Where is the HorsePower breakpoint?, For adding flares Options

[boxsterfan]

As I sit here pondering my 914 restore, I was wondering what others thought the breakpoint was for adding flares to a 914 vs staying narrow body?

Seems like at a certain horsepower, you are going to need some more rubber for the road. What's the general thought? Is it around 175HP (~2.7L /6 ?), 190HP (~3.0L /6 ?), 220HP (3.2L /6 ?) or more?

I recognize that there are also some considerations with tire choices also. Even on the narrow body car, you may have to roll the fender just a bit to get a bigger tire on there just for the sake of selection/choice of manufacturer tires.

[Mark Henry]

The flip side to this question is that even with a 120hp type 4, that you plan to seriously AX or take to the track, you likely would want to add flares and wider tires.

You are forgetting it's a package as a whole, to get better handling for racing you need to add stiff springs, torsion and sway bars, corner balance, stiffen the tub, roll bars, etc....all this stuff is what makes it handle, but it also can make it ride like a truck.
Great for the track but it would really suck on a long distance run and a wife/GF is definitely not going to like it.
Also with flares and wide tires your gas milage will go down.
Adding flares and wide tires without the suspension work is just fluff, a personal taste addition to make it look pretty. Tires alone will not make it handle better.

Another consideration to me is the overall condition of the car, adding flares to a car that's had tons of rust/crash repairs is no big deal. But I'd have to think long and hard about adding flares to mint car or real /6.