Finally found a car and collect Saturday 😁

 

Bog Standard '19 plate vrs estate, so has the 18" Gemini wheels which I am looking forward to selling on and replacing.

 

Being the Facelift I understand the rear track is 30mm wider.  Not confident all the online wheel retailers take this into account in their online fitting guides!?

 

I am looking at wheels 19x8.5.  The offered offsets vary between ET35 and ET45.

 

I shall be lowering the car in the future and do not want arch rub.

 

So, for those helpful folks with Facelifted VRS's, running after market 19" wheels, can you please confirm the offsets you are running without rubbing.

 

Very many thanks!

 

PS - If ET35 is indeed ok, raises the question why the Revo 019 wheels come in a ET45?

 

13 hours ago, Guns said:

PS - If ET35 is indeed ok, raises the question why the Revo 019 wheels come in a ET45?

 

I’m not sure Revo have taken into account the wider rear track of the VRS. Those wheels were done to be the biggest rims to sensibly fit the normal MQB cars. They will fit most things but I doubt they have made a special wheel for the new vRS. 

 

I’m afraid it may be a case of plugging figures into willtheyfit and measuring it against what you have. 

The new wheels will have about 29mm more poke and,assuming you use 235/35/19 tyres,and about 5mm less vertical clearance.

 

This is at et 35....I would have more confidence at et45,but as good as that tool is,it does not know the wheel arch dimensions of your car, so you need someone to tell you who has got/tried that set up whether it clears or not.

4 hours ago, *JP* said:

but as good as that tool is,it does not know the wheel arch dimensions of your car

 

No but you can get an accurate measurement of the difference from what you have fitted at the moment.

 

You can then get outside with a tape measure and see if adding that dimension to your wheels or tyres is likely to rub.

 

Probably as much if not more use as info from an unknown source running unknown tyres and unknown suspension, and more likely than a new wide-track vRS owner wanting to change up to 8.5x19.

2 hours ago, flybynite said:

Double post

 

Edited 2 August, 20196 yr by *JP*

 

 

There's a long thread on here somewhere about people's experience with wider wheels and different offsets.

I seem to recall that 19x8.5 is a common fitment and 235/35 would be the normal tyre size and most will have lowered to a greater or lesser degree,so there should be plenty of actual relevant experience to call on.

However,taking up the tape measure idea, an improvement on that could be to cut a small bit of wood to 29mm and test fit it between the wheel and the arch and see what the clearance is,and if it's too tight cut 10mm off and try again.

I am running 45 offset on mine and they're about perfect on the rear axle. I wouldn't go much further. 

You'll be fine with the standard 49 offset, all the pfl's ran 20mm spacers & have been dropped hence, the 38mm wider rear track ain't an issue

I'd be interested in your Gemini 18's..!

10 hours ago, StealthRS245 said:

I am running 45 offset on mine and they're about perfect on the rear axle. I wouldn't go much further. 

 Thanks for the response..... is yours a 245... hence with the wider rear track?  Looks great.  Love the wheels :-)

2 hours ago, pdtrewern said:

I'd be interested in your Gemini 18's..!

 Will post them on here / ebay should I get permission for some new rims ;-)

 

10 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

You'll be fine with the standard 49 offset, all the pfl's ran 20mm spacers & have been dropped hence, the 38mm wider rear track ain't an issue

Thanks for the response.  My concern is the PFL cars are running 7.5" rims with 20mm spacers.  The rear track on the 245 is 30mm wider (happy to be corrected), so thats 15mm each side.  Then I would be getting 8.5" rims, so thats an inch wider wheel, so that again will further "push the wheel out" by another 12.7mm.  So in total, by my calculations, running a 51 offset on an 8.5" rim on a VRS 245 is the same as putting 28mm spacers on the 7.5" Xtreme alloys on a PFL car....  and yet wheel dealers are telling me I can go to an even lower offset wheel.

 

Will have to try and measure the wheel to arch clearance as someone previously suggested.

11 hours ago, Guns said:

Thanks for the response.  My concern is the PFL cars are running 7.5" rims with 20mm spacers.  The rear track on the 245 is 30mm wider (happy to be corrected), so thats 15mm each side.  Then I would be getting 8.5" rims, so thats an inch wider wheel, so that again will further "push the wheel out" by another 12.7mm.  So in total, by my calculations, running a 51 offset on an 8.5" rim on a VRS 245 is the same as putting 28mm spacers on the 7.5" Xtreme alloys on a PFL car....  and yet wheel dealers are telling me I can go to an even lower offset wheel.

 

Will have to try and measure the wheel to arch clearance as someone previously suggested.

 

I stand to be corrected, but I think the wider rear track on the FL applies to at least all the vRS models (unsure re other versions), not just the 245? 

You can tell which Vrs's have the wider rear track as they have a small plastic lip on the rear wheel arches. It's a roughly the 10 o clock O/S and 2 o clock position N/S

 

 

 

Edited 9 August, 20196 yr by Auric Goldfinger

On the wheel-size.com site they list four wheel fitments for the 245 vRS.

 

Apart from the 7.5 x18 and 7.5x19,both ET51, two others,not in bold type so I guess not oem are listed,so the implication to me is that they will fit OK:-

 

8x19 ET47....which gives 10mm more poke than the above.

 

9x19 ET38....which gives 32mm more poke.

 

Whether the latter takes account of the wider rear track of the later models,who knows?

 

Comparing the above with the OP's sizes gives:-

 

8.5x19 ET 35...gives 29mm more poke than standard

             ET45....gives19mm

 

Not sure where all this gets us...and these alternatives will also have the inner rim sticking out more,so are there may be clearance issues there? 

 

Anyway,I have got a set of wheels with 16mm more off set than standard and when the new car arrives in two weeks the theory will end and reality will take over,and if there are clearance problems watch out for the wheels coming up on eBay!!!

Edited 9 August, 20196 yr by *JP*

Think the 8.5J x 19 alloys on my 245 are ET45, bought them a year ago and have had no problems with them and even tyre wear. Pushed hard on 2 track days and they didn't fall off.

6 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Think the 8.5J x 19 alloys on my 245 are ET45, bought them a year ago and have had no problems with them and even tyre wear. Pushed hard on 2 track days and they didn't fall off.

Has your car got the wider rear track?

17 minutes ago, *JP* said:

Has your car got the wider rear track?

Yes. 2017 Limited Edition with all the bells and whistles. Michelin PS4S 235/35r19 TYRES.

16 minutes ago, shyVRS245 said:

Yes. 2017 Limited Edition with all the bells and whistles. Michelin PS4S 235/35r19 TYRES.

 Good,so there we have it,a very good proven upgrade with 19mm more poke!

3 minutes ago, *JP* said:

 Good,so there we have it,a very good proven upgrade with 19mm more poke!

I ran the standard 7.5J x 19 rims for 12 months and 12,500 miles with the P Zero tyres and TBH it was a rubbish combo for traction particularly in the wet. But wider wheels and better tyres has virtually eliminated wheelspin even in the wet and stability under braking is fantastic and cornering speeds very high. Remember my car is deploying 330bhp at 5,000rpm and 350lb/ft at 2,000rpm much higher than the standard car.

16 hours ago, Guns said:

 Thanks for the response..... is yours a 245... hence with the wider rear track?  Looks great.  Love the wheels 🙂

 

Yep it's a 245.  Thanks they're just replica Pretorias which are quite cheap and a lot lighter than the stock ones.

 

 

 

Offset without knowing width is pointless. Be sure you are talking about the same width wheel when comparing offsets.

 

The OP was also talking about lowering from standard vRS height.

 

Who has an 8.5x19 et45 on a FL vRS that is lowered?

4 minutes ago, flybynite said:

 

 

Offset without knowing width is pointless. Be sure you are talking about the same width wheel when comparing offsets.

 

The OP was also talking about lowering from standard vRS height.

 

Who has an 8.5x19 et45 on a FL vRS that is lowered?

Mine's on standard Vrs suspension.

On 09/08/2019 at 14:06, shyVRS245 said:

Think the 8.5J x 19 alloys on my 245 are ET45, bought them a year ago and have had no problems with them and even tyre wear. Pushed hard on 2 track days and they didn't fall off.

Brilliant,  thanks.  Thats two votes for the ET45.  From the picture of StealthRS245 I reckon you could push the fronts a little more.

 

I have my eyes on the Bola FLA.  9.9kg and offsets machined to your specs.  And "only" £1000, which for a flow formed wheel seems reasonable.

1 minute ago, Guns said:

Brilliant,  thanks.  Thats two votes for the ET45.  From the picture of StealthRS245 I reckon you could push the fronts a little more.

 

I have my eyes on the Bola FLA.  9.9kg and offsets machined to your specs.  And "only" £1000, which for a flow formed wheel seems reasonable.

My RS6 replica's fill both front and rear arches nicely without resorting to spacers or lowering as I have many high speed humps in our street to contend with. Photo's on VRS245 owners club thread about pages 14-16 I think for comparison.

Got it.  Love them.  So you obviously modified the car regardless of warranty...... which is something I am wrestling with at the moment.