My tire options and fitment. Options

[patssle]

I'm currently running 185/65-15 cheapo tires. I want to upgrade to some performance tires (g-Force Sport COMP-2) and the only size I can get is 195/55-15. My passenger rear tire has the closest gap between the tire and fender being about 1/2" calculating for the widest part of the tire. None of the gaps on the other tires are the same and all are bigger. Also my rear tires have a rather significant negative camber as my inside threads are significantly more worn than the outside.

Should I be concerned about changing tire size at all and especially if I get an alignment which may reduce the camber (so the top part of the tire would be moved outwards)?

[Dave_Darling]

Yes, you should be concerned. The 195-width tires are going to be about 10mm wider than the 185s. (The actual widths can vary from brand to brand, even from tire model to tire model!) That means about 5mm inboard, and about 5mm outboard. 6mm is about 1/4", so you're going to have the sidewall about 1/4" closer to the fender, if you make no other changes.

If you take out some of the negative camber in the back, that will move the top of the tire outward, reducing your clearance further. Not sure how much, though.

And finally, your photos are presumably taken at static ride height. But the wheel does move up and down relative to the body as the suspension gets compressed by bumps or cornering. So there's a good chance that the widest part of the tire will wind up going up to the fender lip, or maybe beyond.

Add all three of those factors together, and I would definitely worry.

What wheels do you have on the car? If they're not specifically 914 wheels, that may be one of the sources of your troubles. Real 914 wheels move the tires inward in the fender more than Bug-offset wheels do...

--DD