Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

I'm looking at possibly putting Boxster S wheels on my 1982 944. it's an early car running the standard 7" wide teledial and 215 70 15. I would require spacers to get the look right in the arches and not disturb the car too much

My question is that the wheels I'm thinking of are 7" front and 8.5" rear with the following tyres: 205 50 17 on front, 255 40 17 on rear

Considering it's only the 2.5 and not likely to get much modified, are the rear tyres too fat?
Does anyone run these wheels and similar tyres on their 944?

I know mine is a turbo but it came from the factory with 245 rear tyres and I use 265 wide tyres on 9" wide 993 rims with no problems, so I'd have thought 255 would be no problem.

If it doesn't have power steering you may find the lower profile tyres even harder work. In theory you should change the caster mounts to 968 ones & reset the geometry. If the bushes & dampers aren't 100% you may find the extra unsprung weight makes it a bit of a handful & spacers will make this worse. Wheel bearing life maybe reduced but given the relatively low mileage most do that shouldn't be an issue.

They are not to fat but you will need spacers on an 82 car.

Rich

The main downside is the wheel bearings. If you can get rubber in the stock size I would stick with them. My car came with 17's & they look good. But bearings become service items & there not easy to replace. (If it's not a daily drive then that won't be an issue.) It puts more stress on your roll bars & bushes etc. Could be extra cost in fitting new drop links etc. As to power you can still unstick the rears if you try on mine. But it is very fit.

Thanks for the replies.
The car isn't my daily driver and covers about 4k through the year.
I do like the style of the wheels so may look to get four wheels, all 7" wide with possibly go for 225 rear tyres.
The bearings on the car are presently ok so I am happy to budget for keeping things in good order in the future. Was considering having the geometry set up as part of the upgrading.

Edited to say:

I'm surprise but just one these on Ebay (no 230472456816) as no-one else bid.
At that price, I can afford to consider several options or possibly sell them off for more money

I run 255/40/17 rear and 225/45/17 fronts on my S2 but like the others have said without power steering and 968 castor bushes it might be hard work and also damaging to the bearings and front bushes. 205 seems wrong for the fronts I would have thought 215 at least my 924S ran 205 as standard and the front to rear profile is normally only 5% different plus as stated you will need spacers for an early car offset.

I ran my lux for a while on Turbo sizes 225 F & 245 R & it destroyed the steering feel & made the steering quite heavy.