17" wheels..., any reasons not to? Options

[campbellcj]

Much better selection in high-quality (aftermarket) wheels, and 15-16" race rubber will probably not get any more common in the next couple years either.

I know I've seen race 914s with 17's but most were flared cars running large Kinesis, BBS or Fikse wheels with Hoosiers or slicks.

My car is unflared and so I would be looking at 17x7's with 205/40 Hoosiers. This would give me a 1.6% (just about 10mm) taller tire than the 205/50R15's I'm running now. I am thinking that would be a good thing, i.e. I could keep the slightly shorter tires for short-track or autox use and the taller ones for big road courses.

I still might end up with 16x7 fuchs due to cost, but the 17" concept is intriguing and there sure are some nice wheels in the 17-18" sizes these days.

I don't think the extra weight would be highly significant, because some of the modern forged race wheels are very light and strong. And Hoosiers are very light too.

Any thoughts/ideas?

[vortrex]

I had 17" kinesis supercup wheels on my 928, they're about 20-22lbs each. those do come in 7" width, but they're not forged. good thing is they're modular so you can replace just the rim half if you need to, but even the cast sets are somewhat expensive. you'll probably have to get custom offset which is even more $$$.