Wheel Spacers

[SamP84]

Hello all,
Sorry if this has been covered, but...

Taking aesthetics out of the equation do wheel spacers have a positive or negative effect on handling? I have spacers on without realising and want to know if it is a good thing or bad thing.

E85 3.0si with non runflat 18s, eibach springs.

Thank you!

[Marlon]

Doubt you are going to notice any driving difference in 20mm or 15mm extra spacing, some say you can but I can't see it tbh.
I have 15mm front and 20mm rear on my winter alloys (style 32's) but only for aesthetic reasons.

[ben g]

I think a lot of people pretend that they can feel a difference when spacers are fitted. Maybe they thunk of themselves as a Michael Schumacher wannabe?

I personally don't feel any difference. I've had none on the front, 25mm on the rears before and currently have 12mm front, 20mm rear spacers on.

I only have them on because they make the car look better. Not because of any performance gain/loss etc.

[Chris1981]

Exactly... they make the car look better but won't have any noticeable impact on handling

I think a lot of people (me included) put them on OEM alloys as if you lower the car without spacing out it makes the car look like a fat bird with skinny legs...

[mjennings23]

From a technical standpoint, they add positive scrub radius due to the movement of the tyre outboard of the kingpin radius. In effect what this means is the wheels try to toe out when in forward motion. As the cars usually have toe in on the fronts, this effectively starts to cancel out.

Toe out on the front axle makes the car very keen to turn in, but more twitchy on straights. Toe in does the opposite.

Are you likely to notice it? Maybe if you're an experienced driver pushing the car to its limits on a track. On the road? Highly unlikely.

Different spacer widths front and rear also adjust the relative track widths, a wider rear track than front causes understeer, a wider front promotes oversteer.

[Steve84N]

Say what you like but the difference was obvious to me when I put 10mm spacers on all round and it had more cornering grip with spacers.

A 20mm increase in track width is substantial enough to have an effect. Have a look at the typical track width increase on things like M and AMG models, it's about 20-50mm...

[Nelly Welly]

I had none, then with 12 on the front and 15 on the back, tram lining was remarkably reduced and as described it had increased tendency to turn in sharper and is twitchy on the straight. MV2 on 18” with run flats if the whole picture is needed.

[SamP84]

Thank you all, just curious. When I had a Tuscan it was a huge topic!

[Marlon]

Thank you all, just curious. When I had a Tuscan it was a huge topic!

I can imagine; the huge topics are the ones where there's a polarisation of opinion.