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Porsche 18" rims Verses Australian country roads


au-yt

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Hi All ,

I am returning to the Porsche fraternity after 26 years  and I am looking at a 993 C2S Trip which has 18” rims.

I have a niggling concern about very low profile tyres and their ability to cope with roads in the central west of NSW.

I would like others experience with this and whether I should go for a smaller rim higher profile tire with the obvious disadvantages of road performance.?

 

Graeme

PS must get myself an avatar

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The difference between cheap wheels and quality wheels: quality wheels will bend or buckle on impact but hold together. Cheap ones will shatter(!!).

If your suspension and tires are decent you should be OK.

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I have 18" aftermarket wheels which replaced the original Cups.

There is no doubt that the ride s firmer than the 17s. As.with any car you really need to watch out for pot holes and road damage.

I buckled two rims when the Boxster in front of me moved at the last minute to avoid a massive pot hole and did not give me enough time, or maybe I was just too close, and over the top I went.

Rusult was two buckled rims which got re-rolled. Seems that the buckle has slightly returned on one of them and the rim is at the shop again. You just need to be sensible and careful.

Note that if you put 18s on your 993 you must also put in a steering rack brace. This was in one of Porsche's workshop bulletins and is a relatively inexpensive part and used to strengthen the rack due to the additional stress of the 18s.

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The difference between cheap wheels and quality wheels: quality wheels will bend or buckle on impact but hold together. Cheap ones will shatter(!!).

 

Agreed.  My son had Advanti 17" rims on his BMW E30.  The ride was aweful with the 45 series tyres. Anyway, one night he hit a small pothole on the left side of the car and a piece about 3 1/2" long broke out of the front & rear rims at the bead edge.  When I looked at the broken areas the castings were very porous.  We scrapped the lot and put the original BBS forged alloys back on.  Eventually the car got wrecked in an accident (he was OK fortunately).  1 of the original alloy rims was buckled beyond repair, but not broken. 

 

Cheap is cheap for a reason.

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I've had 18s, 19s and now 20s on the last 5 HSVs I've owned and never had a problem. Done plenty of hwy driving and towing the boat also. I drove to Wilsons Prom on the weekend and the road from the freeway after Cranbourne all the way to Tidal River is the worst road I've ever driven on. At one point I thought the front strut towers were going to come shooting through the bonnet. Anyway no damage to any rims so it really is about quality of the wheel.

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Tman - is this the only change required to run 18 inch wheels on a 993?

Given that the 993 came in early years with the 16 and 17 inch cup wheels, are any further modifications required to safely run 18 inch wheels ( other than the obvious maintaining rolling diameter and et alignments).

My first p car was a 944s and I seem to recall the factory prohibiting greater than 17s because the geometry was just not set up for them (unless my memory is playing tricks on me).

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