Vintage Rally Car Wheels - Seeking Opinions

[Richard]

John,
Like Harvey, I also like the look of steel wheels on early Porsches. My thoughts on what to do regarding your car are: #1. Do what you think looks best...and what you want to do. Wheels are easy (not cheap...but easy) because they can be changed quickly which also changes the look of the car. If you pick steelies now you can enjoy them for awhile and easily change to some other wheel look in the future if you want to. #2. 1967 was kind of a crossover year between steelies and Fuchs for 911's. The "S" cars of course came came with Fuchs. The other 911s didn't. So you can't go wrong either way. Earlier 911's (including rally cars) ran only steelies.

A few years ago I redid a '67S. While prepping it for paint, and painting it I used an old set of steel wheels that I'd used for racing 30 years ago. I call them my paint wheels. The rears are 7's and the fronts are 5.5". I posted a couple of pictures of the project and I can't count how many PM's and emails I got asking if I was interested in selling the steelies. (I wasn't). Steel wheels that weren't worth anything a few years ago are now the darling I guess.

Attached are two pictures. The first shows my '67S after paint but before reassembly with my "paint" steel wheels. The second shows the car reassembled as a rally car and running Fuchs. I don't think that you can go wrong with either choice. You'll have to decide what you like best but I hope these two pictures help.

[Frank Barrett]

Friends:

Back in the old daze, painted steel wheels were used because they were: available, cheap, strong. Today, when you show up with a 911 with steel wheels, people can't believe they are authentic. Ha! In fact, they have a great tradition: 904s, 906s, etc. Go for it!

[EA911]

I'm running with steelies but that is because my car came with steelies. Deep sixes was on the plan but the steels have grown on me and I'm keeping them, however, i might widen them a bit and change the offset so I don't need spacers.

For your car I would keep what you have. I wished i had a set like yours to swap out and to me it looks right for your car.

[John Straub]

John...the wheels I had from "back in the Day" were made from wider outers being welded on the stock centers.

It's a great look...I still have one 7" like that I keep as a spare...go for it.

John

[John Straub]

Here is the front and back of the spare 7". Pretty heavy at, 21lbs.

John

[gruen911]

Hi John,

I am thinking about the same Fuchs wheel combination like you use right now!

Could you please let me know which spacer size and tire you use for the rear? Do you have flared fenders or still the originals?

Thank you very much.

Best
Claudius

Hi Claudius. Frohe Weinachten. I have three deep 6's that I am planning to sell in the next few weeks. I just did an amateur polish and repaint on the first wheel. It has a date stamp of 11/68 on it. Not sure about the other two yet. They also have the heart (or hump as some refer to it). Le me know if you are in the market. Of course, shipping prices will be very cheap I have a complete set of shallow 6's now for my 73T so the deep 6's are just taking up space...

[Tom F.]

I think of steel wheels when I'm thinking of snow tires. For my Suburban. My rusty Suburban.

[jaudette3]

The early rally cars have a dash of Suburban in them.

Cheers,
JohnA

[Greg D.]

I was under the impression that size for size, a steel wheel was always much heavier than a Fuchs. Say for a 15x6 it was 11 lbs fuchs vs. 20 lbs steel...

If that scales up to your big wheels the steelies could be detrimental to driving feel via unsprung weight...

I'm on the same boat except I recently discovered my car has fake fuchs in 15x6, and I suspect that those fakes are probably already as heavy as steelies anyway - I'd have to remove a tire and weigh them! in which case no harm done if I go to steel !

Tires also vary a lot in weight, I've found... We don't always think about this, there is a massive difference from brand to brand, if you look on Tire rack!

[CurtEgerer]

I've been running 6.5x15 steelies on 205/60s for a while. They are very heavy. I was warned by more then a few people that the trademark responsive steering feel of the 911 would be lost and that my brakes would overheat because the steel acts as a heat sink and they are not vented well.

Neither happened, even on the track. I suppose if I did back-to-back runs swapping out the Fuchs, a difference in steering feel would be felt. My theory going in was that the factory used steelies on race cars for many years - that's good enough for me.