widening the track....

[martyzs]

If I was to need the track widening on my zs, how would wnyone recomend I go about it.

We are talking 20-30 mm wider each side front and back. Would this definitley require driveshaft and axle work or could a different offset of wheel be a solution.

Forget, for the moment, the fact that the wheels would be well out of the arches and illegal

Any of your thoughts or experiences on this would be great :hmmm:

[XPCobra]

custom wheels and uprated wheel studs / flanges and serious arch work,

daft imo

[Andyf]

Spacers?

[weagie]

A few places sell spacers in different fittments and widths, try demon tweeks

[Bobdope2002]

fitting spacers is illegal and also invalidate your mot IIRC

[martyzs]

Thanks for the input, what I want to be able to do is complete a widearch conversion. Basically a copy of the btcc cars.

This has probably been suggested before and probably dismissed as too expensive in terms of the body work. That part of the conversion is not a hindrance or real cost as I would carry out the work myself.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c400/plum25/2786AK_MG.jpg

My concern is the extension to the track on the standard hub. As bob suggests spacers are illegal or at least maybe not the best engineering move, (although a cheap solution)

Hopefully that takes some of the 'daft' ness out of the suggestion. ]

The offset on the wheels in both the cars pictured above seems to be a lot deeper than a standard car and im wondering if there is currently a production car with a deep offset but same pcd which would be similar?

[shroonie29]

The problem with moving the offset is components will be under unnatural stresses & prone to failure

[Bobdope2002]

ahhh sweet would look cool to see it made

cant you get some of those deep dish rims

Edit: Doesnt RSM own one of those cars now

[shroonie29]

http://hondatuning.automotive.com/79978/htup-0807-honda-wheel-offset-guide-faq-tips-biggest-lip-wheel/wheel-offset-too-much-wrong-suspension-geometry.html
http://www.1010tires.com/WheelOffsetCalculator.asp
http://www.hondatuningmagazine.com/tech/htup_0807_honda_wheel_offset_guide_faq_tips_bigges t_lip_wheel/stretched_tire_look_scrub_radius_and_wheel_spacing .html

[martyzs]

Thats what I suspected shroonie, but im wondering how that might be worked out and then corrected?

[martyzs]

And you answered it before I asked the question! its like voodoo.

Thanks for that shroonie:clap2:

[Steves Cleenz]

it can be done as my mate did it on his mini, basicly he had a solid peice of round metal and had 8 holes drilled and counter sunk in it, 4 holes had studs coming out and the other 4 where for the original wheel nuts, so he bolted this spacer on first using the standard wheel nuts and bolted the wheel to this with the 4 stud from this

do you know what i mean ?

similar to these

http://www.performancealloys.com/alloy_wheel_spacers.asp

[KevG]

It has been done not on a zs though but on various cars done by Berni and Leepoo from the London Chopshop.

You need aircraft grade aluminum, machined and balanced.

[mattie007]

That would look immense!

[stamford]

It has been done not on a zs though but on various cars done by Berni and Leepoo from the London Chopshop.

You need aircraft grade aluminum, machined and balanced.

That would be 2014A grade ;)

[Maxxed_Ross]

but then you need to take into account all the extra stress that will be transmitted by the spacers. Wheel barings are notorious for failing on cars with spacers fitted

It depends on what kind of use the car will get. On a track wider offset through spacers or fatter wheels isn't an issue because the milage is so low and there's no pot holes to worry about. I doubt one of the XPower race cars would last very long on a normal rough quality road.

[stamford]

If you were to extend the hub face as mentioned, all you are doing is offsetting the wheel face. The strength is still there as you are not extending the wheel fixings, just the datum face. There will be minimal additional stresses added to this modification due to the inbuilt safety factors within the design anyway. Corning stresses are magnified through the suspension and bearings so have been heavily factored up to cover this.

You would get far worse stresses if fitting wider wheels on a standard set-up. That's why we see many modded cars lose their wheels as the loads are excessive and break the suspension all too easily. There are heavier moments on wider rims.

[Maxxed_Ross]

I would have thought it would be the other way round, so there you go!

[stamford]

Example:
If the same offset was retained by the wheel design, then the track is increased if say a 20mm hub spacer was added.

If you did not use a hub spacer and fitted a wheel with a 20mm offset greater than standard, then it has the same effect.

The only unknown in this is ensuring wheel clearance against front strut and wheel arch on full lock. Another thing to consider is the 'tramlining effect' where the steering feels like it is in control and you are not. More often the case when the factory steering and suspension geometry have changed from standard.

[meat-and-gravy]

It has been done not on a zs though but on various cars done by Berni and Leepoo from the London Chopshop.

You need aircraft grade aluminum, machined and balanced.

Kinda high-jacking the thread, but I have to say that I think Berni and Leeppo are a right pair of prats! any one that thinks the back end of an old Mondeo would look good cut and shut on the back of a small hatchback should be hung, drawn and quartered. What a pair of chuffing muppetts!!!:shoot2: Why the hell do tw*ts like that get a TV show!

[Maxxed_Ross]

I had to space out my 18" on the ZR because they were catching the bottom shock cup... but they went straight on the ZS without any issues.

[Andyf]

The spacers on the rear wheels of extreme 355 Ferrari replica are huge, I can't find a good picture of them but they ridiculous!

http://www.extreme-sportscars.com/images/replica_wheel_4.jpg

You can just about make it out

[Maxxed_Ross]

that is massive!

[martyzs]

Thanks for the help on this. Im not entirely sure where to go from here with respect to the wheel position, It'll be some time before its ready anyhow so there a fair bit of time to make the decision.

First step is to get on with the bodywork. Ill update when I start

[Maxxed_Ross]

I wish I had the time and the talent to do half this stuff!

[stamford]

Thanks for the help on this. Im not entirely sure where to go from here with respect to the wheel position, It'll be some time before its ready anyhow so there a fair bit of time to make the decision.

First step is to get on with the bodywork. Ill update when I start

Take some measurements of the current OE set-up and use this as your benchmark. Hub face being your datum, measure to lip of arch and then add on what you think will be the arch lip. Look around a few wheel sites for various offset availability of production wheels. Check across other sites when car related searches as a rwd set up will tend to have a different offset tolerance than a fwd one.