the designer told me that the brakes have the same track as the original drum setup, another key component. Here's the best part, if you already have the CB rear disc setup they will sell just the disc itself to keep their current customers happy. As many people already know the front disc setup is allready available from many manufactures so no worries there.

Bassically the wide five disc setup .is key for me as the look of the car will bring it right to the stock 356 look. I remember the first time I ever saw a 356 and I couldn't help but think how cool the wheels were. To me this wheel setup (look)really brings our Speedsters up to snuff. Looks like the price four all four could be in the $1200 dollar range and from what I was told the rear disc setup would be available in about ninety days. Got to have em.

J-P

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FM Former Member
Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to my first VW drag day. Actaully this was my first drag race I've ever been to. I got to say WOW!!!!! I really enjoyed this becuase it showed that everyone could go out there and give the track a whirl. Some of the cars yesterday were really fast, I mean ripping fast. I've found new appreciation for the VW scene. Some cars there were pulling the front wheels of the ground in second an sometimes third. The crowd itself were mostly young people while the really serious cars were owned by some older people. The people were pretty nice and there were many stock vintage type rides out there that really made me think about getting one. The cars were great, and had an incredible sound & speed that would frighten any V8 owner.

Also there were many vendors there at the show. Of course CB performance was there (they sponsored the event) and brought many of their new products to the show. I got a chance to actually see their future wide five rear disc setup and let me tell you the brakes were excellent from what I could see. The brakes have the same caliper as on their rear four bolt disc setup so the emergency brakes still work, that's the key. Also the designer told me that the brakes have the same track as the original drum setup, another key component. Here's the best part, if you already have the CB rear disc setup they will sell just the disc itself to keep their current customers happy. As many people already know the front disc setup is allready available from many manufactures so no worries there.

Bassically the wide five disc setup .is key for me as the look of the car will bring it right to the stock 356 look. I remember the first time I ever saw a 356 and I couldn't help but think how cool the wheels were. To me this wheel setup (look)really brings our Speedsters up to snuff. Looks like the price four all four could be in the $1200 dollar range and from what I was told the rear disc setup would be available in about ninety days. Got to have em.

J-P

S shambly
Over here in Europe, Custom and Speed Parts have also just announced a rear 'wide-5' disc kit and also a _vented_ front disc 'wide-5' kit, soon to be available (and on demo at the UK Volksworld show last weekend that I attended)

Pricing for the rear kits expected to be similar to their current front kit prices.

This is good news for me too as I'm currently building my car with CSP wide-5 front discs and CSP special wide-5 rear drums (for late cars), and a modest 1641cc engine. But in the future when I go for more power i now have a brake upgrade path without having to change to another stud pattern.

Simon
FM Former Member
I've seen somewhere that a guy was making spun caps that go on top of the discs to get the right look. I'm not sure what Mangle wheels look like but to me the stock 356 steels are perfect! One way to get the wheels looking better is by welding a wider rim on the hub and deepen the wheel. To me the right combo is a set of 356 wide five wheels with wide five disc covered by these spun caps and to top it off have the wheels powdercoated silver or gray.

J-P
FM Former Member
Jean-Paul, Mangel (in Brazil) makes both chrome and silver painted steel replicas of 356 Porsche wide-five (5x205mm mount) wheels in 4.5"x15" and 5.5"x15" sizes. They come with the original style hubcap spring clips.

Henry at IM has the Mangels modified on request to 7" widths for mounting big tires on the wide body replicas.

(Message Edited 3/25/2003 4:08:23 PM)
FM Former Member
Another wheel to look out for is one made to look like the stock 356 wide five wheels but are actually mags made from AL. I saw a set of these at a Porsche show out here in CA, Dunkle Bros. I believe. A set of those would cost but the weight would be down and styling up! It's just another option. George, you've got to be pulling your hair out on what to outfit your car with. Are you going the Speedster route or the Convertable D?

J-P
S shambly
J-P,

Re the turned covers, you're thinking of fibersteel's drumskinz.
These are indeed aluminium and polish up rather nicely to complement chrome wheels.

I found that they fitted over the CSP wide-5 front discs without modification, but had to have my rear drums machined due to the large extra reinforcement ribbing on the outside of the special CSP wide-5 drums that I selected (to convert my 72 car to wide-5 without having to use early rear drums). The opposite of what I expected!

I'm using mangel 5.5x15 chrome wheels all round, aiming for the 'carrera' look without hubcaps.

Car is still under construction - www.hambly.org.uk/chesil
Happy to take some photos of the wheels with drumskinz installed if you want to see how convincing they look.

Simon
FM Former Member
Yup, that's the look I'm going for! The wide five wheels with the skinz on top is a pretty convincing story. Put the Carrera deck lid on with a carefully placed tear drop graphic starting at the headlight and finishing at the mirror is a really good look. Top it off with a cherry ( the locking gas cap popping through the hood) and a single or dual tip muffler in back and you've got it. Oh and you can't forget the low bucket, vintage racer seats and a roll bar that is a slanted "A" shape to complete the setup. To me these cars look great when there topped off with vintage details. I once put a chrome dual tip muffler exiting the middle of the car and it almost worked but the tips looked too new in design for that era of car. KISS!

J-P
FM Former Member
George, your going all out! Glad to see your going the LOW glass Speedster route. To me the Speedster looks much better than the "D's". Sounds like your going to have a really nice car.

As far as the wheels........ I know someone makes them as I've picked one up before, very light. I'll have to research it a little. Last I saw one it was with the vendor at the Dunkle Bros. Porsche meet here in SO. CA. I'll ask my buddy at work, he spotted them for me. I remember they were pretty expensive however looking at your car workout it doesn't seem like cost is a huge factor. Let me se what I can dig up!

J-P
FM Former Member
I've located the guy that makes the 5.5" and 6.0" x 15" wide-five aluminum Porsche 356 wheels; they weigh 10 lbs. each (about 1/10 lb. more than a Mahle cast magnesium "gas burner"). I sent him an email and will post the price/availability results here when I get a reply.

If you had five 5.5"x15" steel Mangel wheels the weight savings for the entire car would be about 45 lbs. (worth approx. 6 BHP for accelleration), about 9 lbs. less unsprung weight per wheel, and less mass for the brakes to act on when slowing down. Plus, they won't rust...

(Message Edited 3/27/2003 12:35:35 PM)
FM Former Member
Jean-Paul my new car is a Speedster, VW "saphir" silver with dark blue Italian leather Speedster seats with white piping, dark blue German cloth (not Haartz) low-bow top, OEM silver/grey carpeting, full and half tonneaus, bee-hive tail lights, Carrera rear deck lid, custom VDO Porsche 356 instruments from Palo Alto Speedometer (8,000 RPM tach, 160 mph speedo, 904 uni-gauge with oil pressure/oil temp/fuel, and sweep second hand quartz clock) with correct original warning lights, OEM Porsche 356 ignition switch, dual "Speedo" rear view mirrors, quick detach chrome plated 4-point roll bar, Euro bumper guards, Porsche 356 under-dash parking brake, Espar gas heat/defrost (similar to the Ebersbacher gas heaters on some original Porsches), SoCal wide-five disk brakes with 5 1/2"x15" chrome Mangels, internal key locks for frnt and rear deck lids, rack and pinion steering, Bilstein shocks, 24mm rear torsion bars, 19mm fornt/rear anti-sway bars, long travel ball joints, reduced torsion leaves in front axle beam (dropped spindles not required with wide-five SoCal disks), quartz-halogen H4 headlights with Speedster aluminum grills, a CO2 fire extinguisher mounted forward of the shift lever, custom ratio and LSD differential 901 5-speed built by Carquip.

I'm trying to locate an original set of Carrera wheels (alloy rims riveted to steel centers) but they are very rare (could have bought some CHEAP in 1965). The aluminum replica wheels sound very interesting; do you have any more information on the source and/or price?

(Message Edited 3/27/2003 12:37:33 PM)
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