Should I add spacers to widen my rears?

[RobZ]

I just installed 18x10 rear wheels (42mm offset) with 275/35ZR-18 Dunlops. They are a definite improvement over the stock 17's. I'm considering adding either 7mm or 14mm H&R spacers to the rears. Would this be overkill? Anyone else have a similar setup?

[Ike]

Hey Mr. Z,

I bought my 2003 Boxster S with the 18x10 "carrera" wheels. I run 265/35-18 Michelin Pilot Sport 2s. I have 21mm spacers to push my wheels to the edge of the arch. My ride height is about 2" under stock on Bilstein PSS9s. I have no rubs to date.

In theory, the geometry of a track almost 2" wider should add to mechanical traction. How much, beats me! Drawbacks? Increased leverage on your springs/dampers.

I can say this though, from an asthetic viewpoint pushing your big ol' skins out to the max looks mighty cool. I have my fronts on 7mm spacers too.

Hasta,
Ike

P.S.: Sharp looking ride you have there.

[TriGem2k]

RobZ,

I have 18X10 on my rears as well with an offset of 48mm. Though they fit fine I wanted to push them out slightly so I opted for the 5mm OEM Porsche spacers. These brought my final offset to 43mm which I think is pretty close to be flush with the fenders. Any more and it would look funny. I think at 42mm you should leave it as is. Judging from your pictures it looks pretty sweet.

Side Note: I run 285/30/18 so mine looks a little bit wider.

[ddb]

RobZ & Ike:

Beautiful cars!

I'm running 19x10 on the rears with a natural 42mm offset.

I agree with TriGem2k, more may look weird. Your current stance looks great to me.

ddb

[jhandy]

Just a thought.....Would it not be correct in saying that the further you push out the wheels, the more camber you produce? I say this because after I put my 7mm spacers on I noticed that the inner border of the rear tires wear much faster.

Should I have the camber adjusted?

What is standard for off track driving? And how could you measure it correctly if you have spacers?

Thanks,
James

[RobZ]

Thamks for the help guys! Looking at some more pics (below), I can see that another half inch may look a little odd.

[edevlin]

I have 18" wheels on my 2000 Boxster with 5mm spacers. I added the spacers to give a little clearance from the Bilstein coilovers I put on the car. It seems to do the trick nicely.

Ed