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In Reply to: spare tire update posted by kwillmorth on July 23, 2000 at 23:01:17:
Finally pulled the 3 series spare out and tried it on the coupe. As suspected (and noted by a couple of posts here) it will not fit, front or rear. The brakes are just too big!So much for the compact spare direction.
I'm still stuck with this gnawing concern that a shredded tire at a school or on a road rally in the desert at night will leave me and the wife stranded for hours with no help for miles, no cellular reception and 25 miles to walk. Not to mention the freaks you run into on the roads around So. Cal....
So, I hit tire rack to pick up the cheapest 17" rim that will fit, with a cheap tire.
Front offset being 43mm, means that the rear set on the front wheels is 5.44" with a 7.5" rim. At the rear, the stock rear set is 4.81" with a 9" rim (8mm offset). This means that a front wheel will actually put .63" more rim toward the inside than the stock setup. This isn't too bad, since the rear is pretty wide open. On mine, running 265/40's means that there is already.71" of rubber over the rim toward the inside anyway, so...
To make sure a front will fit on the rear and provide max clearance and to limit trunk space use with the final spare, I wanted to reduce the spare tire width to the minimum that will fit the 17 x 7.5 rim.
A 205/50 x 17 is only 8" total section width.
So I bought:
1- ATP Razze Rim 17 x 7.5" ($179)
1- Bridgestone S02 205/50 x 17 ($109)
This should fit front or rear, is pretty close in outside diameter (25.07") to the largest tire on the car (25.35"), is narrow enough to create a shallow rear set for the rear mounting (5.74" for the 205/50 vs. 5.53" for the 265/40 (275 produces 5.71")), and will obviously fit the front. If I need more space at the rear I can always pick up a spacer. The fact that the spare I ordered is the same basic tire as the ones on the car is happenstance, as they are OEM on Porsche in the 205/50 size, so are cheap enough and in stock. Certainly not needed.
So, between the cost of the jack tray/jack, the spare, mounting and balancing, and all that rot, creating a servicable spare for piece of mind on those occasions when being without is just too uncomfortable will cost about $425. Whether or not this will be worth the money? If I never use it and take more long hauls because I've got it, it's worth it. If I use it one time it will have paid for itself.
So, it depends on just how concerned you are, and how much confidence you have in the mobility kit.... Next car I buy will have a real spare tire in the trunk, this whole mess is just B.S. as far as I'm concerned.
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