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Sat Jun 25, 2005 12:31 pm

i know this question has been asked a million times before but i cant find the answer i need, i just need to know what i can put on my emip 8 spokes for my fastback, i want to put the biggest possible tire in the back and the lowest possible tire in the front so is it 135's for the front? my car isn't lowered, i may put air ride on later but for now it will stay with this, so i am not sure what i can put i want taller tires in the back and thin tires in the front, whats the sizes and where can i buy them and the rims are 15x5.5

Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:20 pm

anybody know what the offset is on the 8-spokes?

Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:01 pm

lol too much. i have 8 spokes on my 72 square that is lowered in the front. i get a lot of rubbing while turning 3/4 of the way to full lock. i am running 145's up front and 165's in the back. love the look but wish it did not rub so much. i was thinking of trying 195 50 as this was recommended by a few other guys here. however i talked to a guy who used these on a lowered notch and said it was just as bad and with the low profile tires it had a rather rough ride as the sidewalls are much more stiff. upside to these is because it is wider you have more rubber on the road for turning, and braking.

Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:05 pm

blankmange wrote: anybody know what the offset is on the 8-spokes?

19mm according to the CIP catalog.

More info....

OK, I did a little digging around on the web and in my CIP catalog and came up with some interesting numbers.

First, lets talk tire sizes. I made one assumption that our stock tire aspect ratio is 80%. We have discussed this before with 80%, 83%, and 85% as possible answers. I don't ever remember coming to a confident answer as to which was right. So for the sake of comparison I picked 80%. I have also ignored that fact the all tires bulge out some and am only comparing the tread width. So here we go.....

Tire Diameter Width Comments
165/80R15 25.4" (645mm) 6.5" (165mm) Stock tire size
185/65R15 24.5" (622mm) 7.3" (185mm) Jordan Wilks tire size
195/50R15 22.7" (576mm) 7.7" (195mm) Common aftermarket tire
195/55R15 23.5" (596mm) 7.7" (195mm) My front tire size
205/55R16 24.9" (632mm) 8.1" (205mm) My rear tire size

As you can see Jordan's tires are a full inch bigger in diameter and nearly as wide as my front tires. Still seems like they would be ok until you look at the wheels. I looked through my CIP catalog, which fortunately lists backspacing for most of the wheels they sell. I have made an assumption that the difference between the bead width and maximum width of the wheel is 1 inch since this is important in converting from backspacing to the more useful offset. This is where it gets more interesting....

Wheel Diameter Bead Width Offset Backspacing Frontspacing

Stock Type 3 15" 4-1/2" 1.8" (46mm) 4.56" (116mm) 0.95" (24mm)
EMPI 5-spoke 15" 5- 1/2" 0.44" (11mm) 3.7" (94mm) 2.8" (71mm)
EMPI 8-spoke 15" 5-1/2" 0.75"(19mm) 4.0" (102mm) 2.5" (64mm)
Chrome VW 15" 4-1/2" 1.8" (46mm) 4.5" (114mm) 1.0" (25mm)
Chrome VW 15" 5-1/2" 1.0" (25mm) 4.3" (108mm) 2.2" (56mm)
AR Aero 15" 7" 1.6" (40mm) 5.6"(142mm) 2.4" (61mm)
AR Aero 16" 7" 1.7" (42mm) 5.6" (142mm) 2.4" (61mm)

So if you look at the frontspacing (a term I made up to describe the distance from the mounting face of the wheel to the outside wheel lip (frontspacing + backspacing = beadwidth + 1")), the EMPI 5-spoke and 8-spoke both stick out more than the 7" wide rims that I have on Sophy! The 5-spoke sticks out nearly 2" more than the stock Type 3 wheel! Doesn't surprise me that you are getting fender rub with the nearly 1" wider tire moved outward nearly 2" and being lowered 2 notches.

Offset is important and most of the aftermarket VW wheels are not going to be right for a Type 3. That being said it looks like the Chrome 4-1/2" VW wheels are actually type 3 wheels! Of course that assumes that CIP did not make a typo in their catalog. I would be leary and call there tech support and have them measure one before ordering. Anyone have first hand experience with the aftermarket chrome 4-1/2" VW wheels? Are they really 46mm offset?

Sat Jun 25, 2005 6:13 pm

hey bro, I would call CIP1, the owner is actually really cool and usually you will find they have no problems taking some measurements for you

Mon Jun 27, 2005 1:56 am

i run 195/50s on my 8 spokes, and it dosnt rub.

alot of people dont realize this, but

our cars have a small adjustability of camber up front, when i first put them on and lowered my notch, it rubbed a little, only when i turned right, at first i thought it was just my weight, but my left wheel actually had 1 degree positive camber.
the tire was actually closer to the inner fender on one side than the other.

the fix was to turn the ball joints until i had negative camber, i got about -1 up front, and that solved things.

Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:52 pm

When I was forced to convert my notch from wide 5 to 4 lug, I ordered the 4.5s from CIP. They were obviously for a beetle because even with the stock 165 tires they rubbed like crazy. Not as bad in front oddly enough, but they were touching the rear fender. I ended up getting a set of 5.5 OG aluminum rivieras (not the kind with the square on the spoke) and they work great. No rub, front or rear except at full lock... then only the slightest bit. I lowered the front two clicks, I put 195/50s on the front wheels and 195/60s on the rear and I am totally happy with them.