16" vs 17" front wheels

This's only my opinion, but any time you replace rubber with metal, the car stiffens up. As we are limited to a maximum diameter and the wheel is getting bigger, the rubber part necessarily gets smaller. The rubber tire is a small but vital part of the car's total springing & damping, and if you've gotten used to the way your car rides now, adding bigger dia wheels may cause you some discomfort. So you get into changing springs and maybe shocks to get back to the comfort level you first had. The other problem with big wheels (besides their considerable unsprung weight increase over magnesium Campis) is, they make the OEM brake rotors look wimpy, and adding bigger brakes will contribute another $2000-3000 to your bill & adds even more unsprung weight. The extra wt then affects handling so different spring/shock settings are needed etc- a vicious cycle. Best if you try driving a friend's car with such changes before you lay out the bucks- I've seen guys get caught up in this and the full bill was $8,000 for wheels, tires, brakes & spring/shocks. Better, no doubt but expensive.

Large wheels are the only easy way to have modern new Z rated fat rubber on your car. My car handles much better with my 16� X 8� and 17�X 11� wheels with Dunlop SP Sport 8000 245/45ZR16 and 335/35/ZR17 tires. This Dunlop tire combination gives the perfect side-wall ratio between the front and back tires. If you use Campy look-a-likes they cover the brake rotors too. Pantera East is the only vendor that makes a 16�X8� Campy look-a-like for the front wheels. 17� wheels on the front of a Pantera look very odd to me, too much wheel for the front of the car. As a bonus the wheels look really, really super too. I�m running standard Koni shocks. Stop by http://www.PanteraPlace.com to see how they look on a car.

I've posted a comparison of Campy Clones in 16" versus 17" at: http://geocities.com/provamo72/

I'd like to add the back spacing and offset of both wheels. Anyone know off hand ?

Chuck