re: GTV6 vs 911 (how phat can ya get w/gtwe6 wheels/tires?)

[dsedon@domain.elided]

hi all, glenn sez:
<<<..."If it were up to me and I was setting up a car for my wife to drive I
would purchase a GTV-6, Install a 3.0 liter motor, have the interior
redone in leather, Install some 16 x 7 Rims with 50 series tires, Lower
the supension slightly and stiffen it.  Lighten the transmission gears
and give it a good paint job....">>>
=============================================
this is pretty much what i did, but i haven't gotten to the good paint yob yet...  ;~)  re: interior, i ackshully like the velour cloth.  re: wheels-n-tires, i like 225-50-15's on 15x8 wheels.  oh yeah, the car was for me, not the li'l lady...  ;~)

speaking of oversized wheels/tires, paul mitchell sez:
<<<..."Glenn--
A note on the 16X7 wheels you're considering fitting. In the course of writing the GTV-6 Project Car series at European Car magazine, we spent many days at a southern California tire shop and at Kinesis Wheels fitting and trying many different wheel and tire combinations on our slighty lowered GTV-6. After much grief and a number of skinned knuckles, we found the the GTV-6 to be very sensitive to wheel and tire size in the front. Wider wheels, or larger diameter wheels, and a number of different tire sizes would rub the rear mounts of the front airdam in jounce when turning at a minimum and in jounce when going straight in the worst case. Not a big deal on most cars, but on the GTV-6 it ripped off the airdam (!) a number of times on whatever side it rubbed, damaging the airdam progressively more each time. The airdams are very hard to find now, and ran about $300 when we finally found one.

This turned out to be a serious issue, and again after much trial fitments found that the only wheel/tire size combination that did not rub in the entire use regimen were wheels that were 15X7, 35 or 32 offset, fitted with 205/50/15 tires. We did not try 45 series tires or lower, as anything less than 225 in a 45 doesn't make much sense and is a poor compromise in several ways.

For the record the car was lowered appx. 2 inches from stock ride height in the front and 1 1/2 in the rear...">>>
=======================================
regarding rubbing of my ~32mm offset 51x8 wheels w/225-50-15's, lowered ~2.5" in the front, i, too, had a bit-o-rubbing on the back of the front air dam where it wraps inside the front wheel-well, but this was easily remedied by removing the part of the air-dam where it extends into the wheel-well.  it now comes straight down, following the contour of the fender.  ya woodn't even notice it unless it was pointed out to ya.  the only other time i get any rubbing is the inside of the tire on the inner fenderwell at the back, but only at parking-type maneuvers at walking-speed.  not really an issue.  at the rear, i had to roll the fender lip to awoid scraping the sidewalls; it's lowered only ~0.5" in the back...  these wheels/tires woodn't work if the car wasn't treated to the shankle street-sport suspension & upgraded sway-bars, i'm sure.

regards,

doug s.


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