hubcentric wheelspacers for my bravo.

[Skate2create]

as title.

everyone should know what my bravo looks like by now, if not here she is:

As you can see in the picture, my front arches swallow my wheels right up.
what I'd like to do is fit some spacers to bring the wheels out a bit.
I'm thinking space the wheels out 20-30mm each side.
What I'm wondering is, do you think this is safe and will look right?
Also, what sort of stress does this put on the rest of the car, i.e Wheelbearings etc.
I'll need to space the front and rear as if I only do the front it would look odd? Problem with that is that I don't know what the clearance would be like at the back. I run 45mm lowering springs and 205/40 tyres.
My "dub" friend seems to think that it will make my handling better by widening my overall footprint but I'm not sure of that either.
Also, if anyone knows where to purchase some cheaply show me where!
Else I will CAD them up and get my ol' man to get them made up at his work.

Please someone point me in the right direction!!!

Dan

 

[allanhelen]

When I got my spacers the cheapest place was called Jackspratt automotive you can either email them on [email protected] or telephone 01554 810929 / 07779 315343 ask for Andy they take cheques and paypal
It was a while ago but i'm sure they still have an ebay shop (fireturk is there ebay seller name iirc)

 

[dave]

http://www.performancefx.net/wsfiat.htm

 

[Skate2create]

cheers lads!

All I need to know now is if anyone has any information on what I asked above ^^^ ?

 

[Luke]

handling better, yea as you're increasing the front track so will be more stable in the corners. Not really that noticeable though. widening the rears wont really make any difference as they're just keeping the arse of the car off the ground

It will put more stress on your wheel bearings, but its no different than putting on a wheel with a higher offset. Obviously the further out you go, the more strain. But it still shouldn't be that bad.

More importantly than anything is you want to try and compress the wheel as much into the arch as possible, then measure the gap you have between the top of the tyre and the inner wing. You wont want a spacer thicker than that distance otherwise you'll introduce too much rubbing.

 

[jug]

20-30mm each side.

are you crazy?! thats a huge amount when using spacers.

a wider front track will give the car more stability so it will improve handling. it will also increase your turning circle. thankfully it willl not affect your camber.

the main change in stress will be on the wheel bolts. the extra leverage of 20-30mm will greatly increase forces acting on the bolts. you need longer bolts that are also stong as hell.

arch rubbing front or rear is hard to predict. i would expect both front and rear would have problems with your size of tyre if you space each wheel by 20-30mm. the front will probably catch on full lock and the rear when fully loaded, but its hard to say without trying it.

 

[allanhelen]

the main change in stress will be on the wheel bolts. the extra leverage of 20-30mm will greatly increase forces acting on the bolts. you need longer bolts that are also stong as hell.

At this size (20mm plus) they will more than likely be bolt on spacers that attach directly to the hub then you use the original bolts to bolt the wheel to the spacer (or do a stud and nut conversion as i did).

if you do increase the width of the track expect shorter life from the wheel bearings but a wider track will give you a sharper turn in, also don't forget you may run into clearance issues with the wing if you bring them out too far are the wheels running the correct offset at the moment?

 

[Skate2create]

I'm pretty sure they are, they are stilo Abarth 17" wheels.

The reason it looks odd is because the arches came off a 20v marea which has a wider track than a standard bravo. would 15mm spacers aside surfice if thats the case?

 

[jug]

i would only space the front, to compensate for the marea wings, effectively making your car the same as an HGT model (also with marea wings).

a non-HGT front track is 1440mm
HGT/marea front track is 1470mm

so if you space it by 15mm per side, you'd have HGT spec.

 

[Skate2create]

Thats a point.

on the rear of the HGT, are the back wheels the same track as the front or are the fronts sticking out more than the rear?

 

[jug]

on an HGT the rear track is the same as non-HGT models.