Monday, October 22, 2007

Wheel Spacers Fitted

Apologies for not posting for a while... that doesn't mean that I've not been busy with the car though!

A couple of weeks back I had some wheel spacers fitted. This was primarily driven by the fact that my front tires were rubbing a little on the suspension and inside the wheel arch, so I decided to push the front wheels out by an additional 3 mm. It doesn't sound like much, but it turns out to be about right... the rubbing seems to have stopped and there's not much space to push the wheels out anymore.

New 3 mm wheel spacer and 45 mm bolts ready to be fitted to the front of Jonny's Maserati Ghibli

As you can see in the picture above, these front spacers are very slim and as such there is not need to make them hub-centric. I also purchased some new wheel bolts all 'round to accommodate the extra width... now 45 mm in length.

Front hub with new spacer located

The spacers are specifically made to fit the Ghibli and therefore align perfectly with the PCD and also the centre bore.

Front 3 mm wheel spacer installed

The wheel is then mounted to sandwich the spacer... you should be able to make out the shiny spacer in the picture above.

On the rear I decided to be a bit more brave and pushed the wheels out by 10 mm. This extra width necessitates a hub-centric spacer, which you can see in the picture below means that there's a hub machined to stick out of the spacer. Inside the hub fits the male hub from the car and the wheel then sits onto the spacer's hub.

Rear 10 mm spacer and 45 mm bolts ready to be installed

It probably makes more sense in the picture below where you can see the new spacer mounted onto the car's hub.

New rear spacer located on hub

I'm happy with the end result. The car looks more aggressive and much more sporty, especially viewing it from the front three quarter, where the width of the rear tires is now much more noticeable. The car seems to handle a bit better too... I'm sure I'm getting a bit more traction now at the rear when accelerating hard out of corners.

Jonny's Maserati Ghibli with 3 mm wheel spacer installed on the front and 10 mm spacer installed at the rear

If I can just get some more power to the back wheels, then there's space now to fit some 265 mm tires on the back! I'd also love to drop the car down a couple of centimetres, but I'm concerned that the engine sump would then be a bit too exposed?

2 comments:

4 lug to 4 lug billet said...

You did a lot of dedicated time to make a not only picture perfect job but a really job well done with the look of your car. I can certainly say I am very impressed with what wheel spacers can do.

4 lug to 4 lug billet

Unknown said...

could you give me the specifications of the attack of the hub of your maserati ghibli, unless yours is a MY 93 or the first series? I do not find it anywhere!