N12 Turbo Forums

Hi Guys,

I'm currently in the process of building an ET mainly to use for hillclimbs and track days and am struggling to find suitable wheels. Ideally I'm looking for 15" wheels but I'm discovering that these are becoming somewhat hard to come by (new) in a style I like. 17" wheels appear to be plentiful on the market however I'm not sure how they perform in a race environment?

Has anybody used 17" wheels that can provide feedback on their performance? Alternatively if anyone had any suggestions where I could possibly find somewhere that still sells 15" for older style vehicles that don't look like shite, I'd be happy to hear.

Cheers

15 are a very blah size now.

Still some 16's around and is what i use with 205 x 45 tyres. Plenty of smaller cars come with 16's stock.

Needs some rear guard rolling at the back and control arm clearancing.
Also needs 5mm spacers/longer studs. Rubs a little inside the rear guards on full bump but no biggie.
i dont remember what the offset is tho sorry. You can work that out easily yourself tho.
I dont have any dramas with flatout driving. Nothing hits.

ETKing uses 17's on his with 205 x 45. Needed rear guard rolling and control arm clearancing + spacers and longer studs. I think he still gets a bit of rubbing here and there. I dont know about the front guards.
17's are getting on now but still good choice of tyres available.

His car points, steers and grips very well with the 17's on.

Oracle

Thanks a lot Oracle, that's exactly the info I was after. I hadn't really considered the 16" option but after reading that I might lean towards that way.

Cheers

Jimmy,

My experience with this: 17's I have are mainly used for getting around and non-race activities because the rears scrape on inner (rolled guards) a little too much with 215's onboard. Work well on front though. So on a practice day - I'd run 17's on front and 15's on the back, depending on what I was trying to do.

15's for racing seem to work the best for me. 205/50/R15. I'm using mazda 929 rims - but equally TRX rims work the same. I find there is a larger range of semi slick brands and sizes to choose from and they are slightly cheaper in 15 than 17.

PS -> Posts above mods are required to get 17's on.

If you just want 1 set of wheels to do all - I'd get 17's in the correct offset and 195 or 205 width semi slicks. I'm using Achilles 123's but yeah - name your brand after that

I have a set of TRX's spare but you in tassy...

Darren.

Thanks very much, Darren. I have been considering the TRX wheels as an option as they seem to suit the ET's and I like how it keeps the car in "period".

It's not going to see the street very often, maybe the occasional squirt down to the shops, so I think the semi slicks would also be a good option.

These are just my thoughts, but why would you race on 17's.??

Sure you would get some reduced tire sidewall roll, however assuming you are running stock diff ratios, wouldn't you also be throwing away fist fulls of torque & HP with the increased increase in overall diameter.?


I'd personally be trying to stick as close to factory wheel / tyre rolling dia. as possible, therefore limiting wheel selection to 15 or 16inch dia. max.


An issue with "factory" rims are that they can be a little on the narrow side for ideal race tyre fitment. IE there isn't much point tyring to fit a 215 onto a 5.5inch rim. This is probably more of a consideration if you intend to run in a class, with a control tyre.

Chopper,

Yep you are correct diff ratio's for circuit racing, or any play round really. The standard diff ratio is a pain in the arse. The actual N12 ratios are a little useless as well. N13 with the larger final drive ratio and closer 2,3,4 would sort 2 problems.

But the circumference difference between the 15's and 17's isn't as significant as I thought, because of the small aspect ratio of the 17's. I'll trawl thru the books cos I can't remember the exact numbers.

Daz

do it

http://www.importmonster.com.au/shop/pr ... ts_id=1766

^^ what he said gun metal grey looks amazing with most colors and hides the brake dust