My Audi S5 has been running on its winter wheels and tyres since late Autumn and it has been pretty rough. Not only do the run-flat winter tyres make the ride harsh as all get out, but its lack of decent traction at speed helped limit the amount of fun. I suppose it also sucked as they didn’t get too much real use as it has been a very mild winter and my time up and down the mountains have been almost naught thanks to a hectic work schedule.
During that time, I had been re-contemplating getting wheel spacers to help bring out the wheels and tyres out and make them look like they are filling out the wheel wells a bit more. It may not entirely make the stance of the car any different, but at least spacers won’t compromise the car’s ride quality that lowering the car would do. I also had the task of deciding on how much I wanted the wheels to come out. After looking at a couple of other S5s, I found one a combination that is just about right for me: 10mm up front and 15mm in the rear. 20mm would have been another great choice for the rear and 25mm would have stuck out a wee bit too much.
So, I brought my S5 in this past weekend to Audi Wilsonville, who graciously stores my second set of wheels and tyres when not in use, to get the H&R spacers I ordered earlier installed along with getting my summer set back on. And boy, did that make a difference in both ride quality (hate, hate, hate, hate run-flat winter tyres) and in how my S5 now looks. Below you’ll see a photo of my S5 without spacers installed and a photo with the spacers.
As you can kind of see, the rear wheels no longer look like they are tucked almost all the way into the wheel wells. You can find several more photos of my S5 with spacers posted on the “09 Mar 2013 #LoveMyS5 with Spacers” set on my Flickr stream.
All I can say is, the way that my S5 now looks with the wheel spacers is the way all S5s should come from the factory.