Wheels for an SC

[ronaldtrotter]

Will 7x15 phone dials fit an SC. They have a 23.5 offset and a part number of 951.362.104.00 I can't find it on the wheel fitment charts I have.

[Don Middleton]

Ron, with a 23mm offset on a 7" wheel, your backspace would be 112mm. This is same as the "standard" 911 Fuchs wheel. So, you should be good to go...

[Dan Chambers]

Yep. In one publication I read on 911's (doin' the homework before the purchase) I saw an early SC with Phone Dials. should work if they're early-year offset phone dials (pre-'87). Personally, I don't know if they're as light as Cookie Cutters or Fuchs. Got a bathroon scale?

At any rate, I think 15's are definitely the way to go.

[Pete Millikin]

Here are my two favorite wheel sites:
Bill Verburg's site with lots of good fitment info.

http://members.rennlist.com/1976c38/index.html

Sherwood Lee's site for wheel weights
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars/WheelWts.html


I don't see the 15" part number but 16x7" phone dials fit with a little work in front w 23 mm offset. You are probably safe since the overall diameter is smaller than 16" and the 23 mm offset is correct for the front.

Rears typically have less offset due to wider size but will work

Phone dials are heavier than Fuchs

[Mike]

Hi Ron,
I have run both the 7x15 Cookie and Phone dial rims on my 69 RS clone.
The car had turbo brakes and the phone dials provided just a little better caliper clearance.
The cookie rims needed another 1/4 inch spacer for caliper clearance.
Maybe Tom Tweed will see this, he was my rim expert a couple years ago when I switched to 7x15 rims and cantilever slicks.

Are you thinking of cantilver slicks too Ron? I know a source for used ones, only $80 each, 23x9 wide.

[ronaldtrotter]

No Mike not slicks. With 15's I thought maybe Toyo's. I can only get 2 points before I change class. I could win the class I changed to because most the time I'd be the only car in it. But as soon as someone to else ran they'd beat me. Maybe with the Toyo's and a little skill I could get out of last place. I think the skill is what I'm lacking at this time.

[ttweed]

Maybe Tom Tweed will see this

Yah, I saw this thread, but Ron got correct info about the 7x15" phone dials right away from Don, so I didn't respond. Dan also mentioned correctly that it is only the early offset phone dials that work on the early 911s. In '87, the offset changed to 52mm or so, which is too deep to use without spacers.

My question for Ron would be why would you choose a 7x15" rim if you are not going to run cantilever slicks? To optimize your SC on Toyos, you can run a 225 tire without adding any more points, no? A 225 will work best on an 8" rim by providing better sidewall support. They will fit on a 7" rim, but there will be more deflection under side loading.

The ideal setup for what you are trying to do, in my mind, would be to use the 951 8x16" Fuchs in the front, and the 911 8x16" in the rear, w/ 225s all around. This will keep you under the 2-point increase limit you specified, and fit easily under the SC fenders, but it is a much more expensive option, as the Fuchs rims are dear compared to the cookies or phone dials. But as they say, what part of this racing thing did you expect would be easy and cheap? You might consider some of the lightweight aftermarket wheels in the same size and offset as the Fuchs, which might save a little money, but not look "correct" for your car.

If you are going to run 7x15" all around, due to budget constraints, I would at least add a 22mm to 1" spacer on the rear wheels to increase your track (by no more than 2", thus incurring no additional points). This will fill out your wheel wells nicely, and eliminate some of the increased oversteer you will experience with that setup.

That's my $.02, and worth everything you paid for it.

TT

[ronaldtrotter]

Thanks Tom and everyone else. Budget is an issue. A set of four 8" wheels are almost worth more then my car. If I could get a decent set of 8's I'd even go to steels. But everyone I checked with doesn't do them. I can get these phone dials fairly cheaply. Anyway thanks for the info. If I get the 7x15's I'll go the way Tom suggested.

[Mike]

, add a 22mm to 1" spacer on the rear wheels TT

Hey Ron check your stud lengths, on my car when I added the wider rear spacer I had to instal longer studs too.
But once you had the 7s, just for fun you could try a set of used slicks, just change tires when you get to the event.

[ttweed]

I can get these phone dials fairly cheaply.

Yah, the cost is an issue, and the phone dials are cheap, because few people want them anymore. I paid $200 plus shipping for my set of 4 early 7x15" phone dials, and refinished them with a rattle can of semi-flat black and some masking tape and sandpaper for less than $10. You can't buy a single 7x15" Fuchs wheel for that kind of money anymore, much less an 8x16", which are going for $8-1200 per pair.

I tried Diamond Racing wheels a long time ago, to try to get an 8x15" steel wheel from them for the Porsche 5x130 lug circle, but they are limited to 4.5" backspacing in that size, which will not work for the front of a 911. The best you could probably do in today's market would be to have Rich Bogart make up some custom 8x15" 3-piece alloys in the correct offsets to fit the 225/45-15 RA1s perfectly without spacers. This would still run you over $1200 for the set, but would be the lightest, fastest setup (w/ lower final drive gearing for autox than the 16s) that you could mount in your situation. The question is whether it's worth $1000 more to you. Everyone has their own priorities.

TT

[ttweed]

, add a 22mm to 1" spacer on the rear wheels TT

Hey Ron check your stud lengths, on my car when I added the wider rear spacer I had to instal longer studs too.

This used to be an issue in Zone 8 before the rule change this year to allow properly fabricated and installed adapters instead of spacers. Now you can buy a TUV-certified adapter on the used market for about $100/pair and not have to worry about changing out your studs.

TT