Staggered (deep dish) TWIST wheels?

[blue2000s]

There are many threads on the subject on this board. 5, 7, and 15mm spacers are popular for the rear wheels on our cars. All require longer bolts. I wasn't aware that wheel style was available in 17s. A deeper offset in the same style may be a long search.

[Aron in Toronto]

The wheel you have is called the Boxster twist and was the 17" option over the base 16" wheels although most Boxsters delivered in N America came with the larger 17 that you have. A 1/2" wider version of this wheel was the base wheel for the 996, but it too is fairly rare as most 996s were ordered with the optional 18" Turbo/Technology wheels.

As Blue2000s mentioned the easiest way to achieve the look you want is to add spacers, and depending on the type of spacers used longer wheel bolts.

One thing to keep in mind is IF you plan on plus sizing your wheels to a larger diameter is that Porsche does not recommend using wheels larger than 17" for the '97 model year. The suspension/body mount locations were strengthened on the later years to accommodate 18" wheels. With that said I've not heard of any problems with using 18" on 1997 models used on the street.


Wheel Enhancement is a company that specializes in Porsche wheels and has a good online catalogue of all the various wheels used on Boxsters, and their showroom is in Culver City if you're in the area.

http://www.wheelenhancement.com/index.php?t=WheelDetail&id=35

[Lil bastard]

Interesting that with the screen name anti-bling, you're looking for more of it.

Anyway, the pics are not very definitive, but it almost looks like these are not genuine Porsche Wheels but some aftermarket wannabes. I could be wrong, but the pics don't show the wheels that well.

They're definitely not Turbo wheels, maybe Turbo II. The Turbo wheels are actually a 993 part and have hollow spokes making them uber-light, I don't even think they're available from Porsche anymore. I have 18" 993 Turbo wheels on my '99 that I'm selling, and they're a major selling point.

If these are genuine Porsche wheels which were chromed, it's important that they were chromed the right way - 'restoration' chromed - 1st nickel, then copper, then the chrome. If not, they will begin to crack/peel in short order as aluminum alloy isn't a good media for chrome to bond to. It's possible they were done right, but more likely (due to cost) that it's a simple chrome job and you'll be unhappy down the road with them.

Personally, I don't like chrome wheels on these cars, think they date the car. If it were me, I'd sell them and get a nice set of proper (as in unmodified) silver wheels. Spacers, and the longer bolts to go with them, are not cheap and if you don't LOVE the chromed look, I would hesitate to add the expense.

Cheers!