Hi all -

I'm looking to put on some Champion RG5 Wheels on my C4S.

The dealer won't have the RG5's made for the C4S for 2 more months but has a set that will fit with spacers.

Questions:
1) Do spacers have any negative effect vs waiting for the standard size fit for my C4S?
2) Aesthetically will they look the same or are the C4S wheels "wider"?

I'm anxious to put new wheels on - am I crazy for considering this vs waiting?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

Spacers are not as strong as having the correct sized wheel. There is more pressure on the longer bolts. However with all that said for street driving you will be fine if you do not want to wait.

 

There's a good link to a wheel tire size calc tool: http://www.wheelsmaster.com/rt_specs.jsp

You can see that the width and diameter of the wheel is not dependent on the offset (to a point). Usually different offsets are created by making the the spokes deeper or less deep into the rim or by making the hub reach deeper into the wheel or by having the spokes/hub lean in (concave) for the rears on out a bit (convex) for the fronts, or maybe just deeper inselt bolts for the rears - different style wheels do this in different ways. You can even see in my avatar the concave rear and convex front effect.

You can also see in the link that the offset is the distance from the inside of the hub to the center of the line of tire, so wider body cars have less offset in the rear (hub closer to the center line) which pushes the wheels out a bit. Although, you also notice to have lower offsets, the hub will be further in = more rim, or more convex tilt in, or deeper hub impression, all to push the wheels out to the fender edges. So this is going to change how your rear wheels look a bit.

 

Thanks.. yes - this is for street driving only. If I track the car it would be rare.

Aesthetically would it look any different than the proper sized wheel?

 

I'm pretty sure these wheels are ONLY made for Porsche. They are made by Champion which as far as I know only make wheels for Porsche.

Thanks for the reply.. lots of very good info.

 

Wide bodied cars like C4S and Targas that had Carrera Sport wheels all came with factory 17mm spacers, since the Carrera Sports have a 65mm offset, and the same wheel is used on both narrow body and wide body cars. One thing to note is that the factory spacers are actually bolted to the hub, and the wheels are bolted to the spacer, whereas most aftermarket spacers float between the hub and the wheel, and longer bolts go through the spacer to the hub.

I had my Champion RG5B wheels, with 62mm offset, on my Targa with 18mm spacers (with long bolts through the spacers), and had no trouble with them, including autocrossing. BTW, I wasn't able to mount the Champions to the factory 17mm spacers because the Champions, unlike the factory Carrera Sport wheels, don't have reliefs on the back side between the bolt holes, so won't fit over the stud bolts on the spacers.

 

I have spacers on my car, but they are used to push the wheels out to the edge of the fenders. In your case you need them to make the wheels work on your car. Have you tried to see if another dealer has the wheels you need and want.

If you are really hell bent to get these wheels then you can get away with them, just make sure you get longer bolts.

 

Using wheel spacers are fine and a lot of forum members use them with no problems. If you only have to wait 2 months for the set w/o spacers then wait. Get what you want and with the offset best suited for your model.

 

Sorry - brain crash - I had it backwards - spacers push the NB Wheels out to fit WB - duh! Post edited.

 

Strange as this may sound.. I bought my car from Champion (I live in South Florida) and am getting the Champion wheels directly from Champion... but for some reason they don't have the wheels in stock and won't for 2 more months.

 

I would wait 2 months rather than put spacer .

 

How does Champion not have these for 2 months? Don't they make them? Or do they have them made to there specs?

 

agreed

 

I'd wait and avoid buying wheels that require spacers for the following reason. Porsche offsets are very conservative. On my C4S, I have the turbo wheels ET 51 (recommended size for wide bodies) and the wheels seriously look sunken in to me. So I tried Porsche 5mm spacers and it still didn't look right. Now I have 15mm spacers and it looks much better. So, if you want a more aggressive look in the future, and you already had 17mm spacers (the difference between the NB and WB), you would have to get a 32 mm spacer which I think is HUGE!

 

Porsche OEM spacers are 5mm and that's as far as i will go on my cars. I have them on the white PDK for the same reasons that NorthVan mentions .

I was more hesitant with the Turbo but had to gain clearance when I added the BBK system. Again we chose OEM spacers . At one point I almost replaced the wheel but I just love the C20.