Can you track and street a Bug?

[SparksLP]

Ok, thanks. And that's what I was thinking when looking into having my steel wheels redone for a different offset and width. Make it fit under the fender but allow for more rubber.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Ok, thanks. And that's what I was thinking when looking into having my steel wheels redone for a different offset and width. Make it fit under the fender but allow for more rubber.

This is a good post as the subject does come up every-once-in-a-while.

While I don't normally race I did come from the era of lowering a car to where if you could slide a pack of cigarettes, on it's side, between the frame of the car and the ground and it barely touched then perfecto! This is one of the big reasons the minimum height in most if not all states. Bagging and how the vehicles sits when not moving is another story.

Wheels/tires were very important... even back then, not only for looks but for not sounding like an idiot with the tires rubbing as you turned a corner or in other circumstances. I have seen body damage and the sidewalls of tires cut to the point of tire going flat or collapsing because of this. Very few cars had radials back then and add to that that the tread on bias tires do deflect to the side because of sidewall design more than radials do when turning (I have seen film/video of both in corners) as does the width of the rim and the inner or outer off-set of the tire's mounting blank on the mounting part of the rim. Tires also bulge somewhat when bouncing along on the road so that has to be taken into consideration too.

https://www.quora.com/What-does-sidewal ... -tyre-mean

Nothing is easy is there?

Lee

[SparksLP]

Thanks for the link! I used to work in a tire shop, so I remember most of the education about the construction of radial tires and how they react to forces. I'm just bad at the math for determining offset/rim width and where it sits under the fender.

[SparksLP]

Gonna bring this one back from the dead, got some updates on my car! Had to have the transmission rebuilt, 2nd gear synchro was shot. So that's fixed. I messed around with some foam and that no-name racing seat and got it to the point where I don't hate it. So now I'm back on the tire issue. I was thinking about trying a 185/55r15 for the front tires and 205/55r15 for the rears. I think the 205/55's in the rear shouldn't be so short that I couldn't drive on the highway? Kumho makes a tire in those sizes (ECSTA PS31). Thoughts?
And I'm too poor for Koni shocks, what should I look at for shocks that will work for autocross but not kill me on the street?

[Ian Godfrey]

Sparks, what size wheels are you running at the moment?
205/55 is a good size with quite a lot of choice in brands. it is noticeably shorter that stock which will improve acceleration, but I think the side wall is enough to provide reasonable comfort and enough give before the rim might get damaged by a pot hole.
I have run 195/50 on the front (which will have a similar side wall height to 185/55) and I found them a bit uncomfortable on the street, a bit harsh, but great turn in on the track in the end I went back to 195/55 which I thought was a better compromise.

[SparksLP]

The wheels I have are 15x5.5" EMPI GT-5s, the main problem is that the drop spindles push the wheels out, 185/60's rub with turns. Figured the 55 series would shorten it up enough to fix that. There's a picture of my car a few posts back with the current setup.

[Ian Godfrey]

Where are the 185/60 rubbing, the shock tower? the inner wheel well? or the fender edge?

[SparksLP]

As far as I can tell, it's just the outer fender right at the top of the curve, and mainly under turning and braking. It appears to be a symptom of the wheel being too far "out" and the wheel being too tall.

[H2OSB]

Sparks, re your question about tires. I ran 205 55 15s rear, and 185 55 15s front on my recently sold Super Beetle. I thought it looked good. I'll try to post a pic.

20210309_062848.jpg

20210309_061746.jpg

Kinda bummed I didn't take better pics of the car before I sold it. Looked great with the bumper installed.

H2OSB

[H2OSB]

Not sure what happened. The pics worked, then stopped working. Perhaps a mod could help me fix it?

[SparksLP]

If they can't fix it, do you have pictures on The Samba? You could paste the link to your profile. Not sure how the space inside a Super Beetle fender compares to the fenders on a '66.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Not sure what happened. The pics worked, then stopped working. Perhaps a mod could help me fix it?

Did you use the "Attachments" option below? It usually works pretty good as long as the pixels are not too big. I usually use 640 X 480 but some do go bigger.

Lee

[H2OSB]

Foggy, I think that's probably it. They showed for a sec, then wouldn't appear. I will try to resize and repost.

Sparks, I do have pics on the Samba so if I can't fix it here, I'll post them there. I should point out, however, my car was lowered about 3 inches in the back and perhaps a bit more in the front(the running boards looked level).

H2OSB

[H2OSB]

Ok Sparks, pic links fixed bump

H2OSB

[SparksLP]

I see them now! Those fill the front wheel well better than I thought. Looks good! I guess I'm going to have to do a bunch of measuring and see what size will fix my issue. I'm hoping to run the wheels I have for now, too poor for new ones.