I went to a car show/meet this weekend .. it was called the Hellaflush event .. where offset wheels are the KEY .. i know a lot of you out there dont like these types of cars .. but for those who do, enjoy night before car wash =)
Maybe I'm just showing my cantankerous old age, but most of those wheels do absolutely nothing for me. This one did look cool, but what a pita it must be to clean...the owner has done it well:
have to remember .. these guys get new wheels seasonaly .. but i have heard that they remove the wheels and clean thoroughly monthly
Wow those are some good looking rims...I would have to agree with richy, that particular style looks great and well maintained. The offset is incredible, very cool and thanks for the pictures :thumb:
They have to run negative camber to "tuck" the wheels/tires into the wheel wells. The entire "Stretched rubber" look to me is silly. A couple of the beads on those wheels look like they're ready to pop at any given moment. When a stretched tire fails, it fails catastrophically and I've seen them take out brake lines, bend a strut... all sorts of really, really bad things. It's maybe just my function over beauty side kicking in, but I'd be scared sh*tless to drive on stretched tires. And as Jeremy Clarkson says "If it can't even go over a speedbump, I want nothing of it"
yeah, stretched tires look like poo. but these guys probably dont need to drive these cars all the ime, plus its Cali, so that's big out there.
It's growing! I'm seeing a huge uprising of it... even on our harsh Pacific Northwest roads! I had a friend who ruined a wheel, his suspension, brake links, fender well, and creased his fender on one corner because he hit a minor pothole... it stressed the bead too much and BAM. Game over. Something like 3k in damages that insurance wouldn't cover because his tires didn't fit his wheels.
Thanks for sharing pictures! There's actually a reason to using 'stretched' tires besides looks, not sure if you guys knew or not. If you don't, it's so that their wheels can tuck a lot better and won't catch on their fenders (which are most definitely rolled by the way).
Those were some damn nice pics!!! Are those cars generally on air ride?? or just with a really crazy coilover system?? I want something like that for my MK4...
the super low ones are obviously on air .. but most are on coilovers .. the new thing is a hybrid coilover/air suspension where you have a coilover strut with the traditional spring replaced with a air bag, that way you can go super low with a nice ride
Your almost correct. "The whole thing started in Germany/ Belgium, local laws required that the tire tread be within the fender line. Well that doesnt allow one to run wider or lower offset wheels, so they put narrower tires on the wheel to maintain legality" Check out the VW scene, stretch has been in for years now.
^^^ he doesnt drive like that silly .. im sure you know that .. but whats crazy is some guys with coilovers drive very similar to it .. theres this one guy on vipstylecars.com where he replaces all his tires every month due to -3.5 degrees of camber .. he buys cheap tires .. but still
lol. plus its cheaper to get those tires then once for read width of the wheel. but yeah its their style and stuff and they need it so they can run wide wheels without rubbing fenders, camber wear on tires should be like hell. im sure its not their DD
Coming from a drag racing background, just can't get used to that. We're always trying to stuff the widest tire we can.
Wide wheels, stretch tires, aggresive offsets, and negative camber have been the look and style of vw's for many years now. many are concerned with the safety, but you can have catastrophic failure with normally seated tires. I've run some extremem stretch setups and i have never run into problems. I know more people that have had tire blow outs running traditional tire setups. alot of tires now are designed for stretching, it actually stiffens the side wall (this is preferred for many drift car setups, as the stiffer side wall allows the tires to break loose more predictably). The extreme camber is to clear fenders, and becomes more extreme on air ride cars, because when slammed the wheels are at their peak travel. I daily my car on Northern NJ roads. Just pay attention and don't speed excessively, and dont' tail gate people so you have a clear view of the road ahead.
