7'' Wheels

[Garry 1]

I have been considering this for a while and thought I would ask for some feed back.

 

Since fitting the charger the brakes get a fair bit hotter, so I am thinking about an open face wheel design like the Pro race 1.2 (with the benefit of lighter weight too). I plan to run 195/50 R15 to keep the tyres costs down.

 

So,

 

1) Will ET15 7''wide wheels fit on the rear end running a 309 beam? (probably not methinks!)

2) Will the above be OK on the front?

3) if the answer to 1) is no, has anyone run wider front wheels? Whats it like? ( Oli H does this and seems to like it).

4) If the 7'' wheels do fit OK on the front there is also the option of running 205/50 profile tyres, which should yeald a bit more grip?

 

Thanks

[Cameron 16]

Hi Garry,

 

I'm running 15" x 7" Pro Race 1.2's on mine, it's absolutely fine on the rear with the standard 205 beam, but I can't comment on how it would be with a 309 beam. The front is quite close to my arch trims with 309 wishbones, although mine is also quite low! I had to cut the horizontal lips out of the inside of the arch trims to stop them rubbing the tyres, and since I've done that the only scraping I get is over bumps on large amounts of lock.

 

Edit: Forgot to mention this is with 195/50/15 tyres

Edited August 24, 2010 by Cameron

[Anthony 1,002]

7" wide wheels aren't going to work with a 309 beam without replacing the plastic arches with something wider I'm afraid.

 

Could you not just run some kind of ducting to the front brakes? I appreciate that frontal area is at a premium on your car, but certainly that would seem like the easiest and most effective method of cooling the brakes to me, rather than a change of wheel design that may or may not allow extra cooling.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

Easy, Fit a 205 rear beam then they fit fine, you can even get 8's on

[Anthony 1,002]

To give you an idea of the issue with wide wheels and 309 beams, see post #149 on Platty's build thread here and remember that is using SL434's which are less than 7" wide.

 

To run wide wheels, you're either going to need some suitably wide/flaired arches, or as Miles says, run a narrower 205 beam.

[Baz 421]

SL434's are probably about the same as a more generic Pug offset (18 or so) 7" wheels as they only ET8, so will sit a bit further out.

 

If you have some with a slightly bigger offset, 25 or so?, they may be alright with a 309 beam.

[Tesstuff 222]

With my standard Gentry beam , which is the same as a 1.6Gti , 7 x 16 wheels with 195/45/16 tyres fit comfortably and give the appearance of having a 309 beam

 

So Miles' advice is spot on.

[Baz 421]

Just to add, i run a few sets of 7" wide wheels also. On the front there's certainly no problems.

[oli-pug 6 2 Cars]

Front is no problem. I have 7" et16 with 205/50s and there's plenty of clearance.

 

Rears is tight with the 309 beam, et15 might be marginal. I'm now on 7" superleggera, et17 and 195/50 with a 309 beam Garry and it just about works. I've cut the inner edge off the arch trim and run it pretty low and just misses. More camber would help which i'll be taking care of soon.

 

If you run a high offset 7" wide rim on the rear, you need to watch out for tyre clearance at the front of the trailing arm depending on your toe setting.

[Garry 1]

I was thinking of running 7'' at the front and speedlines on the rear.

 

The likes of Vx220/ Elise/ MR2/ BMW's that run wider rear wheels than the fronts got me thinking (albeit the other way around) and the FWD drag cars that run massive wheels.

Also on the 205 and in particular my car, there is little weight on the rear wheels, it all sits over the front plus FWD justified in my head that wider rear wheels aren't needed.

[oli-pug 6 2 Cars]

Yes that's how I was running at Rockingham and it worked well.

 

 

Only reason I fitted 7" wheels to the rear was because I already had the full set of O.Z's and I thought it looked better having matching wheels all round. Maybe If you put 2 of the dimma front fitment wheels on, that would look decent I think

[Matt Holley 11]

I ran 7j wheels last year with a 309 beam, after it had rubbed away the plastic arch's on the rear it was fine.

 

[Wes 86 1 Cars]

i ran them 15x7 et15 on 1.6 front hubs and a 205 beam, they never rubbed. i think it all depends on how low the car is.

 

[oli-pug 6 2 Cars]

Took these earlier, think this is the limit before arch work is done