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[WAY]

Hey Bryan and others who race their cars, what is your view on spacers? The vendor suggest I use spacers for my fronts with a different 18x9.5 that they already have for E36 as I will be fitting the ER widebody front. I have never used spacers before and my car is a track car mainly used at high speed tracks. How heavy is say a 10mm spacer?

[fourtailpipes]

spacers on track are fine. the weight is at the hub, so although it's unsprung mass, it'll have almost no effect on rotational inertia.

[BerkTechnology]

Originally Posted by fourtailpipes

spacers on track are fine. the weight is at the hub, so although it's unsprung mass, it'll have almost no effect on rotational inertia.

Knows exactly what he's talking about.

We use a 5mm spacer on the front of our race car.

[larryn]

Wayne, almost every e36 club racer in existence uses 17x9 wheels and a 10mm hubcentric spacer up front. This gives the ability to have a square setup, but more importantly, allows for rotation.

I'm not a fan of any spacer under 10mm, as those do not have hubcentric extensions on them (basically, it's a flat plate with 5 lugholes in it, and the hole for the hub). I had an issue with a 5mm spacer before that caused me to snap all 5 lug bolts at a driving event, launching my wheel and causing some car damage. If you do have to use a spacer without the hubcentric extender on it, there's a couple ways around that problem though. Changing to studs helps that issue, but more importantly, if you could source hubcentric extensions, which I believe Turner Motorsports sells, and you'd be fine with the 5mm spacer.

Bryan, I know you are using steel studs, but do you also have hubcentric extenders that you use in conjunction with the 5mm spacers?

[BerkTechnology]

Originally Posted by larryn

Wayne, almost every e36 club racer in existence uses 17x9 wheels and a 10mm hubcentric spacer up front. This gives the ability to have a square setup, but more importantly, allows for rotation.

I'm not a fan of any spacer under 10mm, as those do not have hubcentric extensions on them (basically, it's a flat plate with 5 lugholes in it, and the hole for the hub). I had an issue with a 5mm spacer before that caused me to snap all 5 lug bolts at a driving event, launching my wheel and causing some car damage. If you do have to use a spacer without the hubcentric extender on it, there's a couple ways around that problem though. Changing to studs helps that issue, but more importantly, if you could source hubcentric extensions, which I believe Turner Motorsports sells, and you'd be fine with the 5mm spacer.

Bryan, I know you are using steel studs, but do you also have hubcentric extenders that you use in conjunction with the 5mm spacers?

With a 5mm spacer the hub's lip is long enough to maintain wheel concentricity and IMO the hub extender isn't need for this application. Anything longer than 5mm and I would use a proper hub centric spacer.

[fourtailpipes]

AFAIK, the turner extenders don't work with the e6x/e8x/e9x cars, so 8mm is not a great option... i'd go with 2-5mm or 10+mm. changing from bolts to studs alone wont do much/anything for this... it's the change in material from aluminum to steel that would help. steel bolts should be just as good as steel studs.