Wheel spacers and handling

[AshK]

Looking at my car, I say to myself "it would sit so much nicer with those arches filled out a bit..." My only question is, at what cost? In theory I suppose the handling should be improved due to a wider track, but in practice I suppose it won't be? Can anyone help me in my decision and tell me how wheel spacers affected the handling of their cars? Im thinking probably 16mm front and 20mm rear each side. I refuse to compromise what is so good (and initially incredibly surprising) about the Clio 197 for the sake of a better stance. The handling is incredible. Even my mate who has an Audi S3 was seriously impressed - didn't go as far as saying it was better but I knew he was thinking it

Thanks in advance

 

[The ANT]

Your best off doing the same front to back keep the wheels in the same place in relation to each other, but you'd need to be niki lauda to notice. I had 20mm all round. If you can tell the difference on the road then their will be a funeral soon, (your going dangerously fast, no matter if you're Sebastian leob or ogier.

 

[chris mcm]

I noticed a slight improvement in handling and a monumental improvement to looks. Do it. 20mm all around. (The improvement could very well have been placebo but I can tell for certain they haven't negatively effected the car in any way.)

 

[Antti O]

Yesterday i removed 16mm and 20mm spacers from my 200 and tbh i didnt notice any difference. Wheels just are sitter deeper now. Maybe better for paintwork, no stone chips so easy.

 

[mike_se]

I've got some 20mm to fit tomorrow, looking forward to seeing how it looks and drives after, as the wheels are so hidden away in those arches.

 

[Craig_RS]

My car has the 30/40 springs on it and I think the wheels just look lost under those arches

what is the cost cost for a decent set? Was a lot more expensive think it was about £80 a pair?!!

 

[dmur197]

What would be a good make to go for? I was thinking KTEC 19mm, but they are expensive, but the BIMECC are 20mm and cheaper, would these be ok?

 

[PAUL JA]

Nowt wrong with the Bimec spacers.

 

[fano45]

Pure Motorsport offer 10mm rear stub axle spacers. they dont rotate which is a plus

 

[Craig_RS]

Do they come with all the bolts etc? Will look into bimec

 

[montana]

@Raptor6767 sells them http://www.clio197.net/forum/showthread.php?50465-Clio-197-200-wheel-spacers/page9

 

[gerry1]

renault sport spend loads of money on car handling just for you to put on dangerous spacers duh !!!

 

[Doogle]

The issue from what I understand is the fact you are increasing the distance from the pivots to the centre of the wheel which is adjusting the scrub radius. And anything at the back affects the front and vice versus.

I am also in two minds however and have hovered over the buy it now button (Pure Motorsport do hubcentric spacers) but I am thinking 10mm stub axle spacers and basic 5mm spacers on front. ETplus on eBay provide 3 or 5mm spacers with correct stud pattern and hub lip diameter. Coupled with some longer bolts I would say it will help space it out a bit without sacrificing anything. Is it wide enough? Probably not, but it will be better than stock.

 

[DarrenR27]

You won’t even notice 5mm visually.

Mine are 19mm all round and look great. I’m no racing driver, but the only difference I’ve noticed is trying to pull a quick U-turn the steering is quite heavy.

At speed, when flowing, no difference.

 

[Dumdum]

renault sport spend loads of money on car handling just for you to put on dangerous spacers duh !!!

hub centric spacers are not dangerous! that's a stupid thing to say! exactly the same fixings as your standard wheel to the hub, and being hubcentric they locate on the hub and also the wheel to the spacer...

what they do do is alter all the damper/hub/steering axis geometry at the front, Renault went to massive lengths to ensure the front wheels rotate around the imaginary line that is created by the very complex hub on the front of the car (this is also effected by lowering and stiffening the car to some degree as the lower horizontal drop link will effectively be in the wrong axis but its very minor and offset by the extra stiffness so effectively you don't notice) by adding a 20mm spacer you are throwing the relation between virtual steering axis and the centre of the actual wheel, this will effect bump steer, torque steer, turn in and also tramlining all to various degrees... plus it loads up all your wheel bearing by a good chunk more... but yes on a lowered car it looks a bit better, the honest answer is try it

as doogle says the cup cars ran hub spacers as the rear of the car is not effected and these don't load up wheel bearings as they space the entire hub outwards effectively

the cup cars also ran 5mm front spacers as the small increase in width benefits outweighed the negative smaller effect on the properties mentioned above

I will also add that if someone made an adapted bottom arm that was slightly longer with the lower horizontal drop link mount point moved outward by the same amount to me that would negate all these faults mentioned, increase camber and have only positive benefits that I can see, it would only be a tiny amount, one day I will do the maths and work it out correctly this mythical distance and maybe take the plunge and cut my bottom arms up it also wont effect the virtual steering axis by more than a few mm, best go see my friends with tig welders!

 

[Dumdum]

You won’t even notice 5mm visually.

Mine are 19mm all round and look great. I’m no racing driver, but the only difference I’ve noticed is trying to pull a quick U-turn the steering is quite heavy.

At speed, when flowing, no difference.

no but you might just feel a benefit, we aren't all after looks... if it was good enough for the clio cup racers... your right what do they know about race cars and handling?

 

[DarrenR27]

no but you might just feel a benefit, we aren't all after looks... if it was good enough for the clio cup racers... your right what do they know about race cars and handling?

“You’re right”

It was a one make serious therefore the cars were built to spec, not to the outright best performance.

Who knows, or who cares what is the actual best, because at road speeds you’ll never notice the minute difference.

 

[Dumdum]

“You’re right”

It was a one make serious therefore the cars were built to spec, not to the outright best performance.

Who knows, or who cares what is the actual best, because at road speeds you’ll never notice the minute difference.

were they? so all cup cars ran the same spacers? news to me... and even if they were all the same your so right, a race car would be setup to handle poorly of course

I will also add that I said to the guy to try it, that's the only correct answer as what suits one wont suit the rest

 

[Doogle]

I believe the Cup racers ran 10mm back and 5mm front but dont know if they all ran it. They also had 8J Cup racer rims with differing offsets and widths to regular 7.5J OEM rims.

From memory, to run hubcentric spacers you will need 21mm front and 19mm back minimum due to the depth of the hub spigot. However, I may be wrong. This is why I would either go full hog with 19-21mm spacers or next to nothing with 5mm so as not to cause any problems.

 

[Johnny 99]

I briefly ran 20mm spacers on my Speedlines. I did think that the car didn't feel quite right with them. However I'm now running Team Dynamics wheels which are et50 (equivalent to running 18mm spacers) & the car feels fine. Go figure. Maybe it's because I have Cooksport springs or that the TDs are lighter? I did very little driving with the spacers after the springs went on. Just got a set of wheels et45 onto which some track tyres are going so I'll see how that feels, though I have seen several people using et45 apparently without issues.