H&R Hubcentric Spacers on the CATERA

[CateraMV6]

Well boys, its been a while here are a few shots to update you on the progress of my CATERA.

I got sick and tired of watching the back end being all tucked in so here is what I did with it.. I ordered a 50mm Wide TRACK+ Kit from H&R and they came in today, I got around to installing them and here are the results, it looks bad ass and with some 245s it will look even better.
The spacers are for SAAB 9-3 and 9-5 and they fit perfect. I will try to post some more pictures of them.

Enough talk here are the pictures.











BEFORE

AFTER


The tires actually lign up with the fenders now, before there was about 1.5" distance from the outer side of the fender to the top edge of the tire, now that distance is cut in half.


BEFORE

AFTER



BEFORE

AFTER

[AwfulSmokey]

Looks good man.. Do you notice any difference in the drive now?

[elvin315]

Nice. Reminds me of the "Wide Tracking Pontiacs". It's subtle but it gives the car that extra something, but +50 mm more offset? There's still the question of the wheel bearings but I know you're on top of that. I think you should have added mud flaps (I hate that name) at all 4 corners. With the extra wheel track the paint needs more protection. I bought these Highland Front Or Rear Mud Flaps but haven't installed them yet. Colormatch them or leave them black but I think they'll look good on our cars and protect that paint.

Elvin

[CateraMV6]

Well I got around to finding a suspension engineer at work who does the wheel bearings and he explained the concept to me and he pretty much said that if my wheels were 1" wide then I need to worry but at the current configuration he said I will be fine.. and if the bearings were designed to last me 200K well maybe I will only get 170K out of them which is no worry, I am not planning to drive the car that long.

So I will keep you guys updated on that. I haven't noticed any difference in ride and handling but I haven't pushed it to the limits yet...

Here are some extra pictures from the street.

[Lawrence_C]

looking good

do they sell lowering springs for our cateras? your car would look stunning if it was lowered an inch or so

[Catera V]

Yes, Eibach has lowering springs for the catera. What is the make and model of the wheels on the silver car. They look great.

[MyOpel]

It definitely looks much nicer but I’m curious how the handling is affected, I would suspect it would cause the front to plow more.
Are you originally from Müchen or did you just buy the plate?
After Ate and PBR engineered and manufactured your calipers you write Brembo on them haha.

[CateraMV6]

Originally Posted by Lawrence_C

looking good

do they sell lowering springs for our cateras? your car would look stunning if it was lowered an inch or so

I have thought about it but I think I will keep the factory settings for now and maybe just maybe down the road I will drop the 1400$ on the KW kit from Germany.

Originally Posted by Catera V

Yes, Eibach has lowering springs for the catera. What is the make and model of the wheels on the silver car. They look great.

I know they do for sure, but I think H&R also makes some stuff for our cars across the big pond as I have seen stuff from the european web sites. The wheels came from OPEL ASTRA SRi whcih was here in the states for testing, and I managed to get the wheels off of it... THey are 18x7.5 with the 5x110 bolt pattern and 37mm offset.

Originally Posted by MyOpel

It definitely looks much nicer but I’m curious how the handling is affected, I would suspect it would cause the front to plow more.
Are you originally from Müchen or did you just buy the plate?
After Ate and PBR engineered and manufactured your calipers you write Brembo on them haha.

It doesnt really feel any different, the back seems a little more planted, during turns etc, but its only the first day driving it, so I cant tell a difference at all, my friend from work said that it will help with limiting oversteer in the RWD platforms, but he said I wont be able to tell the difference.

The plate was from Germany, and my friend had ordered it with my american numbers on it, and he said he couldnt get the M-removed, BTW he is from Germany, he is the one that sent me the Opel grille, and a few other things for it...

AHhh as to the brembos, well I got brembo rotors waiting to go on there and also I couldnt find any PBR Stickers... so I just hoped no one would notice...

[elvin315]

Two things.

First thanks for the info Re: the wheel bearings. Now I might just order me a set of them there Hubcentric whatchamacallits.

Last, since you have the wheels handy, would those Opel hub caps on your Astra wheels fit the Catera Sport wheels?

Thanks.

Elvin

PS: It sure would look dynamite lowered.

[CateraMV6]

Originally Posted by elvin315

Two things.

First thanks for the info Re: the wheel bearings. Now I might just order me a set of them there Hubcentric whatchamacallits.

Last, since you have the wheels handy, would those Opel hub caps on your Astra wheels fit the Catera Sport wheels?

Thanks.

Elvin

PS: It sure would look dynamite lowered.

I got them from AUTOSPORTSTYLE.com, they are for saabs 9-3 9-5 models, as they have similar hubs with exactly identical dimentions. Bolt Pattern, Center bore diam... etc... As for the bearings well the engineer that I talked to has put on a set on his mustang whcih is IRS, and he has over 100K miles on them with 1.25" Spacers and no problems yet.... so he said we should be good for a long long time... he also said the bearing in there is very strong too as its over an " wide.

Those center caps are the same inner diameter as the CATERA ones so they will snap in but they dont look good on there at all, they are just not made for those wheels, in fact you will be better off with getting some of those Opel stickers off ebay and putting them in place of the CATERA SPORT logos on the caps...

HEY ELVIN, maybe I can send you some pictures of the car so you can put them on that CATERA Picture colection of yours.