I am interested in widening the track of the rear wheels on my 575. I am thinking 20mm spacers with none on the front. I went to the Hill engineering site and I can purchase the spacers but it is asking for the bolt length and up to this point I can't find that information. I figure someone here would be able to help me. Thank you.
Michael- Many of us are using Hill Engineering Type 2 25 mm spacers on the rear. With those, the spacer bolts to the hub and then your stock bolts screw into hardened inserts in the spacer. I have used those on three sets of wheels, 18" 575M wheels, 19" NF2s, and 19" modulars with no problems over about 15 years. No spacers on the front, like you mentioned. If you decide to go with the 20 mm spacers, you will need longer bolts than the stock 52 mm ones. The WSO20 comes with the longer bolts you would need.
OEM bolt size for the 550/575 is an M14 that has a 52mm shaft length. NOTE the 456 (Both GT and M) use a longer default OEM bolt size (55mm) and this must be accounted for when selecting long bolts. Whatever spacer you need, you must add to the second number. In other words, you need 72mm long bolts for a 20mm spacer.
When I go to the Hill Engineering site and enter wheel spacers for a 575 I get only 11mm and 15mm. I am not sure if they have discontinued the 20mm/25mm that will work with this particular model but the 575 is not listed amongst the models those sizes fit. Should I try to find another manufacturer? Thanks.
If you are in the US ask site sponsor @Ricambi America as they are the official US distributor and will save a bunch on shipping/customs. They should have an update on what the current inventory is from Paul. When I spoke to Paul Last a few months ago, he was in the middle of another batch run, but I’m not sure which batch.
I’m obligated to state that in my opinion, a final offset lower than 12-15 severely impairs the handling and dramatically increases wheel bearing wear on both the 550/575 and 456 GT/M platforms. My 456m came with a 25mm rear spacer with OEM 17s (effective final offset 0.5(!)) and the terminal understeer was profound. I am now running a much milder 15mm rear spacer with OEM 575 wheels (effective final offset 17) and it’s much better. Likewise my 575 runs 13mm rear spacers with Hamann wheels (effective final offset 21). While definitely present, its terminal understeer is comparably quite mild. Of course, how much you care about chassis balance and steering on a road car is extremely subjective! That said, from an aesthetics perspective, however there is no argument what looks better for 10 or 10.5in rears!
Just email them, they are very helpful. I have the Hill spacers and they are perfect. Image Unavailable, Please Login Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
Same here, 25 mm in the rear, and none in front. Handling was not affected on my 575M. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I talked to Daniel at Ricambi. The don’t carry Hill Engineering spacers anymore because of the huge variety of sizes and spec. I have sent two emails directly to Hill Engineering with no response. Is there another company that have a quality product and want the business?
I am not sure if H&R still make but they used to make 15,20,25,30mm spacers. H&R makes a good product. You need the 5x108 CB 67.1
How about just ordering them from HE directly? You want WS025 if you want the Type II spacers that bolt to the hub or WS020 if you want Type I spacers with longer bolts. Their site has all the info you need. I have ordered from HE directly with no problems.
Can someone explain the benefit of the HE spacers as opposed to other brands? Their description is vague and doesn't list the material type or manufacturing process. Wouldn't any quality billet aircraft aluminium spacers in the correct specs be just as good? Not trying to be controversial- I'm genuinely asking as I'm also interested but live on a small island at the opposite end of the world to the UK...
100% correct. As long as hubcentric and built to correct tolerance, should be fine. Paul has been machining Ferrari bespoke parts for decades and is a small outfit, hence the support your own rationale.
Benjamin- As mentioned earlier, the HE Type II spacers have hardened inserts for the wheel bolts. H&R spacers do not. I threw out a second hand set of 25 mm H&Rs because the aluminum wheel bolt holes were cross-threaded. Not a total loss since the dinky spacer bolts they used fit under my old NF2 wheels and the HE bolts were designed to fit under OEM wheels.
I was able to secure the desired spacers and bolts from Hill Engineering in the UK. I received a response to my second email and they have every option in stock.
25 or 30mm rear with 15mm front on oe wheels works great, fyi. H&R also has these, and they are TUV approved and should be less $. Just an alternative.
I have used many Hill products and I appreciate what they do, but when I needed spacers for my 456M with 550 wheels, I ordered them (along with front rotors and pads) from Formula Dynamics in Las Vegas. They have several size spacers, but the have a 15mm spacer set with appropriate bolts. They have pages with recommendations for 550 and 575. My feeling is as far as offset, less in more. Make it look right, but don't create problems with too much offset you don't need to.
Except handing on a road car is very subjective. Yes you may have a higher exit speed but why are you maxing exit speeds on public streets anyway? Case in point - I couldn’t stand the terminal understeer 25mm rear spacers added to my 456 but others report the driving experience was fine. Too aggressive front offsets also make the car a chore on anything but the best tarmac as you fight tram-lining and unsettled braking. The background to what alluded to in my earlier post above: on 575, I have tried a WIDE range of offsets front and rear. Essentially I leveraged my 5 (custom), 11, 13, 15, and 20mm (all Hill Engineering) spacer pairs to test each axle independently controlling for everything else. For a FHP 575, my favorite street set up by far was Front 9e38 / Rear 11.5e21. I am going to try moving the rears e23 as my last test but currently using the 11mm spacer pair on another car. For the 456m GTA, I am still testing but I can report subjectively 8.5e44 F / 10.5e17 is infinitely better than the 8.5e50 F / 10e0.5 that was on the car when I bought it. Further testing is on hold right now while I finish my FHP retrofit but once that is done, the next test will be moving to 9e40 fronts and comparing +/- 5mm spacers to see if I like 9e40 or 9e35 better. Once I settle on a front, I will be testing 11.5e17 and 11.5e21 rears. I suspect a FHP 456m will likely favor a slightly higher front offset (hence why currently building 9e40 wheels) and a similar to slightly lower rear offset vs an FHP 575. Remember what’s (subjectively) best for an FHP car will not be same as for an HGTC or standard car given the differing suspension set ups….FHP cars have far less understeer vs HGTC let alone standard cars. It’s an easy enough thing to test as spacers are readily available and can (generally) be easily sold. Two people kept asking for my old 25mm spacers after I pulled them off…. I never even got a chance to make a ‘for sale’ post, ha.
There is no such thing as an FHP 456 or 456M. Like I said, handling was largely unaffected by 25 mm rear spacers on my FHP 575M with MPS4S tires. Have had them on there for about 15 years.