Tire Size Question for 1.8L 1975 Options

[Aayala]

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone could provide some feedback or recommendation on purchasing some tires and wheels for my 1975 1.8L 914.

I wanted to upgrade the wheels on my 914 to a 5 lug conversion to fit some Fuchs on it.

Question is...

1. Is it worth it to convert to the 5 lug and pretty simple to do?

2. I have someone selling their wheels and tires for a good price but the wheel sizes are 15x6 (front) and 15x8 (rear). Will this fit the stock 914 narrow body?? or will I have to for sure add fender flares to fit these?

thank you in advance!

[ClayPerrine]

I know the Fuchs look fantastic on a 914. But if you are worried about cost, and you are running a stock 1.8, I suggest you keep the stock wheels.

Just go find the tire the Miata community thinks is the hot tire, and put it on your car. Miatas use 205-50-15 tires and those fit a 914 with 4 lug Fuchs perfectly. I have been running them on Betty's car for more than 40 years. With a set of stock sway bars front and rear, the handling and ride characteristics are excellent. The only drawback is your speedo is way off with them. You can use a GPS app on your phone to figure out the difference.


If you want a 5 lug conversion....

In my opinion, adapters are a no-go. Extra lug nuts you can't see, and stress factors that scare me. It is fairly easy to have a machine shop redrill the rear hubs for 5 lug, and there is a company in Europe that makes a front brake conversion kits that use the stock 4 cylinder front struts and Boxster rear calipers. No chasing down 911 struts. With stock rear calipers they stop well. PMB resells these kits in the US. I don't remember the website in Europe.

If you go full bore 5 lug conversion, get 911 Carrera front struts. They have the wider (3.5 inch, 89mm) front caliper bolt spacing and they will bolt to your existing front suspension setup. You may have to change the ball joints out if you have the pinch bolt on the bottom of the strut. The Carrera struts only came with the wedge pin ball joints.

On the rear, a pair of re-drilled rear hubs and 5 lug rotors will work great.

For calipers, I recommend a set of Boxster calipers and adapters. You have to fabricate a park brake setup, but there are lots of threads on here to tell you how to fit a 911 park brake setup on 914 trailing arms.

Wheels : 16x6 Fuchs will fit great. If you want 16x7s, they will fit, but you may have to roll the rear fenders to get them to clear.

If you put factory flares on the car, you can use 944 turbo wheels, running 225-50-16 fronts and 245-45-16 rears. But beware, those tire sizes are becoming hard to find.

Frankly, bigger tires and flares are overkill for a 1.8L motor. Personally, I would get the vented rotor, Boxster caliper front brake kit in 4 lug, and keep the factory 4 lug Fuchs. You will get really great braking and it won't break your wallet.