74 Super wheels

[Ryan Tucker]

Building a Pro Street style Super Beetle and wanting to order wheels and tires soon. It currently has GT8 style wheels with small 195/55 rubber front and rear, and even that combo sticks out of the fenders some. I have new 165/80 skinnys to put up front and want to run a MT drag radial in 235 60 15. What wheel for the rear is offset much more under the fender? Would love the Chrome GT8 look but 4 inch up front and a 5 to 6 inch rear wheel with correct offset to tuck the tire. Once i get wheels and tires on i will fiqure out and adjust the stance. Thanks guys for any input. Also has anyone run a 245 60 on the rear?

[Ryan Tucker]

No one? Ive tried posting pictures but not fiqured it out yet. Just got car out of paint, and waiting on new Aluminum case and heads, all else engine parts here. Building a 94x86 forged engine 10 to 1 street/ strip deal. Ive got World Champion Pro Stock Damon Harmon a good friend of mine helping me. Im looking for 200-225hp n/a and then will add a turbo. Im good on the mechanical end, but want the right wheel combo on it and not rub. Whats on it now is a gt8 looking wheel, color matched center with polished outer lip. They look to be a good width for the rubber i want to run but the offset sucks, they stick to far out. Whats my options here? Thanks
Ryan

[jinx758]

Welcome !
Sounds like an awesome project and hope it's done rite for safety ... that is a priority for you I'm sure.

Don't give up on trying to post pics as it took me a while... smart phone, older/dumb user. Wish there was an interface to just browse gallery on a posters' device. I understand user interface programs, bandwidth costs, & etc. WE LOVE PICS

Sorry I'm not up to speed on rim, tire combos & such. Others will be here shortly.
Maybe ask in tire/rim forum (I don't go there much), I dont quite get aspect ratio & such.
And the off-road guys know about running large tires in the rears of vws but for different reasons.
Just wanted to welcome you and say your project seems quite interesting.

Best of luck ... jinx
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[Ryan Tucker]

Thank you Sir. Im old fashioned and not a techy guy but ive posted pictures on other race forums but not fiqured it out here yet. Ive raced for 24 years but mostly blown sbc on alcohol in the 1k to 1600hp range. I dont see how 200hp can blow my skirt up even on the street but Damon assures me these light cars are quick with an honest 225hp. Im liking it because its different and out of my comfort zone, learning something new is alway a fun challenge. Ive got to get the engine together and in the car before i scale it but really curious to what it will weigh. Damons guess is 2200 wet, i hope it lighter. Im 240# and car has a all freash mint interior done right and looks great. No other unessesary weight will be in the car, no spare, etc....

[beetlenut]

You're going to need at least a 40 ET offset wheel. On my 74 Super, I'm running 55 ET offset Porsche Turbo twist wheels with a 3/8 inch spacer on the rear with 7 inch tires that fit under the stock steel fenders. You might be able to find a narrower wheel up front with the same 40 - 55 ET offset.

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[Ryan Tucker]

Thanks, that wheel looks good on your car. I just went Topline disks and stayed with 4 lug. Wonder why empi or whoever would make the nice GT8 wheels with a horible back space, or et as you called it. What et stand for

[[email protected]]

You’re most likely not going to find what you’re looking for off the shelf, and will have to have something made. Most aftermarket VW wheels were deisigned for Beetles, before Superbeetles even existed. It’s not that they are necessarily a poor design, they were just never changed to accommodate the different characteristics of a Super.

ET is short for the German word Einpresstiefe. It’s the distance from the center line of the wheel to the mounting flange of the wheel. An “ET 40” wheel has the mounting face for the drum/disc 40mm offset from the exact center of the wheel.

I would suggest getting some 15 inch hoops, cutting the centers out of some stock 4 lug wheels, then experiment with tack welding them into place to find out what offset you need. Then you will have a concrete measurement to look for a production wheel, or have specs to get something made/modified. There are 4 different 4 bolt stock VW wheels. Late Supers had a 4 1/2 inch wide 41mm ET, and the Ghias/Type 3’s had a 4 1/2 with a 46mm ET. You could locate one of each, and that may give you an idea without cutting anything up.

[Ryan Tucker]

Thank you for that suggestion.

Ive been reading a Lot through the wheel section threads, seems that a couple people thought that empi GT8 5.5 in wheels can be ordered in 4 different offsets, if so this is great news i can fiqure what i need from what i have. Will take 1 off and measure it. Looks like ive got 2 full iches to go inwards on the rear, boy that would be great. I turned a couple bolts around in the swing plate and will Sawzall that top bump stop off this will allow even more room. Is this common practice??

[Starbucket]

Any tire shop in your area can order any wheel out of their catalog with what ever off set you need. Best if the car was there so they can see what tire/rim to fit so nothing rubs.

[[email protected]]

[Ryan Tucker]

Still lost on a set of wheels to buy.
I love weld draglites on my race cars so it hit me that 6 cyl mustangs were 4 lug, millions of weld wheels on those junky ass cars, lol. And their all dual pattern. But dang, according to Weld racing neither is the vdub pattern. Struck out again

[Epilog79]

Remember that you are not restricted to the VW bolt pattern. You can order a new set of drums or disk rotors with whatever bolt pattern you need. You can order blanks and have them drilled for your needs. I know this is another expense, but it is a good viable option. Good luck with your project.

[[email protected]]

You’re going to have to do something custom. The only commercially available 4 lug style drums/rotors I’ve ever seen with a non-VW pattern were the 5 x 4.5 inch Chevy, or 5 x 130mm Porsche. I could see getting non-drilled drums/rotors, and getting them drilled, but I haven’t seen anyone offering drums/rotors in any bolt pattern you want. The Chevy pattern opens up 1000’s of wheel options, the problem with that is they are mostly positive offset wheels, where you need a deeply negative offset. This may help in a sense that you may be able to have a large vendor custom make a Chevy pattern wheel in an offset you need, as opposed to a small VW pattern vendor not wanting to do anything. The 4, and 5 x 100mm wheels of the front wheel drive variety would have a negative offset, but custom wheels are going to mostly be in the 17-19 diameter range. Erco could make you damn near what ever offset you want in a Chevy, or VW pattern if you’re into that style of wheel. Regardless, whatever you get made is likely going to be $200+ a pop, so you need to do some mock up to find out WHAT offset you need before ordering.

[Ryan Tucker]

Great advise, and thanks for your time in the answer.
Im now thinking of exchanging my front rotors to Topline for chevy pattern, not even out of the box yet, and seeing if they have new rear drums in chevy pattern. If so i will run Weld Draglites, or Alumastars. Really like them both. 4 inch up front and 8 in the rear would be sweet

[[email protected]]

I’d still do some checking on wheel availablity, custom, or off the shelf before switching brake parts. Most Draglights are negative offset having more of the wheel on the outside. You’ll need a positive offset with more to the inside. Erco has a front wheel some call a “bubble”, or “zero offset” that is 3 inches wide, and all 3 inches are positively offset to the inside. Basically the mounting flange is in line with the outside edge of the rim. You may not need that extreme, but you need to work with a wheel company willing to create something other than the most common size.

[Ryan Tucker]

Thanks again good info.

I looked up Welds Draglites, the front 15x4 are all a 1 7/8" bs
Which is about centered, i think would work well would be sucked under the fender for sure. And can choose front runners from 23 to 28" tall, a 26x4 i think would be sweet?

As for rears. They have the 8" wheels with as much as 5.5" back space, can get 3, 3.5, 3.750, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5
Lots of options on the 8 inch. They do a 7 inch and also 9" they have a couple options but not as much as the 8".

Will run out to the shop later and play with a tape and see whst these numbers look like, id love to put a 8" wide wheel back there, im hoping something in the 4.5 range will work, id certainly think 5.5" will be to much.
Ryan

[[email protected]]

Think back to your GT8 wheels... They are 5.5 inches wide, and have a 30mm ET. The ET means the mounting surface is 30mm offset deeper in the wheels than the half way point. 30mm is 1.18 inches. If half way is 2.75 inches of a 5.5 inch wide wheel, than those wheels have a 3.93 inch backspace. So that’s roughly 1.5 inches of the wheel is outside of the face of the brake drum. If this style wheel “stuck out” past the edge of the fender, you’ll either need a more narrow rim, a deeper offset, or both. Any Beetle I’ve seen with a Weld wheel under the fenders was a Standard Beetle with a narrowed front axle beam, and wider rear fenders. The rear fenders you can easaly do, but without huge modifications, you’re stuck with the front track width on a Superbeetle.

[Ryan Tucker]

I hear ya and see what your saying makes since. And thanks. How in the H do you post pictures here? Was wanting to post you a before and after, old GT8 that i just color mstched when i painted the car. Oh, Dark metallic grey nearly black in the shade. Busted this car all the way down and now putting it back together, interior and psint is done. Im bolting on fenders wiring new led headlights, new turn signals, fab bumpers, lots of rewiring to route it nicer.

I leaped out and order wheels yesterday. Hope like H all my measurments work out. Ended up with my favorite drag wheel the Alumastar, but not by Weld, i found Vision has a copy of them and its a nice 60 degree seat style lug rather yhan the long shank weird dedign the weld uses. 15x 4 up front. 15x8 out back with the 5.5" backspace. Can always add a thin spacer if i had to but this should utilize all the room under the car the the outside falls where it falls. My gt8 measures 3.5" backspace not 4 inch, so i get to use 2 more inches back which is ALL there is, wont be to suprised if i have to use a 1/4" or 1/2" spacer. Oh and of course i had to reorder my stuff to chevy pattern 5x 4.750.
Big leap hope it pans out, id like to post pics if i can figure it out.
Ryan

[[email protected]]

To me, the easiest is to post pictures to the gallery here on the site. Then when you open the picture, it will give you the “forum code” that links/displays the picture. As long as it’s VW related, upload it to the site.

[vwoldbug]

Can Topline give advice , they seem competent .