I want to purchase some Z06 wheels for my 1987. I was told that they would only fit 1988 and newer. I would need spacers to make them fit. How would spacer effect the handling of the car and are they not recommended? Or would it be ok?

 

So long as the spacers fit well and the lug nuts are long enough it should be fine.

 

I have been using mine for over 8 years; no problems up to now

 

Not dangerous. Many of the autocrossers I run with use spacers and drive the dog out of their cars with no problems at all. As noted, however, you have to make sure the lug bolts are long enough to provide enough thread depth to go fully through the lug nuts with the spacers in place.

 

Spacers... maybe. If the lugs aren't properly torqued, it could more easily put shear forces on the studs. Also, centering the wheel might be an issue, and will require extra care when mounting them. As far as adapters, I don't see how they're dangerous.... Just doubles the amount of studs that can potentially break. How often do you break a stud anyways?

Speaking of adapters, I saw a Ferrari Modena with 3" wide adapters on it!!! He spent a helluva lot of money for those sh*$%y adapters and turned around and put cheap ricer wheels on it.

 

I agree! I had them on my GN for 5 racing seasons. The car launched so hard, it cracked my A-pillars. But the rear wheel spacers held out just fine. I also run them on my '87 roadster with ZR-1 wheels. No problem (except for a perfect wheel balancing).

 

If you're bent on the Z06 wheel look, you may want to check out the aftermarket wheel manufacturers. While it wouldn't be my first choice, I'm pretty sure that at least one of them are offering a Z06 knock off that has the proper offset for the pre '88 cars. Depending on who makes the spacers, they can be good or unsafe. Again, that would not be a primary choice for me. I have seen cheap cast aluminum spacers that I would be wary of putting on my little guy's Radio Flyer, others are first class machined, hard anodized and hub-centric which I have used. (you will not have a balance problem with a high quality, machined hub centric piece.)

 

Porsche put them on their early 930 turbos and 944's.

 

My spacers are permenently mounted.
Last winter when I went to 1/2" studs to replace the 5/16ths I drilled in and mounted the spacers so that I would never have a centering issue.
Matt383

 

There's a big difference between spacers and adapters !! A wheel spacer is simple a thick disk that slips onto the face of the brake drum or disk rotor and the wheel is then installed and attached with lug nuts. This efectively places the wheel and it's mass further out on the end of the wheel studs and increases the load placed on the studs. Typical OEM studs will not have enough length and perhaps strength to handle this type of load.

A wheel adapter is a disk that is attached directly to the OEM studs with lug nuts. The adapter has its own set of studs and the wheel is attached to the adapter with a second set of lugs. Adapters are usually made from much stronger material than spacers. Wheel adapters are much more expensive that simple spacers but there is much more to them than a ring of metal.

In typical Corvette applications, adapters are used to mount later year wheels on earliler cars. The adapters sold for Vette applications will typically come with acorn-style lug nuts that will stick out beyond the adapter mounting face. Because the OEM Vette wheels have recesses on the flange side of the wheels, the nuts sticking out from the adapter are not an issue. The recesses simply allow the protruding nuts to fit inside. Aftermarket wheels may not have recesses on the wheel mounting flange so adapters may not work in those cases.

Most race sanctioning bodies will not allow the use of spacers wither at all ir unless a different wheel stud is used that meets that bodies standard for strength and a minimum number of revolutions the mounting nut must turn beyond the end of the stud.

Adapters are IMHO, the best way to attach a wheel if it will not properly attach otherwise. They cost a fair amount, but they are much safer.