Wheel Adapters Revealed - Tech

If it were easy, everybody would do it. Let's face it: one of the most frustrating things for Euro enthusiasts is having the same mods as their buddy or anybody else in the scene, for that matter. Nobody likes a copycat, particularly when it comes to wheels.

Generally, we're limited to what's available in the market, leaving a small niche of wheel manufacturers. Without spending big bucks on custom wheels, you have companies like Tire Rack, Edge Racing, Discount Tire and TSW offering a decent selection of wheel designs for current and older cars. But many of the styles might not suit your tastes, or somebody else you know might already have the wheels.

So allow us to introduce you to the world of wheel adapters. Imagine having the ability to journey outside the norm and fit a set of wheels not constructed for your car. How about Porsche, Mercedes, BMW or Audi wheels on your VW?

Wheel adapters empower you to choose almost any wheel. If you own an Audi, for example, there are adapters that allow you to install Porsche or Mercedes wheels.

And don't imagine it's complicated for the beginner enthusiast; it's easy as long as you do your homework.

Once you've chosen a set of wheels and adapters, you basically bolt the wheel adapters to your car's hubs. Then mount your new wheels to the adapters with the appropriate hardware. That's it! No fabrication is required and it'll cost less than $400 for a set.

There are plenty of different companies offering wheel adapters but we worked with H&R Springs. known for its suspension, H&R also specializes in wheel adapters and spacers. The adapters are hubcentric, replicating the factory hub lip and avoiding shimming and vibration, hard anodized and built from an aluminum/magnesium alloy to be stronger and lighter.

Fitments
To ensure a Porsche, Mercedes, BMW or Audi wheel will fit your car, you need to understand the bolt pattern and center bore of both your stock hubs and new wheels.

The bolt pattern is basically the circle formed by your wheel lugs. The first number of the bolt pattern is how many lugs you have. In the case of most VWs, it's either a 4- or 5-lug hub. The second number is the specific distance from the center of one hole to the back of the farthest hole. for example, a 5x100 bolt pattern has a 100mm between one hole in the hub to either of the two farthest holes.

There aren't many bolt patterns to remember and they can vary, but make a note that in general, Porsche is 5x130, BMW is 5x120 and Mercedes/Audi are 5x112.

The center bore is the size of the hole on the back of the wheel that centers it on the brake hub. All VW/Audis have a 57.1mm center bore, while Porsche has 71.6mm, BMW is 72.5mm and Mercedes is 66.5mm.

If you drive a four-cylinder Dub, it's probably a 4x100 bolt pattern. This goes for Mk1, Mk2, and Mk3 2.0, as well as Scirocco and Corrado G60. finding unique wheels in 4x100 might be difficult, so H&R supplies adapters so you can fit later 5x100 VW/Audi wheels as well as Porsche wheels.

Later Dubs have a 5x100 bolt pattern, including Mk3 VR6, Mk4, Corrado VR6, New Beetle, B4 Passat and Mk1 Audi TT owners. H&R offers Porsche, Mercedes, Audi and BMW adapters for this pattern.

Most '95-on Audis, B5, B5.5, B6 Passat and Mk5 VW owners have a 5x112 bolt pattern, so their options are Porsche and Mercedes adapters.

Measuring
Now that you're familiar with the possible wheels and various adapters, the more difficult part is determining what wheels fit. Rekindle your arithmetic skills because you'll need to calculate the wheels' clearance with your brakes, suspension and fenders.

There are two main things to consider - the size of the wheels and the offset.

Generally, you'll have to run wheels that sit in your stock fenders, so don't imagine adapters will allow you to magically run 21" Cayenne wheels on your Rabbit!