Strange question for you guys regarding wheel offset.

Am I right in thinking the higher the offset + the more it points to the shocks and the closer to 0 the straighter the wheel is to the hub and the lower it is in - the more it aims from the car?

If the above is correct here my strange question lol.

Why doesn't people just run as high as offset as thay can then since to my untrained eye this just looks like adding more negative camber but is see thing like I need a lower offset for better handling?

Please explain!

 

isn't it the location of the spigot in relation to the centreline of the wheel. the further away from that outside the the wheel bigger the offset for example 8j. a 7j wheel would have the spigot closer to the outside edge. an 8j will give wider track than a 7j but if the offset is too much it causes handling problems

 

Offset is the distance from the centre line of the wheel, to the mounting face.

You get Negative offset, and positive offset.

Negative offset means the mounting face is closer to the outside of the wheel, positive is the inside. ET0, a zero offset, means the mounting face is exactly in the centre.

It has nothing to do with the width of the rim. A great site for working out offsets and widths is http://www.willtheyfit.com/

 

Offset is the distance the mounting face of the wheel is fromthe wheel hub. It is a lateral measurement, nothing to do with the way the wheel points, with is toe in or toe out.

The easy way to remember this is that modern cars have a postive offset - the face of the wheel is right at the edge of the car width, while old style wheels - think of the mk 2 Ford Escort - often have negative offset; the face of the wheel is closer to the inner side (the shock absorber side) of the car.

So the bigger the positive offset the more the face of the wheel will be out towards the outside of the car - as above this is done on most modern cars because they are fwd and it helps to keep down torque steer and tramlining.

Camber is different to offset and toe in, that is the angle of the wheel to the vertical (if you look at F1 car front wheels they have negative camber - cars like the old Beetle and Imp had positive rear camber).

So it is unclear what you are asking below....

 

he easiestt way to explain offset;