I bought my (2nd) 914 last summer for many reasons, one of which was the suspension and brakes had been gone through and had been roughly setup for autoxing (bilsteins and (very) stiff springs), which I want to get into this year. The car also has 16" rims and low-pro tires. So the question is am I crazy in thinking getting a stock set of rims and tires will soften up the ride a bit when I'm not killing cones? If I'm not crazy, whats the most economical route to pick up some (decent) rims and tires? Thanks.

Adam

Four-bolt or five?

Four-bolt steelies in the original 5.5x15 size are very cheap. Make sure you get 914 wheels, not Bug wheels, or you'll be limited to very very narrow tires! You have a 72, so you can use the early style (".00") Pedrinis, or any regular 914 four-bolt alloy wheel. The Pedrinis can often be had for relatively little money.

Cheap (-ish) five-bolts probably mean cookie cutters. You should be able to find them for $300/set for 6" wide wheels. You may be able to find other 911 wheels in 5.5" width for less; I'm not really sure on that.

Some 195/65-15 tires on any of the above should be pretty nice.

--SS

Late steel rims look great when painted this way. And they are cheap.
I have 185/70/15 but I suggest 195/65/15 or 195/65/15 they are easier to find ...

cookie cutters in CA might be 300 a set but on the east coast theyre much cheaper.you can probably pick up a set of 15x7 phone dials (5 lug) for 200

check out performanceproducts.com..they sell wheel and tire packages for decent prices

Adam - I've never seen those rims. Please tell us more! Make, width, bolt pattern...I like them! They remind me of some 4 bolt 16" Forgeline rims on a NorCal 914 that I lust after.

Also, check out the link above for "914 Info" and you can use the Tire Size Calculator to get tires that match the diameter for the 2 sets = same speedometer reading no matter which set you roll on.

Where the rims came from is a mystery to me to. They are 4-bolt, 16in and the tires are currently mounted are 205/40's They say 'Boyds' on the lug caps and through e-bay searching I found out that 'Boyds' was an early Boyd Coddington wheel line. I assume they are the standard bolt pattern so perhaps they were custom or low numbers production?? I really don't know enough about them or different bolt patterns, etc. to say for sure. When I first saw the car I was actually a little disappointed about the rims, but they have definitley grown on me.

The car came from Colorado a few years ago and then sat for a while before I picked it up and thats all I really know for sure. Everything else the PO told me is questionable.

I'm thinking for around town a set of steel rims would be perfect. I'm not to worried about the speedo calibration right now and I'd actually like to gain some ground clearance if possible. Right now I'm so low that I have to avoid certain intersections and feel like I could get stuck in a big pot-hole if I tried (or is that normal??). It would be great to find a package deal with the rims and tires...does anyone do that??

double check my post above

Only for new wheels. Those tend to be much more expensive than used wheels.

Any of the regular 914 wheels can be had used for not a lot of money. They are usually not all that expensive, even from a wrecking yard--and the classifieds (here, Pelican, the Club site, elsewhere) are usually less than that! With a 72, you can probably use the early Pedrinis, which are often quite cheap because they don't fit 73+ front hubs without modification. Or Riviera wheels are also usually pretty cheap. Steelies, even more so.

--DD

Boyd C. did do some 914 wheels, but I thought they were all 15"er's...

There was a set advertised recently on eBay... I'm pretty sure they were not 16" tho...

I suspect yours are quite rare! Enjoy!