sport wheels

[vdubdriver]

I'm kicking around the idea of putting "Sport" wheels on my '73 super beetle. If I remember correctly, these wheels came 4.5" wide on the Super Beetle, but identical 5.5" wide wheels were used on the Porshe 914. My question is how fat of a tire could I put on the 5.5" sport wheels?

[harleyh77]

I'm not an expert but I think I saw somewhere you could go up to an 8 inch wide tire on a 5.5 rim.

[teamafx]

This chart might help.

customwheelsmarket.com/rimwheelwidth1.html

[dubfreak1]

The offset will also affect tire selection. There are 2 different offset that I've seen on the 5.5 "sport" rims. The 914 Porsche rims are ET40 and the VW Sport Bug rims are ET26.

I don't think the ET40 rims will fit on the front of a 3 bolt Super front end unless you cut off the stud on the ball joint. Even then there may be other interferences (spring?)

[vdubdriver]

Feb 8, 2011 7:14:27 GMT -5 teamafx said:

This chart might help.

customwheelsmarket.com/rimwheelwidth1.html

Thanks for the info. It looks like I could put a 205/55/15 on the 5.5" Sport rim. That would be plenty wide for the rear tires.

[vdubdriver]

Feb 8, 2011 8:04:55 GMT -5 dubfreak1 said:

The offset will also affect tire selection. There are 2 different offset that I've seen on the 5.5 "sport" rims. The 914 Porsche rims are ET40 and the VW Sport Bug rims are ET26.

I don't think the ET40 rims will fit on the front of a 3 bolt Super front end unless you cut off the stud on the ball joint. Even then there may be other interferences (spring?)

I'm thinking of putting the 4.5" Sport wheels in front with a 145/15 or 155/15 tire. I'll put the 5.5" Sort wheels in back with 205/55/15 tires if they fit under the fender.