16x7 wheels on a LWB car

[TZombek]

Good Morning gang,

Is ayone running 16x7 Fuchs on a LWB car? I'm thing about that size for my '71 to autocross with 205/55 size tires.

Any comments or suggestions?

[Jim Breazeale]

Good Morning gang,

Is ayone running 16x7 Fuchs on a LWB car? I'm thing about that size for my '71 to autocross with 205/55 size tires.

Any comments or suggestions?

Put those tires on 16 X 6 wheels, not 7s. You are sure to have rub problems with 7s.

Regards

Jim
www.easypor.com

[Chris Pomares]

Both of these cars are 912's. No rear flair SWB. My Yellow car has 6 1/2 x 16's in the rear with 205/55/16's. I added 1/2 inch to the inside and turned a 36mm offset into a 42mm offset then used a 5mm spacer to end up with a 37mm offset to center in the wheel well. I didn't like how much sidewall was sticking out over the rim with 6's. The fronts are 195's. The White car has 7x15's with a 23.3mm offset so they are moved farther to the outside. The car has 205/60/15's if I remember correctly. I would think a LWB car with a slight flair could pull off 7x16's with 205/55/16's. The picture of my Yellow car was before it was raised about a 1/2 inch and aligned. I have about another 1/8 inch to the body with about 1 1/4 degree neg on the rear. I couldn't get more neg. camber without lowering it again.
I think it also depends on the car. As these cars where built before computers and robots there seems to be slight differences between cars. I think that can account for one person thinking it can be done and another saying it can't.

[Chris Pomares]

I forgot to add this graph.

[Jim Breazeale]

"I would think a LWB car with a slight flair could pull off 7x16's with 205/55/16's."

Not a chance, expecially an AutoXer. The tires don't rub on the flair, they rub on the body about 4 inches above the flair. All it takes is once and you have bubbles in your nice paint job. I'm sure there are more than a few LWB owners on this forum that have had that, unfortunate, experience. It happens with both 7 X 16s and 7 X 15s, unless you run some 50 series tire on the 15s.

Regards

Jim
LWB with 15 X 8s on the back.

[TZombek]

Thanks for the help.

[kentf14]

I tried to run 205/60 mounted to 7X15 on my non flared '73 and had rubbing on the body as Jim described.
I've got bigger TBs and sway bars and still had rubbing under aggressive driving conditions.

[Richardnew]

6x16 on the front and 7x16 in the rear. 205/60-16 on all four corners. I've never had a problem. I do run about 1.5 degrees of negative camber though.

Richard Newton
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[lkadams]

The tires don't rub on the flair, they rub on the body about 4 inches above the flair. All it takes is once and you have bubbles in your nice paint job. I'm sure there are more than a few LWB owners on this forum that have had that, unfortunate, experience. It happens with both 7 X 16s and 7 X 15s, unless you run some 50 series tire on the 15s.

Regards

Jim
LWB with 15 X 8s on the back.

Yup. That would be me. 205/55/15 on 15x7's on a 1969 912 wtih 911 motor with a very low suspension height. Thankfully no "nice" paint job to ruin. Just accelerating the eventual restoration.

[Jens]

I'm with Jim on this. I've run 205/16s on the rear with 7" Fuchs, but it's a tight fit at best, and there is enough variation from one car to another that it might not work at all. I've also run 225/45/16s on the front with 7" Fuchs with no problems at all. But again, it's a squeeze and I think I just got lucky.

Of course you can modify the car to run anything you want if you have the time and the money and don't care about originality. On a race car, it's lap times that matter the most and all else be damned! The need for speed changes everything!