Spacers required for ET45 on 172FF??

[manicmonkey]

Hello there, Ive recently bought some lightweight 15x6.5 alloys for my 172FF, and the offset is ET45. Do I need spacers to correct this? (im keen on getting the best possible handling) FYI: The car is lowered with H&Rs and i am planning on puttin some camber correction bolts on at the same time as the alloys...

Also, ive got to buy some tyres, im choosing between 195x50x15 toyo t1-s (@ £30ea) and 195x45x15 toyo t1-s (@ £39ea). any recommendations on the tyre size? BTW, from what ive read the t1-s and t1-r are very similar, and i prefer the tread pattern on the t1-s...
Cheers

 

[Fred@BTM]

you should've gone for 7x15's IMO with an offset of ET40-ET37

 

[Fred@BTM]

yes you may need spacers

 

[manicmonkey]

yeah 15x7 would have been nice, but i didnt get any choice in the matter - i spotted a set of Sprint Hart CP-035's going for £440... im sure they normally go for 250 each, and best of all they only weight 4.58kg each!!!

anyway.... what size would you recommend? the original FF alloys are ET37? so 7mm spacers?

 

[Fred@BTM]

no the original 172 ff alloys (mk2) are ET48 (i think, maybe ET45 or 43, i will go check)

the cups have ET38, handling is muchos better

 

[GordonD]

To get the same track width with an ET45 wheel as you had with an ET37 wheel you need an 8 mm spacer.

But on a 6.5" wide wheel a nominally 195 section tyre is actually 6 mm narrower across the bag than it is on a 7" wide wheel. So you can move the wheel a further 3 mm out before it rubs up against the outer guard at the rear. That is if its the wall of the tyre that rubs and limits how wide a tyre you can fit. So add a further 3 mm to the spacer because of that.

The next thing to take into conseration is how much clearance there is there. I've heard that there's at least 5 mm. There must be if you can put a 205 tyre on.

So the answer, if you want as wide a track as possible, is that you should be able to fit at least a 10 mm spacer, and you might even be able to fit a 15 mm spacer. And if you looked at where it touched and ground that off it might be possible to fit a 20 mm spacer.