Wheel advice needed - Polo GTI 2007

[earth2dallas]

hey guys, thanks for the insight - and the photo... very cool!
yes i think 17's seem like a good balance of looks and performance - so that's where I'm looking now.

are there any 'roadworthy' issues with 17" wheels? or 7 or 7.5" width rims? sorry if questions are stupid - i have no experience with this & don't want to make mistakes...

thanks again

[seangti]

legalities vary between states so probably best to check yourself as to what's relevent for you, or if you go outside of that, you can balance the risk of being caught. A tyre shop should be up to speed on this stuff too.

My understanding is that you're allowed upto a 2" increase in wheel diameter over stock provided the rolling diameter stays within a certain tolerance. i.e. You go up an inch in wheel, you run a lower profile tyre to retain rolling diameter. As for what that tolerance is, I have no idea.

[earth2dallas]

thanks again for the advice....I've done some reading today & understand that changing to from 16" x 6.5 (5x100) ET38 (205/45/16) to 17" x 7.5 (5x100) ET35 (215/40/17) shouldn't exceed any legal tolerances/limits in NSW that I'm aware of.

it seems the additional 15.7mm of poke resulting from this change might be the only issue (if it exceeds the wheel guard). I don't have access to my car to measure that right now unfortunately.

Does anyone happen to know how far from 'FLUSH' the stock wheels sit????

[Stuwey]

7.5 at ET35 is about perfect, no poke at all.

[earth2dallas]

OK cool - thanks heaps for the quick response.

Lastly, at 7.5 wide, are both 205 or 215 tyre options I could take? (I visually don't like rims sticking out from tyres)... would 215 look pretty normal on 7.5???

Has anyone used 205 width with a 7.5 wide rim??? Would love to see a pic of that if anyone has one.

[ForceFed]

Go for a 215. Mine are 215 35 18. My wheels are 18x7.5 +38. Not stretch whatsoever.

[earth2dallas]

yeah ok, thanks for that. i guess the extra 3mm offset I'd have (et35) shouldn't make too much difference....

you guys have been very helpful... great resource for people like me who know very little about this ...

[earth2dallas]

Go for a 215. Mine are 215 35 18. My wheels are 18x7.5 +38. Not stretch whatsoever.

Hi, do you have any photos of this wheel & tyre combo? anything from side-on?... I'm considering 17x7.5 ET35 (with 215 40 17) on my polo, but have concerns about it extending beyond the guards.
Any photos from the same or similar setup would be much appreciated....

[noone]

An offset of 45 or 205's would be safe.

[ForceFed]

My car is filthy at the moment. All I have at the moment is this photo.

[insanekiwi]

205 looks little stretched out on 7.5". Go with 215. Make sure you get ET35 otherwise, you may have rubbing issues on full lock.