Wishbones seam welded...

Whats why wider track via wishbones is better than wider track via wheel ET


Knew golden would slip in the scrub radius and KPI - he loves those

 

Time to get the measurinng tools out again. Gonna have to work out how much to mill off the hubs of my alloys.

Who's gonna take the work out for me? What et should I use for a 6, 6.5 & 7 inch x15 inch wheels on a mk1 golf gti?
Edited by: vw_singh

 

THE ideal Et is the same for all of them

And its just the standard VW ET of -35

 

I am gonna start a new topic....

 

Sorry it's my pet hate, all I could hear walking round inters this year was "I've gone back to 15's from 17's" (next bloke) "yeah 17's make 'em 'tramline'". Tramline, there's a most technical term. There's nothing wrong with 17's if you keep the factory geometery, trouble is most people whack on 17's with non factory offset to get a 'look' or arch clearence.

 

I used 17's wil factory offset and it handled crap.

Sorry to disapoint you Golden

 

But was it the offset, size of wheel or the extra unsprung weight that made the difference?

 

Well the offset is the same as VW wheels and my Compomotives.

 

Not to be picky Tub but I said factory geometery, not offset

 

Geometry was also factory.

 

You had standard ride hieght, camber, tracking and tire pressures?

 

Yep.

 

Now I don't know if you're pulling my leg or not

 

Tyre size and make have got to come into the equation, I went up to a 16 from a 15 without much difference (same ET & same make of tyre) but the range of tyres Id used while on the 15 gave totally different characteristics. Maybe the change in handling is more to do with going from one make and tyre size to another, you couldnt change much more at the same time the.......ET, rim size, tyre size and tyre make

 

Put it like this.

My old 8v had my Spax coilovers, 17" rims and standard VW alignment - handled crap.

I swapped wheels - nothing else, just wheels - to 15" and it transformed the car.

 

Could be the amount of sidewall flex or the change in unsprung weight or both

 

My bet would be the combination of uprated springs with very low profile tyres.

Once you get into proper suspension tuning you have to forget the spring rate and start talking about the wheel rate. The wheel rate is the overall stiffness at each wheel, which takes in to account tyre fex, change of spring angle, any change in leverage due to linkage design, the list goes on and on.

When you change to much lower profile tyres the wheel rate goes up massively, meaning your spring/damper combination may be way off.

Tub, define "handled crap"

 

Handled crap:

Turn in was vague and not as sharp as with 15's.
Car understeared earlier at lower speeds.
Car was more easily unsettled through corners.
Was less repsonsive to correcting steering inputs.
Would pull around on the road with any contours.

 

Probably more to do with the 17's being over 7inches wide with 205 tyres!

 

But the point is:

17's handle crap