6”Steel Wheels and hubcaps, Watch out for the backspace Options

[80’s old school]

So I am in the process of restomodding my 914.

I debated back and forth on wheels.

To me:

Fuchs (4) lug empi copies. (Too many folks doing it. I wanted something different)
Fuchs (5) lug with conversion. (Expensive. Too many folks doing it, etc.)
Panasports or Ultralight style. (I have had those previously on other sports cars, and frankly wanted something different)
Mahle, real Fuchs, etc.. ditto

Now I am not saying any of those are bad. I just want to be different.

I settled on Steel Wheels 6” with Chrome hubcaps with gold Porsche crest emblem.

At first I couldn’t make up my mind if I liked the look. Now it has grown on me and I like it.

Now to the part about backspacing.

These are the US wheel VW/Porsche steel wheel replicas in 6” wide.

They advertise them with 5 inch backspace. My calculations said this would be perfect and I “should” be able to easily get a 205 width tire under the rear. I settled on a 195 width tire and I am glad I did. The actual backspace is closer to 4”.

I like the deeper dish look, but you have to be real careful with fender rub.

[914_7T3]

They look beautiful!

Offset is key as well. Offset is measured from the center of the rim to the mounting point. The 15x5.5 VW sport wheels that came on the type 1 and also available on the ‘74 and later 914s had different offsets

ET 26 on the Beetles and ET40 on the 914. The ET 40s would rub the front suspension on the Type 1s. Tricky business for sure.