>Offset and backspacing is not the same thing.
>Offset is positive unless specified negative.
>Negative offset is not common on wheels today
>and it would not fit a Roadster without big flares.
Certainly they're not. I've always considered positive offset away from
the car centerline, negative toward the centerline. Looks to me like
many, if not most, of the FWD cars today use wheels with a bunch of
negative offset. I guess they do that to get the centerline of the wheel
near or on the steering pivot plane. That's one reason the selection of
wheels for our RWD toys is rapidly disappearing.
Thinking about it, I guess there are instances in which backspacing, too,
would correctly expressed as a negative number, but I doubt that folks
that'll do something like that are going to be reading a list like this
one. There has been a popular trend among some groups called low and
wide. Wheels are built that actually put most or all of the tire and rim
outside the body using a super reversed wheel center section. They tend
use older style 78 or 80 series white wall tires mounted on rim widths
that are too wide for a given tire width, but I've seen some with low
aspect ratio tires, too. I shudder when I see one. All-in-all not the
smartest things to do, individually, much less in combination. How do
they turn? Very carefully I'd say. Then there's the decidedly
asymmetrical load on the wheel bearings and the wheel mounting surface.
Don't know if this has ever appeared in Europe, but it's been made
illegal in many places here.
FWIW, Ron
Ronnie Day
ronday@home.com
Dallas/Ft. Worth
'71 510 2-dr (Prepared Class Autocrosser)
'73 510 2-dr (Street Toy)
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