Explain Wheel offset to me please!

[d4ve86]

Right,

Looking at getting speedlines from either 172 cup and refurb them or trophy.

So looking in the articles section,

172 cup alloys 38.5mm
182 including trophy alloys 45mm
Normal speedlines on k tec 42mm
trophy colour speedlines on k tec 40mm.

Car is going to be on coilovers next month and i want to go for trophy colour wheels.

So what offset is going to fill the arches the most and give the best handling?Im confused!

Thanks very much.

 

[Turkish]

The cup wheels will. lower offset = further out in arch.

 

[thedoc]

lower offset = wider track = should be better handing.

 

[GordonD]

The wheel that's going to fill the arches best isn't necessarily the one that will give the best handling.

The suspension geometry is designed for the standard width standard offset wheel. Increasing the tyre width can improve grip. And a wider tyre needs a wider wheel. And a wider track improves cornering power. But a wider wheel and tyre is heavier stuffs up the spring and shocker operation by increasing unsprung weight. That stuffs up the ride on rough surfaces. And a wider track stuffs up the geometry. At the front the contact patch is no longer in the right position compared with the steering access. So the steering will be jerked as you go through water and over bumps. So while the grip might increase the handling characteristics can get at lot worse.

Suspension engineers aren't idiots. The design they come up with come up with for good reasons. It may not be the compromise between handling and ride that suits you best, but you can only get small improvements in grip without getting more than small bacvkward steps in handling and ride.

 

[d4ve86]

cheers for the replys,

surley the 172 cup speedlines were put on the 172 for a reason so putting them on my clio shouldnt have a - affect. And they are lighter aswell so will decrease the upsprung weight.

 

[Fred@BTM]

and i can refub them in Trophy colour (the only person that can!)

 

[d4ve86]

fred your the one who will be doing it, im hopefully getting the 172 cup wheels from *suggs*

 

[d4ve86]

can you do the wheel bolts aswell?!

 

[Fred@BTM]

yup

 

[Da]

sorry to hijack, the 182 alloys offset is 45mm and a mk2 ph2 non-sport is 37mm? So the 182 alloys would sit further into the arch than my standard wheels? I'm confused, lol! :S

 

[d4ve86]

your confused! im still confused, whats the standard offset of the mark 2 phase 2 wheels 2004 onward?

 

[Da]

37.5mm aint it? :S

 

[Lagerlout]

The wheel that's going to fill the arches best isn't necessarily the one that will give the best handling.

The suspension geometry is designed for the standard width standard offset wheel. Increasing the tyre width can improve grip. And a wider tyre needs a wider wheel. And a wider track improves cornering power. But a wider wheel and tyre is heavier stuffs up the spring and shocker operation by increasing unsprung weight. That stuffs up the ride on rough surfaces. And a wider track stuffs up the geometry. At the front the contact patch is no longer in the right position compared with the steering access. So the steering will be jerked as you go through water and over bumps. So while the grip might increase the handling characteristics can get at lot worse.

Suspension engineers aren't idiots. The design they come up with come up with for good reasons. It may not be the compromise between handling and ride that suits you best, but you can only get small improvements in grip without getting more than small bacvkward steps in handling and ride.

Thats spot on... erm.... "Gordon" but he said he's fitting coilovers.... thus any previous relation between standard springs and dampers and unsprung weight are now not important.

 

[d4ve86]

daz i have no idea at all. just want to no what wheels to get! trophy or 172 cup ones

 

[Lee]

sorry to hijack, the 182 alloys offset is 45mm and a mk2 ph2 non-sport is 37mm? So the 182 alloys would sit further into the arch than my standard wheels? I'm confused, lol! :S

The hubs are different as is the track due to different wishbones.

On the 172 Cup the wishbones were the same but they made it winder with the offset of the wheels.

I'd go with the Cup ones as they'll give you a wider track.

 

[d4ve86]

but will the rub on any arches with coilovers?

 

[Lee]

That's one for Fred to answer really. I suppose it depends how low you go and how much arch you want to grind away.

 

[Da]

Ok, cheers for clearing that up Lee. So I guess if i want the same track as standard then i shoud add 7mm (ish) spacers?

 

[d4ve86]

ermmmm dont want to grind any away really, dont want to go really low, just have a very small gap between the wheel and the outside arch so u can see in! so i guess i wont have a problem?

 

[d4ve86]

daz get eibach 10mm spacers 5mm spacer each side sorted!

 

[Da]

yeah just looking for some, cheers Dave Sorry for the hijack :rasp:

 

[d4ve86]

no worries, motorsport world or deamon tweeks