Changing the width of you track does nothing to affect your car's center of gravity (CG). The CG is an imaginary point on (in) the car that the car would balance on if you were to hang it from that exact point. moving the wheels further outward will not affect that in the least.

Their main purpose of spacers is to allow a wider range of wheel fitments. If you want a wider track, buy a wheel in the correct width/offset/backspacing you require. Spacers are usually not considered a good idea in super hard driving like road racing, anyways.

Will pointed out that one thing spacers (coincidentally) do is increase the car's track, to a very slight extent. This does decrease the car's weight transfer during cornering, letting the tires share a more equal workload. (as would lowering the car's CG or reducing the overall weight of the car)

However, the tire being further outboard also decreases your car's effective wheel rate. Think about your basic sciences classes: you have a lever (your control arm or trailing arm) with a fulcrum at one end, the wheel at the other end, and a spring in the middle. the farther out you move the wheel, the easier it is to compress the spring. Basically, when you move the wheels farther out, your car acts like it is on slightly softer springs.

So, you have a pro/con thing there. The decision to use the spacers would probably depend on the ratio of increased track/decreased wheel rate. (good/bad) The difference in track would be easy enough to measure with a ruler, but the wheel rate part requires more in-depth measurement and a little geometry. I've been too lazy to do my own calculations as to what I think the ratio of wheel/spring rates are, and the two people who have done it got cosiderably different answers for the front suspension. (Gustave in his M3, and Ove.)

So, basically, "who knows?" is my answer to whether you should use them. Whatever the effect, it will be small. I doubt 95% of the people on this forum (myself included) could even tell a difference.

Mac
87 325is



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