Wheels and Tires, Let's get this discussion centralized Options

[Pat Garvey]

It ocurs to me that we've forgotten the various combination of wheel offered by the factory for 914's.

I see to recollect (VERY dangerous) that there were:

Steel - four versions (maybe 5)

Alloy - five versions

I know there were different widths available in some, but I'm talking about design.

I'll start - these are 5 1/2J steel wheels from an early car with appearance group. Yes, they've been rstored & no, they do not have the proper flat black center spray around the lugs.

Pat

[davep]

Jim has it correct. The 'J' for tubeless will always be found in the size designation. If it is not there, then it indicates a tube type version. You can tell this with the tire off the rim when you can look for the safety ribs. The safety ribs are a wide (.5" or so) raised ( about a sixteenth") portion just inside of where the tire bead sits. It is there to prevent the tire beads from moving away from the edge of the rim and thus unseating themselves. Early 5 bolt Fuchs, Gasburner Mahles, and many of the early steel rims were tube type. You can run them tubeless, but there is some risk in doing so; most of the risk comes when cornering briskly and the twisting forces on the bead of the tire can cause it to walk about. If it becomes unseated you could have a dramatic deflation of the tire and consequent loss of control. So you would be most at risk on a track or during autocross and less so on the street. If you should cause an accident due to this scenario, you would likely be liable for damages.