[V8] wheel spacers- observations and warning

[J123fs at aol.com]

I had been thinking about adding spacers and a rear bar to dial in the  
handling on my 91- no lowering springs for me as the roads here north of Boston  
would demand more sacrifices to the pothole gods then my budget would allow (I  
already have hammered 2.5 front wheels the past 4 yrs with 17's) and  my I 
decided to first put 15 mm hub centric spacers (on the front only) too  try to 
help out the understeer issue - here are  my observations and a note of warning: 
The supplied lugs where 38 mm- not long enough with the hat  of my big brake 
kit (which is 2 mm thicker than the UFO wheel/hub/hat seat  thickness)...I 
needed 43 mm bolts too bring enough thread engagement on the hub  flange 
(verified from the back looking in) for full engagement. So be careful  with that, you 
don't want to rip out your bolts- I have two kids in the car a  lot, and tend 
to drive spiritedly when they are not in the car- I'm lucky to  have seen 
enough race cars break/strip lugs and hubs to know to double check  these things 
and I'm glad I did, because I would have had something like 10 mm  of 
engagement on a 14 mm bolt- well short of enough engagement (should always  engage at 
least the thickness of the bolt into female end assuming it  is steel- alum 
needs an additional 30+ % ). 
I will say that I'm not sure I would widen the rear track on my/any V8  - as 
my 17x 9's ET 35 barely clear the rear fender lip as it is now with  255/40's, 
and it would just make the already understeer prone V8 understeer much  more. 
I guess if looks where the goal- not handling - then go for it.
I also ran some specs on my suspension software and widening the front  track 
30 mm total brings the F/R track widths back in line with the FWD  type 44's 
which have the same F/R track ( FWD 44's I have always felt  handled way 
better, at least on turn-in) and both lowers the front roll center,  and softens 
the effective front spring rate- both which will help the car  understeer less. 
And we all know short of stiffer rear springs (which ride like  crap) the V8's 
are hard to get rotated or to oversteer unless it's wet with full  throttle.
My local abandoned warehouse- aka personal test track-  which has a  perfect 
figure 8 course with two light poles 100 feet apart confirms my thoughts  in 
that I can now rotate the car with trailbraking in the dry- and exit much  
faster and cleaner then before. I also am running a full 1 degree of negative  
camber in the front in an effort to help the tire contact patch during cornering  
and to also help counter the outside cupping/excessive wear I have observed  
on my and other V8's front tires with stock alignment specs.
I now am happy enough with the turn in and steady state handling I'm not  
putting a rear bar on.....we will see on front tire wear though, and see if I  
can run with the full degree long term. 
BTW- I got my spacers from a no name ebay seller (hubcentric) for less than  
30 shipped- about a third the cost of H&R's with bolts (though they where  too 
short for me).....real nice for the $$.
Jack
 
 
 
 
 In a message dated 4/1/2007 10:24:15 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
v8-request at audifans.com writes:

Andrew,

Shouldn't be a problem.  You will need studs and  appropriate lug nuts.
For spacers, only go H&R, as they have the  hubcentric lip
machined-in.  I've even used the 15's with success on  ET 30 and 35mm
17x8 wheels.  Wicked ;-)  Only rubbing was inner  front fender wells on
tight turns.

HTH

Ingo

On 4/1/07,  Andrew Schlueter <andyschlueter at 4techwork.com> wrote:
> Ok guys, I  will be going lower in the next two weeks. I need some width. I 
was thinking  15mm spacers all around. I have 16x7.5 et35 bbs moda's. so what 
do you think?  17mm would be perfect for dtm look, but 15mm(9/16") would be 
real good too.  Any suggestions?


 



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