Can you track and street a Bug?

[SparksLP]

Cool, thanks. I was looking at like a 195/50-195/55 for the front of mine, since I put the drop spindles on it this year. Gives me something to look into!

[ps2375]

The 195's are a touch too wide. Well, they can rub at/near full lock. I think it is the tires, but could be the rims hitting the old style sway bar mounts, I changed them to the T-Bar strap style, but that was after the last race. So I won't know if that stopped the rubbing until next year.

[H2OSB]

The 195's are a touch too wide. Well, they can rub at/near full lock. I think it is the tires, but could be the rims hitting the old style sway bar mounts, I changed them to the T-Bar strap style, but that was after the last race. So I won't know if that stopped the rubbing until next year.

I run 185 60 15F and 205 55 15R on one car('73 Super Beetle) and 186 65 15F and 205 60 15R on the other('74 Super Beetle), but for autocrossing I WAS going to run 205 50 15s all around on a second set of 15x5.5 wheels. But they rub eh? Glad I found that out before buying the tires.

H2OSB

[SparksLP]

I think it depends on how you lower your car too. There was a guy with a Beetle at the Put-in-Bay Vintage Races in September who had 205/50r15's all the way around. I assume he wasn't rubbing anyway... I was thinking that the 195/55s would be okay, I have 185/60s on it now and they only rub under hard cornering. The 195/55s are technically smaller in diameter. But since I have a stock width beam and EMPI GT-5s, they stick out a bit, haha.

[SparksLP]

Also, I'll probably have slightly different rubbing issues just because of the fender/front end differences between my '66 and the later style Bugs.

[H2OSB]

Also, I'll probably have slightly different rubbing issues just because of the fender/front end differences between my '66 and the later style Bugs.

True, and wheel offset plays a part as well. I have 15x5.5 wheels, but I have Porsche brakes so 5x130 pcd. I use steel wheels that lived their previous life as Porsche 944 space saver spares. ET30. I'm trying to get a set together of the alloy 944T spares. They're also ET30 and 15x5.5, but weigh about 12lbs per wheel. This is all for my '74, which I plan to be autocrossing eventually. The '73 still has 4x130 pcd.

H2OSB

[SparksLP]

I have the stock style steel wheels, but I'd like to have them widened and adjusted to give them better clearance. Time and money, time and money...

[H2OSB]

Sparks, where are you located(roughly)? You said Put-in-Bay so made me think of the Bay Area in CA. If so, I know of a well known shop for wheel work.

H2OSB

[SparksLP]

Oh, sorry. I'm in Ohio. Put-in-Bay is up on Lake Erie near Cleveland.

[H2OSB]

Oh, sorry. I'm in Ohio. Put-in-Bay is up on Lake Erie near Cleveland.

Lol, wow, I guessed that wrong.

[SparksLP]

No worries, the good old USA is a big place, haha!

[ps2375]

The 195's are a touch too wide. Well, they can rub at/near full lock. I think it is the tires, but could be the rims hitting the old style sway bar mounts, I changed them to the T-Bar strap style, but that was after the last race. So I won't know if that stopped the rubbing until next year.

I run 185 60 15F and 205 55 15R on one car('73 Super Beetle) and 186 65 15F and 205 60 15R on the other('74 Super Beetle), but for autocrossing I WAS going to run 205 50 15s all around on a second set of 15x5.5 wheels. But they rub eh? Glad I found that out before buying the tires.

H2OSB

Well, the 195's only rub at FULL lock, and I don't know if that was the wheel on the sway bar mounts (which I suspect it was) or the actual tire. And the only time I am close to full lock is leaving home and pulling in and out of grid spot, and hopefully not too close to it. I never had any indications of rubbing on the course.

[SparksLP]

Ok, cool. Mine is rubbing on the outer fender lip towards the top of the tire, so I think it's more of an offset and wheel size mixed with tire size issue. They definitely stick out from under the lip of the fender. Although if I had stiffer shocks and a bigger sway bar up front that might limit the travel some more? Prevent as much rubbing from happening?

[ps2375]

With the drop spindles, you'll need to get the tire inside the lip to prevent the rubbing, as you probably have very little room between them and no shock will stop the rub.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

With the drop spindles, you'll need to get the tire inside the lip to prevent the rubbing, as you probably have very little room between them and no shock will stop the rub.

I agree, that is not the shock's job; it is a "dampener" as it is called in other places in the world and that is what it does in so many ways. If it was designed to support then the ride would be more or less solid (there is a style of air-shock [this is not to confuse the nitrogen filled shock aka an "air shock" by many people] that would do this but they can be dangerous if used or installed wrong).

Lee