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]

Not without massaging the fender, he can't.

All 914s are slightly different. That's why we tell people that "205s will fit on most 914s." Because there are cars where they don't, like this one.

Pat, you can pull the fender out slightly to give yourself more clearance. You can also use the "baseball bat" method, or use graduated pieces of PVC pipe, or a dedicated fender roller tool, to pull the fender out a little bit.

Do you know if your 914 has been hit on that side? If so, the repairs may have moved the fender in a little bit. Other repairs may have done so as well--for instance, if the suspension pickup points were repaired. Or if the trailing arms were reinforced, they could have been warped slightly.

If you don't want to modify the body of the car, you may be stuck with skinny tires.

Remember, though, that these originally came with 165/80-15 tires. So the skinny tires will be closer to the original experience... (He says, looking for the silver lining.)

--DD