Sure these have been asked a thousand Times before. I've tried the search thread but keep getting people's build threads that I lose myself in for a couple of hours

Ok question one. What are the largest width of wheel that will fit under standard arches?

Also my car is a 1.7 which I want to upgrade. I grew up in a family that all had old beetles and my first car was a beetle with a 1.6 twin choke carb. Am I better to upgrade the 1.7 or go for something bigger. The cars only going to be a fair weather car here in the UK.

Thanks
Chris

Just drive it. If you want to upgrade, get a core motor and build it. That way you are not missing drive time.
1.7 isn't too bad motor but into the quest for speed, just built what you want, them it will just be a quick swap, and you have a spare motor if you ever need one.

Thanks. I'm not looking for loads of power our roads are mostly twisty apart from the motorways I'll see how I go with the 1.7 first like you say.

Anyone got an answer to the wheel question?

165 to 205

Depends on the offset. But if we're talking 5 lug Fuchs for example, 6" wide will fit with no modification. 7" wide may or may not fit. I'm running 15x7 Fuchs on my stock fender car, but the rear fenders had to be pulled a little to prevent rubbing.

5.5"/6" wheel with the right offset. 7" is pushing it and you probably need to roll the fenders.
Anything over 205 most certainly requires rolling the fender lip or fenders.

But again, there are so many different 4-lug wheels out there, you really need to make sure the offset is correct for the 914. A lot of the available wheels were designed for the bug and don't have the best offset for our cars.

I personally like the 4-lug Fuchs with 195 or 205 tires. To me, they are a perfect fit for a stock 914.

Yes 205 is sensible and provides a good amount rubber on the road,you live in the land of the Minilite wheel,IMO these are one of the nicest looking aftermarket wheels around.
Haven't checked their website but I would say they would stock a wheel with the correct offset for your car.

Cheers guys so 15x7 et23.3 should be bang on?

I was thinking of going to image wheels who are local to me and been making wheels for years. http://www.imagewheels.co.uk

Yes and no....fits the front fine, will rub in the back for sure if totally stock fender wells.

Need a higher number in the back.

Thanks for the info guys

I used to run 15x195x65 and had them on both deep sixes and the flat replica sixes in the picture on my old slab sided 1.8

To me they were a great balance of grip in the dry and just enough fun in the wet to break away / be very controllable with rather the underpowered engine

I also agree with others enjoy it for the summer. Have a think about what you want to do and maybe build a hotter engine up ready to do a swap



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