A friend of mine has rims from a 1995 996 Cabriolet. The bolt pattern matches up to my 1984 944. We noticed that the inside of the rear tire will be rubbing if the 996 rims were mounted on my car. What size spacer will I need to put the 996 rims on my 944? I saw spacers on www.944online.com taht were an inch and half....will this be enough? Will i need them for the front aswell? Thank you to any one whoposts...Scott and Doc thanks for the help with the Mesh grill....cant wait to see the pics...Thanks guys!!

 

Lets see, for sure you will need spacers, and I am certain you will need to roll the fenders to get any 18" rims to fit. The early offset wheels are 23.3 IIRC (or very close to that), late offset being 52 for the 944 and IIRC the 996 uses something like 48 and 50 offsets. If the bolt pattern is correct, then with the appropriate spacers they should fit. Inch and a half spacers should do the trick i would think.

 

What color is this?

 

To give you a definitive answer, I'd need to know the exact offset of the new rims. Your current rims (assuming they are stock) have an offset of 23.3mm - commonly refered to as an "early offset". The 996 has late offset rims, but they should fit with spacers. If the offset on the 996 rims is 52mm (common size for Cup I and 993 Cups), then you will need a 21mm spacer in the front and a 28mm spacer in the rear. Since your car is an 84, you may already have the 21mm spacer on the rear of your car. I do not recall when Porsche quit putting spacers on the rear, but all 83's have these and I believe the 84's did also. The use of spacers will require longer studs though, so keep that in mind.
Porsche does not recommend a 17" wheel though, and they certainly do not approve of anything larger. However, there is a Porsche tech paper out on what you need to change to go to 17" wheels.

 

So would you say it is worth putting these rims on the my car? I am going to have picturs of the rims....so yall can see.

 

If you can get them to fit with spacers, i say go for it, newer rims are always nice

 

I'd take a serious look at the weight of the wheel/tire combo before you spring for it. Series I 944's aren't blessed with an overabundence of power (hence all teh "how do I turbo my NA?" posts that we get here), and I will absolutely promise you that you will HATE your car if you put heavier wheels on it than you currently have. It may be "bling bling, yo!" looking, but it will kill the feel and performance of the vehicle. By the time you add the weight of the spacers and bigger wheels, you'll be adding at least 10lbs per wheel, I bet, and triple the steering effort required to steer the car, and have a car that tramlines like crazy. I'd look for the lightest 16" combo you can find, it will feel like you added 30hp, honest. I am running some 16" rims that weigh a whopping 12lbs with Firestone SZ50's on my '84, and of all the Porsches I have owned, that one is still my favorite to drive. Another bonus to going with 16" is they are a heck of a lot cheaper, and I personally think they look like they fit 944's better than 18's. I think 17's are the largest thing that look "proper on a 944, but thats just me and your opinions about what looks good are certainly your perogative.

Keith (icat) is right, there are warnings in the service bulletins Porsche put out about running wheels larger than 17" on 944's of any year. The extra load put on the suspension can cause premature wear/failure of the controls arms, ball joints and spindles, which can lead to catastophic damage if any of them fail while the car is moving. Be careful, and inspect your suspension often if doing this mod.

Regards,

 

many folks think anything bigger than 16's with the car lowered is/can be a problem.

weight.
i'm not concearned about weight of wheels, like the a/c to work and don't have a gutted interior.

i like the looks of the car and get a lot of compliments.





[IMG]local://upfiles/997/B39547B80ED6455B8A11265841C37208.jpg[/IMG]

 

Yea, those rims do look solid on that color car....nice choice

 

thank you