Flares and wheel size Options

[ottox914]

Friend of mine and I are building a EMod 914. Class rules are 2.0 and above for motor, and 1500 min. wt. We have located a car with a well built 2.4 4 cyl, 2% or less leak down on all cyls, close ratio LSD trans, already stripped and caged, about 1650 pounds, all steel body. Currently has rabbit flares and runs 7" fuchs on pure slicks, 7" cookies for rain.

It needs more rubber.

We'd like to go 16 x 10" or 12" rims all around, and run some pure slicks. No D.O.T. tires here. Wheels will be 3pc, build to whatever offset is needed. Would like to keep the car as narrow as we can, and the tires as wide as we can.

Question of the day, how big of a rim/tire will the "GT" flares swallow up? Who else has experience w/other flare/wheel set ups? We could go bigger, to a GT2 flare set, and have the car look a little like the "Rudy" car on the Otto's of venice web page, except in speed yellow. That should swallow up 12's, as that is what the Otto's car runs, and these are the flares on the Fordahl/Leeds 914 that runs 10's. They need to run 10's for class track width limitations.

Can there be such a thing as to much rubber for an auto cross car? I could see on a road racer there would be a point of diminishing returns with aero considerations, but for a pure auto x car? Any advice from those who have been there, done that would be welcomed.

[ottox914]

C'mon guys, with all the racers on the board, someone must have some info to share-

I'd post a teaser of the before on the car, but all the photos are over 1 meg and won't fit, and I'm not computer savvy enough to know how to shrink to fit...

[Root_Werks]

I would think you could run 12" rims in the rear if you use the 12" flares(GT). Heck, it is a race car right? Just order the glass flares and bolt them on. It is a pretty cool look.

I am running 7 and 9" GT flares on my 914-6 with 16x7&8" fuchs. I had so much room, I spaced the rears out 28mm and the fronts out an inch. They look good now! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mueba.gif)

[ottox914]

Root! thanks for stepping to the plate and taking a swing- maybe now there'll be others. The nasty race car bolt on/Dzus attachment look is what we'll be going with. So educate me more on the factory GT style flares. Sounds like they come in a variety of sizes, and you have 7 & 9's, but that 12's can be had also. Where'd you get yours, glass or steel, satisfied w/the quality? So with your 7/9 set up for flares, if I'm getting this right, you could run 8/9's for wheels, as 28mm is about an inch also, right?

thanks for the input.

[John Kelly]

You can make virtually any size flare you want:

http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/comm...d=9980138836765

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

[Mueller]

you are only going to find "standard" size steel GT flares, you want them wider, you cut and weld new material to them.....they "start" at close to $1000 for a set of 4

'glass flares start at about $100 each and go up from there

not sure how wide these are, but they look sorta cool:
Fiberworks 914 flares

Check out Ultimate914.com, he has what you need to cover those wheels...read the information page, tells you exactly what will work.

Would like to keep the car as narrow as we can, and the tires as wide as we can.

.....unless you ditch the rear trailing arms and go with a different design rear suspension (993, Boxster) you'll have to run rear flares that are at least 5" wider than the stock narrow body

have you priced tires in the size you want?? you might end up changing your mind (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
also, you might want to call the tire manufactures or someone to find out if tires in that size are not going to be phased out soon....17" rims might be a better choice.

[Series9]

I have steel flares on mine. The front isn't really a problem for any (what I would call) reasonable set. The rears on mine are pretty well full with 17x9s and 255/40-17s.

[SirAndy]

standard GT flares 8" in the front, 9" in the rear ...
the widebody GT flares allow for 9" in the front and 11" in the rear ...

then there are roger sheridan's narrowbody and widebody kit or rich bontempi's flares or ... (too many to list)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) Andy

[ottox914]

Thanks all for the replies-

John Kelly- I expected you'd suggest d-i-y in metal, and while that would be cool, my partner has more money than time, and spent his formative years beating out flares on 356's, and would rather buy it than build it.

Mike Mueller- I'm working on adding your bearing kits into the budget, as well as CFR front struts and rear re-location kits. Your idea of checking into cost for wheels/tires is a good one, but again, for partner this will be his 5th Porsche, to go along w/the Cayanne, 930 turbo, 993 twin turbo, and current 914 road racer. If we were looking to rule the world, new suspension systems F and R would be in order, but the plans at this time are a locally FTD car, not national. He checked into wheels/tires and told me to spec the car for 16 x 12's, after several long talks with Tom from Mid-Atlantic, where he gets his road racing skins, so here we go... unless the handling balance would suggest otherwise, we'd like to go same size F and R.

The sheridan kits are interesting, but I'm a little concerned that for the short to medium length courses that our club puts on, (45 sec to 1:05 or so, depending on the lot used) that to much meat = to wide of a line. The GT2 fenders that the fordahl/leeds car wears from Otto's are in the running also.

Thanks and keep the comments coming-

[Andyrew]

12in is alot. You can fit maybe 8/7 stock. Therefore you need 5-4 inches of extra flare, minimum. But figure about 6-7 more inches of flare.... I think the sheridan kit would be a good buy. Your going to add that "width" to the car with the tires anyways.

Andy, do you have some link/pics to rich's flares? Im trying to decide how im going to go about flaring my car (yes, more...) and I think rich's might be a good choice. How much are they? (web site doesnt have any info, thought you might know..)

[J P Stein]

At one point, I was looking at a PCA GT2 car....914 with a built up 3.0L to run in E Mod. At $25 K, it was a bunch cheeoer than I could build one. Set up for Ax, it woulda' been a killer for local TTOD.

So, that's my suggestion. Go buy one that's already done....maybe just needs some tweaks.... and has an excess of tyar (Deep South British speelin') & power.....then learn to drive it.

[SpecialK]

You can make virtually any size flare you want:

http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/comm...d=9980138836765

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

No John...."You" can make virtually any size flare you want. The rest of us are waiting for the video.. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[ninepfourteen]

Look at aircooledracing.com. Race glass. He has three different width rear fenders. Call and ask for Steve. Please tell him Fred sent you.

[RON S.]

Here is an older pic of my 6 w/18x10's on the rear.
The flares are 11" wide fiber units.
They came from a place called rennspeed.
The fit was so poor on one side I felt it was unusable.So
I called AIR for a set of their 11"r's.Guess what,same exact,and the Ron means exact,flair as what was previously rec'd from the 1st guy.I made them work,and the do look good.
Somewhere down the road,all'em will be replaced by steel flares,and I'll massage the rears to 11"

Ron

[Root_Werks]

rennspeed is a good source for glass flares. I liked mine, fit great, easy install. If you are bolting them on, go with glass. They are like $300 shipped I think? That is a good deal for a track car. Mine with the glass flares.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[SirAndy]

Somewhere down the road,all'em will be replaced by steel flares,and I'll massage the rears to 11"

did you know that the factory made the 11" flares in *steel* ???
they were an option on the GT's and m471's ...

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif) Andy

[boxstr]

JLO with 11 inch steel GT flares. " Do these flares make my motor look big?"
CCLINFATBOTTOMGIRL

[mack914]

....along with other things!!!

[1973914]

Would mirror the recomendation for aircooled racing. Steve can make them in any thickness depending on what you want for durability, and will make the entire quarter panel, which is great for a consistent look with dzeus fastners. It is what i have on mine. You just tell him the size tire/wheel you want to run and he makes it. Also, he can gel coat them in any color you want. i went with yellow of course... you can tell him Bill refered to igf you want to pay more (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[1973914]

what it looks like: