Ultimate Official Concave or Convex Poll

Concave all the way

 

Concave for me...
Ciao
Eugenio
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Concave has a better look especially if they are chromed or polished. I've even seen them powder coated black on two 328's, one gts&gtb. It looked pretty cool since the cars were black to.

 

Never thought about it that way, but you are right.

I love the look of the 16" 308 wheels and the early 328 wheels. For some reason they seem to fit in with the fluid lines of the car better than the convex wheels.

 

Concave

 

You are correct. Keith Bluemel's book is a little confusing though as on page 56, top right of the page, it makes it sound as if ABS=convex. On that same page, in the braking section, it clarifies that there are in fact some ABS cars with concave wheels. I had to read it a few times to be sure. The section on suspension does not clarify it either.

Jeff

 

Same for me.

 

Hi Jeff,

Is it this part on braking you are referring to?

I don't read it as saying there are ABS cars with concave wheels.

 

This is how I picture it. Anyone know the build date for 76626?
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Forza magazine had a concave wheel 1988 with ABS, so there is some overlap in ABS to the left of the mid-1988 point.

 

Interpolating / Estimating from:
http://www.ferrari328.com/registry/index2.php


...looks like around March of 1998, just before the halfway point in


Keep in mind, model years do correspond 1:1 with production dates - many October/November 1987 cars were registered as 1988's, and this is not an atypical pattern. It looks like October is the cutoff for the following model year, at least with the 328s. First 89 was an Oct 1988 build date.

So I would say, just about halfway through the 1988 model year production run, March of 88.

 

No, the picture captions in the upper right of page 56. What you quoted was what clarified it for me.

Jeff

 

I had an 87, now an 89. Aesthetically, I prefer the early wheels though the late ones have grown on me. They are a little more modern looking than the early deep dish mag type.

There is much misinformation about the series. The suspension, and thus the wheels were revised during 1988 at # 76626 (along with many other revised parts) though there are reports of a few later numbered cars with early wheels. This would be no real surprise considering how Ferrari did things. However, there are no ABS cars with early wheels. There are, however, non-ABS cars with late wheels. In the US, no 1988 model year cars have ABS. However, early 1989 MY cars were actually built in Oct-Nov 1988. All US 1989 MY cars have ABS. In Europe, ABS was first offered as an option, but I don't know the earliest # car that actually had it. Since European model years coincide with manufacture dates, it could be that Euro cars with ABS are all actually late 1988 builds. The car Mule refers to is 76647 which had early wheels but no ABS or revised suspension.

Summary:
The convex wheels came about as a result of a complete suspension and steering rack update officially at 76626. ABS is a completely separate issue, arriving in the US as standard on 1989 MY cars, approximately #78800.

Early vs old suspension:
I have had extensive seat time in both and greatly prefer the later setup which feels quicker, more precise and more modern. In objective terms, I doubt it ups the handling performance much, I have never seen a side by side handling test of the two, but I greatly preferthe overall feel. This alone makes the wheel aesthetic trade off tilt in favor of the newer cars for me.

Dave

 

Nice post, thanks!

Jeff

 

Thats my buddy Larrys car. Here is a video of Me parking my car with Convex wheels. I like them because the convex design makes the car look longer and sleeker. JJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AYk-VzY27E

 

Dave,
I just re-read the article (Forza #15). The car is 76647, and the article says that during the period of optional ABS, owners could order the old style convex wheels if they did not have ABS. So, it is past the 76626 car, but did not have ABS as you say. There is a picture of the dash with no ABS light.

Boy, even 4000 miles away, you still correct my errors.

 

So does that imply that, between the period of mid-1988 through '89 model years, when ABS was optional but the suspension changes were made, that you could get the old-style wheels with the new-style suspension if you skipped the ABS?

That would be one nice 328. Get the suspension update, the old look, at the cost of ABS, which depending on how you feel about the ABS, may or may not be that big of a deal. The trick would be getting it registered as an '89!

 

Dave & Mike,
With all due respect, I think Forza was incorrect on that. They state ABS became standard with 76626 which is defintitely not true. I have not seen or heard of this option in any other source. The convex wheels were part of the supension upgrade which required more negative offset in the wheels. If you look at the parts book, just about everything in the chassis and steering mechanism was changed at once. If you bolted old wheels on the updated suspension, they would stick out perhaps a couple of inches more than stock. The idea that convex wheels were needed to clear ABS parts is a misnomer. There are no extra brake mechanicals at the wheels. It has sensors on the hub behind the rotor. Brake parts (rotors, calipers, etc) are the same for all years. ABS is an entirely different issue from the suspension/wheels. As to how 76647 came to have old suspension, I can only theorize it left the factory before 76626. It is known that Ferrari didn't necessarily finish cars in numerical order. We can only guess why.

Dave

 

76713 was manufactured in March 88, per a record I have yet to put on the site
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Originally started looking for an earlier car because of the dislike of the 88-1/2 to 89 convex rims.

Saw them in person and thought both looked nice.

Ended up with.........

An 88 with convex rims - old school if you will.... well both are truly old school!

Robb

 

Same here.

 

Actually they ARE smaller! LOL!

14" at first, then 390MM metric rims then finally 16" on the QV are the same as the later ABS rims....

 

I didn't see the choice for "Love both styles equally and want to buy every one of then that exists" so I just picked the second one.

I could have picked the third choice as well though. I think I ultimately feel that the concave wheels are a little prettier, but I would rather have a convex wheel car. Does that make any sense?

 

Concave.

Dealbreaker for me.

 

Hey!

76713 is my car since September 2006! Where'd you get that picture?