I want to put the Porsche OEM 17mm spacers on the rear wheels of my '08 Turbo with 5mm's on the front. Attached are some Rennlist pics of a 997TT with 15mm's on the rear which I think look fantastic and really fill up the arches much better than stock.

After talking with Jason (Atomic80), I'm begiining to feel the 17mm's will negatively impact the car's handling by making it "loose" in corners. He believes 5mm's on the rear would be fine, but I had those on my 996TT and the difference in appearance was not that dramatic.

I talked with some of the guys at Barrier today and they feel the 17mm's are fine and that handling is not affected.

I'm inclined to listen to Jason as the man knows what's he's talking about and has first hand experience with fitting 18mm's on his 997TT when he had 996 GT3 wheels on the car for a brief time. (He has since swaped those wheels out for GT3 RS wheels).

I've searched posts but can not find a lot on 997TT's with Porsche OEM 17mm spacers. I love the look and feel the factory look is too recessed. Why would Porsche offer 17mm's if they affected the handling in any way? I do not want to consider anything but OEM spacers. What does the council here say?

Thanks - Brad
Seattle, WA

 

Porsche offers the 17mm spacer for the 997 to adjust the offset of narrow body wheels to the offset of widebody wheels. For example the usual offset for the rear wheel on the widebody is 51mm. If you wanted to use the GT3 (not GT3RS) rear wheel on a TT, it has an offset of 68mm - using a 17mm spacer gets the offset to 51mm which is the correct offset. Jason didn't like the "feel" of this so he went to the correct rear offset of the GT3RS wheel. Sounds like you want to add 17mm spacer to a wheel that already has the correct offset essentially pushing the wheel out by 17mm and changing the offset to 34mm - I don't know what that will do to handling - this is very different than what Jason did. I've always found the guys at Wheel Enhancement to be knowledgable about these things - give them a call.

 

I put 15mm in the rear and 7mm in the front with H&R Spacers. I found the handling to be better and not as loose. Part of that feeling was related to my alignment. I also lowered my car initially with the H&R Springs as well and this settled the car a lot. I have since moved on to 20" wheels with the correct offsets and moved to Bilstein Coilovers and this moved it up several notches in compliance and feel. Better planted feel but not dramatic over springs and spacers. Also I have less tire height to contend with compared to the 19's(OEM) so in reality I would be best served with 19's for all out handling compared to 20's if I pushed it over 5/10ths around bends. Jason and I have moved along similiar paths and we all learn from each other the "feel" that we are looking for depending on out own personal requirements/application.

I think the 7mm(f) and 15mm(r) would be a better choice with a GT3 spec alignment or a modified GT3 alignment spec that has presented on this board by various members.

I posted pics of my 997TT with OEM wheels, lowered springs and spacers(H&R). I think it looked great and it felt great. And I plan to putting them on when I go to the tail of the dragon(NC). 20's would be nice to drive there but I think 19's would make it a more enjoyable experience.

 

Brad,

We can talk more about this when we meet in person next week.

 

You won't have any problems with the spacers.

 

I'd go (and did go) with 7.5's in the back only. I think the 15's are a bit too much.

 

I have the C4S with turbo wheels with identical offsets as the turbo. I bought my wheels from Wheel Enhancement and started with the 15mm in rear. I found it too agreesive and didn't like the edge of the tire sticking out beyond the wheel well. I had Lucent lower my car with TechArt springs and elected to go with 7mm in the rear, stock in front. For me it is about as close to perfect as available. 10mm in the rear would be perfect but no one makes a 10mm spacer. Good luck with your decision.

 

IMO the wheel sticks out too much with the 15mm spacer.

 

i have 5mm fronts and 7mm rears.
that is about as much as i want to go. car drives fine and corners well.