How big can I go?

[SilverGTI]

Now i know you can roll arches to fit huge wheels in, but is there a limit to what you can do?

If I wanted some huge 17" wheels that were 9/10" wide would I need to just roll the arches or would I need to weld an arch higher up the body of the car?

[rubjonny]

16s with low profiles are the biggest I would fit to a MK2, anything bigger just looks out of place.  Plus it will take a serious ammount of archwork, and your handling/accelleration will go all to pot!

Best sized wheel for a MK2 is 15" IMO

[steviem]

yeah, if you want unfeasibly hooge rimz, get a corsa or a saxo please.

15s or 16s as a maximum are better on mk2s, dished 15s look really nice, too

[Chantuz]

Agreed! I had 17's on my golfy acouple of weeks back, got shot of them and ordered some 15" deep dished alloys. The handling was poop witht he 17's!!!

[Veedubgt18v]

15's and drop it on the floor

[SilverGTI]

Yeah I hear what you're saying because up till a month ago I had some 17" Borbet C's fitted to one of my mk2's which were with it when i bought it. When I had a full car it used to scrape on the rear arches if I hit a bad bump (the arches weren't rolled), and also, parallel parking was a proper nightmare. Being non-power-assisted didn't help matters either I suppose.. I replaced these wheels with some 14" BBS RA's and the difference in handling was very noticable at slow speeds, although I had lost that feeling of being on rails a little bit as the Borbet's did grip like f**k!!


So if I went for some 15" is there a limit to how wide I can go? I've seen some that have a 3" lip making them 10" in total on the rear, the front's are 8.5".

The main reason is I've got another mk2, this one has PAS too, and I do want some of that feeling of being stuck to the road back.  She currently running on some 6J 14" BBS and she does handle really well, but there are times I just need more grip, especially when accelerating. Wheel spinning in 3rd when trying to overtake aint good so need that extra bit of rubber on the floor, especially if I go through with my plan of fitting a VR6 later this year. I'm getting the arches rolled and a total re-spray in next few weeks anyway so size won't really be an issue.

lmao @ steviem!   Bit below the belt mate, was just asking. LOL..  Been looking at some Borbet type B's anyway, want to keep the "basket" style rims on but aint quite got money for the chromed-up bling split rims yet..

Thanks for your responses anyway, looks like i'm gonna be goin for some fat 15"s  

[rubjonny]

if its going to the spray shop anyway, I'd roll the hell out of the rear arches and cut as much off the front as you can, that way you'll have maximum clearance

You can chop the rear arches too, but if you do make sure you weld them back up again afterwards, as they're double skinned and you dont want any moisture getting in or it'll rust like hell!