18" Sport Design Wheels Installed!

Okay, after several weeks of waiting, here's the final result of installing the Sport Design Wheels - before and after (courtesy of the photo in my sig.) It will take a while to get used to the new look - it's different. Hopefully it grows on me. My installer had real problems getting those crappy rear tires off of the rims. He's normally very good, but I had to leave the room and couldn't bear to watch him struggle - the joys of removing tires that are worn out and have sat around unused for a year. We got there eventually. Now I just have to choose a new photo for my sig.

gotta love the sport designs. nice

Wayne, I love 'em. Think the sport designs look great on your car. Like the black on silver caps, too!! Have a great Thanksgiving!

Thanks guys! Happy Thanksgiving! I wonder if I can get out and enjoy the nice weather today before the nasty stuff comes back again tomorrow.

hawt! enjoy!

Car looks good Wayne, major improvement Much different look, and I understand having to get use to such a change as I went through the same thing when I went from 5 spokes to the OZ's, but eventually you will love them and others will too. For me I want people to look at the entire car and say 'nice looking car, love the wheels they work perfectly with it', not 'those wheels look great' and say nothing about the car. if they say only the wheels look good, to me then the wheels have taken away from the car then the wheels are too much for it (we know what kind of cars these are and we see them all the time going down the road). But in your case that is not going to happen as the wheels work with the car and make it complete now. Now lower it a bit more in the front OK

nice upgrade. now u REALLY need the wing. u know it. stop raise your rear spoiler to pretend u have wing. i know i need one cause i always raise my rear spoiler even in garage to dream about having a full aero-kit car.

I don't see how you need to get used to it: the wheels look great.

Something about 10 spoke wheels on a 911... they look right.

I think it looks much better! Great choice Wayne! Happy Turkey Day to you to!

Thanks Guys. I've gotta agree with you Steven - it's about how the whole package looks, rather than individual components. I'm still not sure on adding the rear wing. I wasn't a big fan when I added the partial aero kit, as I love the stock spoiler so much. I may eventually add it, but I don't think the car needs it. As for lowering. I don't think that I can. I was contemplating it when I added the partial aero, but came to the conclusion that the previous owner did something to lower the car already, but cannot figure out what he did. It's lower than a stock C2, but I cannot figure out what has changed - certainly the springs appear to be standard springs, but otherwise I cannot tell. All I know if that put side by side with another C2 it sits lower and if I'm not careful I scrape my air splitter on the driveway when I pull in. Now, that I've had time to sit and stare at the car for a little while the new look is starting to sink in... now what I need to do is compare the photo I have above to the Photoshopped version that Tim put together before I bought the wheels.

Where did you buy your new wheels?

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I bought them from another Rennlister. They come up for sale periodically, you just have to keep an eye open for them.

Love the wheels...look great on your car. I think the "partial" aero looks great I am not a "wing" person...IMO

I don't like those wheels and would never consider them for my beautiful 996 .....never mind. Good choice!

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hehehe. Thanks. They look good on your car too. ... additionally, as recommended, I wrote a fact based review on the purchase as an FYI for others in the future.

Wayne, Very nice. Happy Thanksgiving

Wayne, WOW, the wheels l@@k GREAT! I think it was worth the effort. Here is a comparison of one of the pics you posted (not your sig pic) and the pic I p-shopped. While the angle of the pics are slightly differnet, the two shots are not too far off. The color of the wheels is brighter in my P-shop pic. Also added a 3rd pic showing the wing. (hee hee) You KNOW you want one! BTW - you need to take the car to the dealer to get the spoiler repaired. I appears to be stuck in the poser.... er, I mean.... in the up position.

Nice job Tim! You were right in talking me into buying this style of wheels - I think it looks good... although you wouldn't believe how many people have commented on how I now need to buy the taco wing. As for the spoiler being in the poser position... well, that suits me well.

Nice wheels...I think you got a heck of a deal, even with your notes on poorer than advertised condition. I would have gladly paid that for them in this condition (actually, you bought these just before I contacted the seller to commit to buy) Nice pickup! PS. You need the taco.

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Ahh, so you were one of the SoCal candidates - I figured that Straspec was the next in line. Apparently I was second in line (the first in line declined the deal) and there were others waiting after me if I said no. He kept threatening to sell them to someone else if I didn't give in to his demands - Unfortunately, my bank screwed up the funds transfer and added complications to the deal - right up until the day before delivery he was threatening to sell the wheels to someone else. He even stopped the delivery and was ready to have another PA buyer go and pick them up. I ended up having him cancel my first Paypal fund transfer and then send him a PayPal credit card payment (so that he could get his money immediately) - the second payment included a bunch of credit card surcharges and fees that were caused when he canceled the delivery. I've done a lot of online purchases (including 2 cars) sight-unseen over the last 10 years and this was the only painful and hassle-laiden one I've ever had. After having spent all of last Thursday evening on the phone to Jason, Bank of America and Paypal I just wanted the experience over with. It came really close to me telling him where to go. I kept telling myself that it was worth $100 to get this done with.

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Geez... why can't people just sell stuf straight-up instead of threatening to do this, threatening to do that...etc. I'm going to be frank but I guess the guy must have been desperate.

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It was odd - even when it was obvious that I was being honest and bending over backwards to get him the funds transferred to him he was still being paranoid and threatening to call someone else in PA that are offered to buy the wheels. I was basically told that unless I found a way to get the funds to him immediately, then he was going to sell the wheels to someone else. He was eager to get the funds quickly, but to be honest, if he hadn't waited a week to contact me with a shipping date, then he could have had the payment a week earlier. I know that he was busy, but he was in control of the shipping date. The story played out like this. He accepted my offer to buy the wheels. He then waited a week to give me a shipping date. When he gave me the shipping date he told me that he would not accept a credit card based Paypal payment unless I paid the credit card charges. I refused to do so and went out and opened a new back account so that I could do a non-credit card based Paypal fund transfer to him (Last saturday). I transferred the funds saturday night into the new bank account. Sunday I initiated a PayPal eCheck transfer. On Wednesday (I found out on Thursday when I started getting frantic messages from jason) the paypal transfer bounced due to an error on the part of Bank of America in transferring the funds between two of my accounts - an online electronic transfer. Jason saw this an put a stop on the delivery that was scheduled for Friday - it cost him $20 to do so. I then spent all of Thursday evening on the phone with Jason, Bank of America and Paypal. At one point I even teleconferenced Jason into a call with a BofA manager where they admitted the fault and he told Jason that I was doing everything I could to get his money to him. Jason was still difficult despite getting all the information on what I was doing to close the transaction. All through the evening he was threatening to sell the wheels to another potential PA buyer. Stopping the UPS delivery cost him $20, so he now added that onto the price of the wheels as an extra charge. At this point I had 3 choices, i) walk away from the deal. ii) send him a bank wire of the money on Friday (which would have left me no protection if I was being sold bad goods) or iii) give in to his demands to pay the UPS fee and the credit card surcharges. At this point I was so fed-up with his attitude that I said that it wasn't worth continuing this painful farce for the sake of $100, so I gave in to his demands and paid by credit card. Friday I had to drive to the UPS depot to pick up the wheels as his intervention had cancelled delivery at my home. Fun.

The whole car looks great. The new wheels are fine. My next set will be either those or the GT3 wheels. They do look similar.

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The Sport Designs are the MK1 GT3 wheels. The MK2 wheels are similar, but more rounded in the design.

Well: she looks good with the new rims. How close were they to being balanced?

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I don't remember how much weight they had to put onto the wheels, but the installer said that they were not badly out of balance. I was there talking with the installer while he was doing the work and I don't remember there being a lot of weight added. The previous tires had needed a lot of weight to balance them, but my installer said that was mostly because of the previous tires, not the wheels - they balanced pretty easily.

Hello All, Wow, heavy words are so lightly thrown (to paraphrase Morrissey). So there are six Rennlist threads bashing me without so much as a rebuttal on my part. Nice mob mentality. Wayne Devonport aka �Wellardmac� has given you his side of the story and I feel that it is appropriate to give you mine. I saw the threads a couple of days ago, but was too busy to respond as I have worked 65 hrs. in the past 5 days in the emergency department. Wayne, you should have contacted me first before insulting me publicly to express your displeasure. You should have contacted me immediately and maybe we could have worked something out. I could have refunded your money and sent the wheels to someone else on the list. Instead, I actually emailed you to see if you had installed the wheels and to find out how you liked them on your car! Boy, was I naive. So, here is the transaction from my standpoint: I wanted to sell the wheels locally so as to avoid having any type of misunderstanding about the wheels and I also did not know how to ship them across the country. This much was stated in my ad. If I were trying to deceive someone, I would not have stated, �Local sale preferred, but I can ship if you really want �em.� I had a line of people who wanted to buy the wheels and I went through the requests in the order received so as to be fair to everyone involved�even though several potential buyers were local! I then used half of one of my few days off to go to load the tires and go to the UPS Store for shipment. During this time, I discussed with Wellardmac the cost of shipping, packaging, and insurance. He stated that he needed to open a new bank account to link with PayPal b/c he was a self-described �security freak� [not my words], and wanted a discrete bank account attached to it. He offered to pay by credit card and I explained that I felt the wheels were a good price and therefore did not want to pay the extra credit card fees. He stated that he would pay via an account transfer instead. I agreed and the wheels were packaged for shipment. I had to make another trip to the UPS Store to sign my credit card charge and was informed that after I had left, Wellardmac had called the store to make sure that the wheels were actually there even though he had heard me discussing the packaging information which I then relayed directly to him. At this point, I no longer had the wheels ($1000) and had paid the associated shipment costs ($267). So, in good faith, I was out almost $1,300 with only a promise of payment from the purchaser! I was under the impression that I would be paid immediately, but instead did not receive payment until the next day. I still was not worried, however. It turns out the buyer also paid with an E-check instead of an account transfer. This E-check would take over 5 business days to clear, incur a nominal fee, and it was for the wrong amount (only a trivial difference, though). The day before the wheels were to arrive at Wellardmac�s house, I noticed that the PayPal check clearance date had now been postponed almost 15 days (until 29.Nov.)! I tried to contact Wayne to find out what had happened, and began to get nervous about the transaction. I called UPS and had them hold the wheels at the shipment hub until we could straighten everything out. It turns out that there was a PayPal error which was compounded by a B of A error. Wayne spent a lot of time talking to these vendors via telephone and conferencing me in. I suggested wiring the money to my account as a resolution for all of this (and having B of A absorb the fee in light of their error). The transaction was getting very unwieldy at this point, and I just wanted to resolve it. I also wanted to receive payment for the goods prior to their delivery (now 6 days from when I shipped them). I told Mr. Devonport that I would not release the wheels until I was paid. He was upset by this, and felt that I was needlessly prolonging the transaction. Obviously we have different points of view on this, but I would never expect someone to give me goods before he received payment for them. So, Wayne ultimately paid for everything with his credit card. I noticed that he had sent too much money and refunded him the difference immediately. Now, as far as the wheels not being as described: I answered every email promptly and accurately. I sent Mr. Devonport ten high resolution photos of the wheels (I am no photographer but I did the best I could). I never stated that the wheels were two years old. Rather, I said that they had been on my car just over a year and in storage just under a year. I thought that the wear descriptions were accurate and had already explained to Wayne that he should replace the rear tires. The fronts were not on the car very long, and I am not sure what the quarter test proves since these tire are borderline DOT-R tires and likely do not have as deep a tread as other tires. He also told me he was going to replace all of the tires since he had recently purchased a new set. I did not send photos of each tire for this reason. Whatever, I did not willfully misrepresent the tires. Finally, all of the centercaps were on the wheels and intact when I dropped them off at the UPS store. I do not know what happened en route. Mr. Devonport got $3,300 wheels for $1000. Even if he refinished each one (which is not even necessary) he would still have gotten out for less than half price. He had all of the photos to examine prior to his purchase also. I had wanted to sell the wheels locally and I really wish that I had. I think my actions detailed above show that I was not trying to defraud another Rennlister. So, to summarize the names I have been called by Wellardmac in these threads: suspect character, irrational, unreasonable, paranoid, penny-pinching, jackass, and untrustworthy. He also stated something to effect of: �What do you expect from a guy who drives a 944.� He impugned my character and integrity by insinuating that I am dishonest and have broken the trust of the Rennlist community. All of this was done before even contacting me to discuss things first. Furthermore, other �sheeple� in these threads have called me a weasel and said that I should be blacklisted from Rennlist. This is all very mature and speaks volumes about those involved. I have said my piece, thanks for reading. Sincerely, Jason Coker P.S. I had no idea about passing on the credit card fees as I am not a vendor. Wayne, your fees were refunded this morning.

Thank you for ther refund. If there is anything in my comments that does not reflect reality, then please PM me and I will correct the comments. Otherwise, we have both stated our positions, you refunded the credit card fees. I regard the transaction as closed.