Williams Wide Track

[nyk]

As I have been recently been informed by the lovely Winston, that a williams wide track adds only 16mm a side, totalling a MASSIVE 32mm, I am baffled as to why this tiny ammount makes such a difference and is raved about so much?

I am considering putting a wide track on my project car, but since finding out exactly how much difference it is I cannot comprehend how such a little difference can make such an impact. Surely wheel spacers will do the same job???

Please enlighten me with your experiences and convince me why I should bother putting it on my project car?

[Winston]

:P

[Daz.]

Surely wheel spacers will do the same job???

tut tut tut

[Grovit]

I can't comment too much on wide track versus "slender track" for want of a better phrase as I don't have driving experience for comparing the two, however I would doubt that spacers would do the same sort of job certainly over the long term. Putting spacers on even with longer length bolts or studs puts a lot more strain on the hubs as they're asking the original equipment to cope with the strain of having a fairly weighty item stretched out further than intended.

Best analagy I can think of is holding a dumbell close to your chest and then comparing difficulty to holding same said dumbell out at arms length (pretty crap example but that's as good as it gets on a thursday afternoon I'm afraid ). It's asking a lot more for the equipment to deal with. Now take that difficulty and consider the impact of car motion and cornering forces and it gets all the worse.

Spacers are a no-no in my opinion - no good for anything except possibly aesthetics.

[unrealneo]

Lower offset, very light wheels is another option.

Could go as low as ET20 and still be less than the width of Willy track.

[arj256]

This is how i see widetrack works over spacers not 100% certain though:



As you can see the suspension makes the wheel go up and down, and with the example with widetrack the suspension goes up where the wheel is.

With the spacer the wheel goes up and down but the suspension isnt working in the same angle up and down as the widetrack setup does.
Thus meaning not the same performance despite the same look.

[nyk]

But its only 1.6cm dont forget?

Does anyone have any experience of both standard and a wide track and can clearly tell me that 1.6cm makes a difference and if so how much a difference?

Tutting but not giving any actual evidence of why is pretty pointless for the question I was asking.

I can understand your meaning arj256 - but what are the actual benefits of having a widtrack compared to the standard set up on a valver.

[Winston]

It's the difference in handling between a vaver and a williams

Im not going all techy on your asses ......Wide track car just feels much more sure footed and stable on the limit

I have no facts ...take my word for it ......10mph faster on most my fave corners

[richy]

pmsl, its not just wider is it, they also run a stronger anti-roll bar, the shockers and springs are also uprated over a 16v, if this didnt make any difference why would they have bothered fitting it to the clio cup competition cars! why not save money and use spacers!

[VIPERONE]

also it beefs the look up ... the track is noticably narrow on the valvers, its not the cheapests of mods tbh,.. however one that I noticed..what a difference it made to mine..

hubcentric spacers are a poor mans method of widetrack, but it doesnt add any benefit to the car.