Felicia wheel spacers, how big is not too big

[arnyman]

Looking into improving road holding of my Felicia 1.6 hatch, so with some new rubber and wheels, wheel spacers sound like a good idea. 

 

But how much is not to much, i dont want to mess the car up, goal is improving it. Is 20-25mm too much? How will it afect steering?

 

Anyone with personal experience?

[nu99et18]

I currently use 20mm spacers on the rear and 15mm spacers on the front but I'm only using these to get the wheels to fit/clear as I'm using 16x9 and 16×7.5.

Increasing the track size by adding spacers will most likely give you better road holding but  i wouldn't go mad on size, 25mm maximum i reckom but probably overkill on any sensible sized wheels.

[RicardoM]

18 hours ago, nu99et18 said:

...as I'm using 16x9 and 16×7.5...

Photos please of the entire car from various angles.

[nu99et18]

 

About the best i could get dodging the rain,  there's a couple more in my project thread or the appreciation thread.

[RicardoM]

I'm not sure why did you put wider wheels on the rear. Felicia has not rear wheel traction...

[nu99et18]

I know but the wheels were off my mk2 Golf as didn't have a choice at the time. I have grown to like them, though ideally i would have the same size all round not staggered. Might try and get another pair of the 16x9 for the front so i can put wider tyres on to help put the 1.8t power down.

[arnyman]

@nu99et18

I like what you did, its obviously modified, but it isnt ruined, to the untrained eye it would pass as a stock car.

Did you make that rear spoiler and rear anti roll bar?

Also how does it behave on steering with those wheels-spacers, heavier-lighter?

[nu99et18]

The rear spoiler was a lucky find on Ebay years ago for very cheap, looks like there's a couple still for sale on there, though for alot more than what i paid.

Yeah i made the rear anti roll bar from a Mitsubishi L200 27mm anti roll bar, fairly straight forward as the shape of it is perfect, just chopped a little off each end and welded some brackets on. This made a big improvement on reducing roll, my car barely has any roll at all (also have a 22mm front ARB, front and rear strut braces).

To be honest it has been so long since i drove my car with sensible wheels it's hard to say. But the steering is still nice and light (power steering) and the car handles really well, would handle even better with more sensible wheels.

[arnyman]

[arnyman]

Took me some time to answer, my other computer messed up something.

This is what im trying to avoid happening again, body roll that went into oversteer, then overcorected plus body roll, turned into more violent over steer, then overcorected finished as a complete 90degree turn, roll on a side, off the road and down hill into someones back yard. No one was hurt, except my driving ego

 

so that ARB from L200, do you know what model year was that one?

 

Also i spoted some wheels with offset that would make spacers unnecesary, might save me some money with those

[RicardoM]

On 11/15/2017 at 14:50, arnyman said:

How will it afect steering?

 

Anyone with personal experience?

You should have plenty experience now... or maybe not.

[arnyman]

4 minutes ago, RicardoM said:

You should have plenty experience now... or maybe not.

Photo is from 7 months ago, i got myself another one, only this time its hatchback. As i said, im trying to avoid same happening again

[RicardoM]

 

18 minutes ago, arnyman said:

Photo is from 7 months ago, i got myself another one

How could we have guessed that?

 

The ARB will improve the riding. The wheel spacers and wider wheels will have adverse effects. 

 

The best solution is a lower driving speed. Be thankful you didn't kill anybody during your adventure...

Edited 15 December, 2017 by RicardoM

[arnyman]

15 minutes ago, RicardoM said:

 The wheel spacers and wider wheels will have adverse effects. 

Really? How?

I thought widening track, and increasing tire surface would be improvement, or is it something im missing?

[RicardoM]

Before answering let me ask you this: why do you need wider track and wider wheels? To keep driving rally style on public roads? People don't oversteer or body roll with normal tires if they adapt the speed to traffic condition. Do you have a death wish? Or do you want to send to grave innocent drivers?

[arnyman]

To keep my speed up with the rest of the cars, much more modern ones, on poor roads.

If i have to drive like grandad just because maker of my car spared on suspension components, then i will start seriously considering another car, and i am very pleased with this one, hence i got myself another one, after briefly owning audi 80 avant.

[Dirtydervvrs]

I currently use 20mm spacers on the rear and 5mm on the front. I  love the way it looks and have never had any problems 

Edited 15 December, 2017 by Dirtydervvrs
Pictures

[arnyman]

that setup would make rear track wider than the front, wouldnt that make car more prone to understeer? any track driving testing experience?

Edited 16 December, 2017 by arnyman

[Dirtydervvrs]

Have done a few track days and it handles great can’t fault it 

[Osella]

Everything in the suspension on my 1.6 Felicia is standard; but wider wheels have completely transformed the handling into something much, much better. 'Handling' includes parking in tight spaces, manoevring in my driveway at 0.5 mph; plus acceleration, lateral grip and cornering speed.

I switched my original 13" steel wheels for Tecnocast/BMW 'Style10' alloys and running 195x45 R15 tyres with ET24 offset. This puts the tread right at the edge of the bodywork, so fitted minor arch covers (<1" width) to keep it legal in UK.

 

Steering is sharper, and MUCH lighter - the dead spot where the limiting factor in tight corners was the tyre squirm on the very high profile original tyres - is gone entirely; and the wider wheels now mean that the body roll weight shift is actually helping the tyre find grip (albeit no back seats makes the rear more lively going downhill). The effect on the steering is hugely positive, if you did find any slide beginning you have much better fine adjustment ability and you don't have to 'force' the steering wheel to make quick direction change anymore.

 

Overall the wheels are marginally heavier (inc tyres) as I now have more metal, but less rubber weight and are 7" wide. and fit with no modifications. Lower ET puts the wheel centre of weight only a few mm outwards, which should cause less adverse bearing wear than narrower wheels + spacers, where you would be moving the entire wheel away from the hub. Overall diameter is 0.6% larger (very minor, not-noticeable effect on speedo or acceleration).

 

[nu99et18]

On 15/12/2017 at 20:03, arnyman said:

so that ARB from L200, do you know what model year was that one?

2001-2006 i think, looks like this

 

[RainbowFire]

On 15/12/2017 at 23:04, arnyman said:

To keep my speed up with the rest of the cars, much more modern ones, on poor roads.

If i have to drive like grandad just because maker of my car spared on suspension components.......

Always intruigues me when people say such things. The Skoda Felicia is a cheaply-designed car made out of cheap components ro be sold into a cheap market, and yet so much is expected from them. If the maker had made a car out of expensive, hard-wearing, components, then it would be more expensive to buy and run. (Just look at 30/40 year old Land Rovers)

 

 

On 15/12/2017 at 23:04, arnyman said:

.......then i will start seriously considering another car......

 

Maybe this means you bought the wrong car in the first place, or bought the car for the wrong reasons?

One of the other groups I am in, there is almost a weekly post about "how to put a bigger engine in my car". Thing is, it's never about putting, say a Nissan 2.0 engine into BMW 316. It's about putting a BMW 2.8 engine into a M40B16. The simple, and most frequent answer is: "Buy a 328 as you obviously bought the wrong car. It's cheaper, quicker and easier."

In VW realms it's usually "what can I remap my 1.2/1.4 engine to?"....why not buy the car with the biggest engine in the first place.

[arnyman]

Nobody seen anything strange about the wheels on a crashed Skoda?

[Jeggo]

20 hours ago, arnyman said:

Nobody seen anything strange about the wheels on a crashed Skoda?

Yeah its missing a bolt

[Jeggo]

20mm spacers all round. Front is for fitment as the tyre hits the coilover and rear is for aesthetics. tbh mate you probably wont notice the wheel spacers on there own making a difference. the real difference in driving comes from the coilovers, ARB, wider/better tyres. when i added 20mm to the back i had been driving it without spacers for a long time and adding them didnt really make a difference to handling 

 2425 by Joe Jeggo, on Flickr

Edited 19 December, 2017 by Jeggo