14" tire and wheel sizes

[zracer22]

Last year (my first year racing a VW) a ran 14 x 7 wheels with 225/50/14 tires. That combo worked great on my e30 BMW racer, but I'm thinking that it may be a bit too much for the smaller, lighter and less powerful MK2 GTI. What do you guys run? Is the extra rotating mass a good trade off for the slightly larger contact patch?

[JamesB]

If you have the correct offset you can run that on a ITB VW, but with my offset I can only fit a 225 in the front, the rears have rubbing issues, so I run a 205/55/14 hoosier.

[Knestis]

With the MkIII, I don't have any real answers for you except to suggest that I'm not convinced that the 225 (which we also run, front and rear) is actually faster than would be the 205. They are the same height, so that's a non-issue. We made the decision based on the assumption that the 225s would just last longer (given our enduro emphasis), but the 205s are also likely to roll easier and have a smaller aero cost...

I'd LOVE to do a back-to-back.

K

[Bill Miller]

Last year (my first year racing a VW) a ran 14 x 7 wheels with 225/50/14 tires. That combo worked great on my e30 BMW racer, but I'm thinking that it may be a bit too much for the smaller, lighter and less powerful MK2 GTI. What do you guys run? Is the extra rotating mass a good trade off for the slightly larger contact patch?
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I hope that was on an ITA 16v car.

[shwah]

Looks like it is on a NASA gts car.

A friend used to race an ITA Golf and it was toight to fit 225s in the rear. I agree that they may fit, but may not be much if any faster. Definitely worth testing ...