wheel question
 

im looking for advise/help in regard to wheels for my b4 cq,as part of the revival im changing the wheels, i dont want to go down the 18" route, i think they look too big unless you drop the suspension on its arse and im too old these days for a rough ride, so im thinking 17" but wide, like 9j ive been sat tonight scratching my head trying to work out what et will push the wheels out as far as possible and possibly just a bit too far so i may need to break out the grinder and welder and do some subtle extending prior to paint - its always been a bit annoying how slim these cars look, if the ABT kit was still available my credit card would be straight out!!
so, if anyone could post some 17" wheel pictures along with tyre sizes so i can see what things look like tha would be great....... if anyone would like to demonstrate that 18's look good also that would be equally welcome :cool:

oh yeah, i came to in the end, 17x9 et20 would push the wheel out about 42mm over the standard 15" it had on ...... gonna chuck a wheel back on tomorrow when i get back and see how that will play out

I don't mean to be rude but I'm guessing handling is not top of your list of priority's?

I did a fair bit of mucking about with wheels and tyres on my old S2 Coupe and the best compromise I found was 7.5" or 8" x 17" with an ET between 25 and 35 and 225/45/17 tyres, which is a common and therefore fairly inexpensive size to buy decent rubber. 215/45/17's also work very well but are expensive and you can get away with a 235/45/17 on a 8" rim but again they're expensive.

Please don't cheap out on tyre's they're critical to safety and some of the ones now coming from China are simply awful.

I had a set of ET 27 7.5" X 17" Compotives MO's fitted with 225/45/17 track day tyre's (which seem to be a touch wider than road tyre's for a given size) that filled the arches nicely with no contact problems, looked great and I do have a couple of photo's I'll try and find. I seem to recall I ran them with 8mm spacers on the back, so ET22, they would just foul the front arches with the spacers though.

However in the end I went back to stock 3B wheels with good quality tyre's as handling was my main concern. They're ET 37 and 7" X 16" or in the case of ABY's 7.5" X 16" fitted with 205/55/16's and Audi got this right IMO. I did try running these with 15mm hub centric spacers so ET 22 and that looked great, again no contact problems but the car handled better without them.

I’d never take that as rude, this is exactly the sort of reply I’m after, handling is up there don’t worry, I never cheap out on tyres as I like to be in three figure mph when ever it’s safe to do so lol, however, I want to look at the car and want to drive it, having owned an escort cosworth after a long time dribbling about owning one, and then selling it a fair few years ago now for less than 10k - only to be sent a link to an eBay add for the very same car a few weeks ago with an asking price of 52k ���� - I’m going off track, for me the escort was probably one of the best looking cars to come off a production line , not the basic escort they were aweful , just the cosworth, it didn’t handle that great to be honest, but to look at it was to want to get in it and drive it, so, to my point, I want to try and create a bit of an aggressive stance for my car if possible, the wheels need to be dished at least a bit, just to give some illusion of width, if I could take six inches off the front of the car so it looked a little better balanced that would be happening but sadly I can’t haha,
Please if anyone thinks I’m getting it wrong , please say, I’ll happily listen, I’ve got no track days intended, just a bit of driving about , spirited or non spirited, it’s just going to be nice not to be surrounded by air bags and technology ��

Ah I see phone emojis don’t work when posting a quick reply……. The question marks are not meant to be question marks doh

I always try and avoid posting from my phone as it comes out looking a mess.;)

Escort Cosworths are one of my favourite cars, they’re really a re bodied Sierra hence the great handling, though I’m sure you knew that already. I bet your a little gutted you parted with it now, I was lucky and picked up my RS2 in 2015 just before the prices went crazy. It’s worth so much now I’m scared to drive it properly, still perhaps that’s a good thing, my 380 BHP S2 got driven what in hindsight was perhaps a little over enthusiastically.

I reckon the best compromise would be something like a 235/45/17 on a 8.5j rim with an offset of between 25 and 30, that would fill the arches nicely and still handle pretty well.

ok, so i think i maybe may have reached a decision...... dont shoot me but i think this may keep me happy from an aesthetic point of view and if i feel brave enough will press go to take advantage of some slight discount care of black friday, after a chat with driftworks yesterday ive got until 5th of dec.
so potentially the wheel will be a 17x9 with an offset of et25 and the tyre will be a 245/40r17..... good tyres all seem to be within 100 quid each, and i can ask my local tyre company to call them a super single for invoice purposes, happy days there but nothing can be done about the cost of the wheels, i'm just going to have to wear that :sad:
the next question at this width is will i have to stretch to coil overs instead of the planned new shockers and 30mm lower springs....... i can see my original budget being scrapped and credit card taking a beating :eek:

just to touch back on the escort, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time, i do wish i still had it but also slightly glad i dont as cosworth tax is ridiculas , in a way seeing that ad for 52k did annoy me but i can tell you that car wasnt worth that and the guy selling it was bullshitting on a grand scale, if i still had it, yes it would be worth plenty but its only worth anything when you sell it, and knowing what i know now, i wouldnt be selling it, like the coupe, im not in love with it (yet) but i wont sell her because everything old is now worth more money than i have to spend, so im just going to keep her and enjoy the car..... first though she has a job to be ready for! :wall:

That set up should be okay, the 245/40 will give about the same clearance as a 235/45 so that's very close to what I suggested would be the limit. I have worked as a tyre fitter as well as mechanic so I've got a pretty good idea of what will work.

Regarding suspension, really coil-overs would be ideal as they would allow for fine tuning and any clearance issues but that's another £1K for anything decent... See if you can find some Eibach springs, they tend to be very good quality and not lower too much, certainly the best aftermarket springs for German car's in my experience.

Some of the car adverts on eBay are complete lies, unfortunately the motor trade is infested with rouges.:nonod:

Some 17's here ....... http://www.classic-audi.co.uk/forum/...=36332&page=45

Sorry guys, I'm old school as most of you know, I do understand if you need bigger brakes the standard wheel is tight on space, yes bigger wheel does give most cars a better side view and depending on the offset, a wider stance from the front and rear, but we all love our cars and the look of them is far better than most of the cars today, just leave it the way it came out factory, uprated shocks, lowered coil and tires like rubber bands all look good, the comments you hear are, it's like driving on rails, but you won't drive 200 miles on a day trip due to the poor ride quality, and when you park it 99.99% of people will have to go to the rear to see what model it is anyway, and when you come back you may still have 4 wheel ,one on each corner, do I sound old or what!!!