To go 19" or not to go 19"

I am considering putting on 19" Forged wheels on my 02' C2, what are the drawbacks or am I better off just putting on 18's. How much will the 19's effect the ride and handling? Thanks in advance.

18s handle better and are lighter than 19s 19s look better, although ride gets a bit harsher (not too bad, but harsh anyway) Best option is to keep 18s for track, and 19s for the street. That's what I did!

Consider the strength and reputation of the particular wheels you are considering. If your roads are not in good condition you can easily end up with bent rims. The sidewalls on the appropriate sized tires for 19's are very short and stiff. They do not offer much protection to the rim and/or cushion for the ride. The other thing to consider is the availability of tires. Your selection of tires will be reduced and the they will be more expensive.

the ride will be sacrificed. As long as you have proper offset and sizing, the 19's will handle better not worse than 18's.

19s will handle better than 18s? 'Scuse me? Got any data to back this up? Porsche should have asked you before they chose the wheel sizes for the GT3

Thanks c4c Leon......harsh how harsh is harsh? Is it comfortable enough to be a quasi daily driver thru the streets of Los Angeles (100 miles a week) Or will it beat you up pretty good or better description is it fatiguing? Thanks

18's will handle better, everybody knows that!! 19's will look badass!! Take your pick!

I guess I must have been absent the day they went over that . The most important dimension IMHO is not the wheel diameter, but rather the tire size it enables. Consider the following 18 vs 19 shot (18" furthest away). Going to the 19" wheels enables a 25% aspect ratio (less sidewall flex) and 315 mm width tires. You still think the 18"s corner better?

Many test's have already proven that bigger is not always better! Check around, the truth is out there!

I had 19 Champion RG-5's for a while....loved the look. Went to the same wheel in an 18. Much happier now. They don't handle as flat the 19's but I have less fear of potholes and drive thru ATM curbs...

But you can get 18" tyres in 315 too?

BadA996: My C4 Cab is my daily driver. I drive mostly in Glendale, Canoga Park, and on the 118 and 210 freeways (live in Glendale, work in Canoga). I put around 65miles/week day on my car. I have ROW M030 + 19" HREs. The ride is far from being unbearable, but I have gotten some complaints from passengers (wife and "older" people, never young people) and I've gotten many more complements on the looks.

Yeah, they missed our views when they picked GT3 wheel sizes, but they sure listened when they were choosing sizes for the Carrera GT BTW, where can I find all those reports about 18" wheels allowing better cornering than 19"'s...

I have 19's on mine and the appearance is awesome. the ride is somewhat stiff. A fellow PCA club member, same car, has the 18's and the ride is not a great deal better. In my opinion, barely can notice the difference. I live in a remote area and am always concerned about a flat, puncture, etc. Does anyone carry fix-a-flat and ever had to use it to get home or to wherever you may be going? Does it work?? 19's are extremely difficult to locate in my area and I am sure I would have to wait sometime before getting a replacement.

there was an article a couple of years ago in road and track (or car & driver?) about different wheel sizes and handling. i think they used bmw 3-series track cars and professional drivers for the test, and 17" wheels came out on top! i think they tested 15-19". i don't keep my back issues of the magazines or i would tell you what issue it was in. i don't think tires have progressed so far in 2 years or so that 19s are all of a sudden better. some sidewall flex is a good thing because it allows the tire to conform to the road better and grip better. a tire with no sidewall doesn't have any area to distort so it matches the road surface. i'm not saying all 17s are better than any other size, just that with the same tires on different size rims, and on the bmws, they got the best lap times in 17s. just my two cents.

I believe the coefficient of rotational mass is increased by going from 18" to 19"... same case from going from 17" to 18"... your car will lose a little bit of grunt because of the increased rotational mass... I have 17" and notice the difference between my buddy's 18" 996... I can also feel the difference when I increase psi by 4 on each tire... I think going an inch higher will take away some strait line acceleration... (but if your racetrack is all corners I guess it don't matter much!) the bigger rims do bring out the muscular lines of the 996!!... does anybody know what the weight of the new 5-spokes is compared to 17" 1999 carrera stock wheels? I know they are lightweight... but does anybody have hard numbers on the 2; with and without tires? cheers Peter

A few questions about 19" rims: 1. Can anyone post pics of a 996 with 19" rims? 2. Can anyone recommend the best 19" wheels to buy? Is it BBS? 3. Finally, does anyone know if the stock 18s on my '04 996 would fit an '03 BMW 330xi? I'd love to put 19s on my 911 and put the 18s on my Bm'er! Cheers.

Bigger is not always better. IMO 18 and 19 handle about the same and you'll never will be able to tell unless you can drive 10/10 all the time. I think most of us can drive at most 8/10 so the rim size don't matter. 18" is better for the track only because there is more tires with better grip available with 18s. Ride and pot hole damage is the only concern with 19". Hoops Porsche and Bimmer have different bolt pattern and offset so don't even try. There is no best 19", its more of a personal preference in style. Make sure you get a quality wheel. Most guys use RH, HRE, Kinesis, Fiske, BBS. I think you should start with these companies. I have heard leaking problem with cargraphics so I will stay away from them.

Reading through this post, folks seem to be less than enchanted by 19 inch rims. So, why did Porsche decide to use 19" rims on the 997??? I've always loved the look of the 19s, but have held back from putting them on my 996 for the very reasons cited in this thread. Is there something about the 997 chasis that renders it more suitable than the 996 for 19" rims, or has Porsche simply changed it's view of 19" rims? Gary

In regards to Porsche switching to 19"s on the 997.... It's probably in response to many current customers being more concerned about the look than other features. Sad but true.

Good thing you brought this up, the article actually had 19's going the fastest on the bmw 3 series. 17's were the slowest 18's were much faster and 19's were just a tad faster then 18's. However when comparing thep price (19's were about twice the cost of the 18's they used) they picked 18's as the best for that particular car, even though 19's were the fastest.

Jetskied: Thank for the info, much appreciated. Lance: "It's probably in response to many current customers being more concerned about the look than other features. Sad but true." You really think so? I am not disagreeing, but I thought Porsche was ALL about performance, and NEVER did anything just for looks. Any modification always had to be a perfomance plus or neutral; performance steps backwards were not tolerated, I thought. If you're right, what a shame. If, however, 19s are in fact better performering wheels, then hmmm.... may be time to upgrade.

Porsche like any car manufacturer needs to stay in business, which means making money. Can now see why they made a SUV. Porsche has obviously worked with tire manufacturers to make high performance tires for their 19" 997 wheels and they have tuned their suspension to work with the larger wheels. Nothing can be taken in isolation. The car's suspension, wheels, and tires have to work together. That said, I would not go to a 19" wheel for performance gains. You're not going to find them. Feel free to make the change if you like the appearance of the larger wheels. After all, it's your money and car. Check out 996TT for pictures. The larger wheels seam to be popular with the forced induction crowd.