Justification for 18inch

[Oldcarguy]

The SE comes stock with the 18” Carreras mounted with 5mm spacers so I don’t consider them +1. At any rate the ride and handling are perfect for me. My XKR was on 20s, our S5 is on 19s and the Explo is on 20s, all stock. We don’t know anything other than low profile in our garage for 3 season driving here in the Catskills. The Explo and S5 are on narrow, higher profile 18s with Blizzaks for the winter and we see no appreciable difference in ride quality. Dry handling is another matter due to the snow tires.

I typically run 34/39 lbs (f/r) on the 986. It’s a personal preference. In any case, you do have to really watch the potholes with any low profile tires, especially if you run lower tire pressures. For me, that’s the only downside.

[itsnotanova]

I've had 2 sets of 17's, 3 sets of 18's and one set of 19's on my boxster. I couldn't really tell any difference between 17 and 18 inch wheels. I think your tires have a bigger influence on ride quality. I didn't notice much of a performance difference either. The 18's I have on now weigh less and ride better than everything I've had so far. Not by much, but a little. 19's were horrible though. Not so much the ride quality. They were boat anchors and I could instantly notice the performance loss

[Starter986]

I'm running 22's all around. Man up.

[Topless]

Originally Posted by itsnotanova

I've had 2 sets of 17's, 3 sets of 18's and one set of 19's on my boxster. I couldn't really tell any difference between 17 and 18 inch wheels. I think your tires have a bigger influence on ride quality. I didn't notice much of a performance difference either. The 18's I have on now weigh less and ride better than everything I've had so far. Not by much, but a little. 19's were horrible though. Not so much the ride quality. They were boat anchors and I could instantly notice the performance loss

This was my experience over a 10 year period with my 986. As long as you use quality light weight wheels there is virtually no difference in performance or ride quality. The one very perceptible difference is that 18" tires cost about 25%-30% more than 17s for the same widths and tire model so you WILL notice a difference at the tire shop.


RobertKing is kinda new around here so we can forgive his misunderstanding of final tire circumference.