3mm spacers

[Emperor]

Would spacing out wheels 3mm do anything to handling? Just a theory i've been thinking up.

Since in games like GT3/4/etc (I know its a game not real ), you can adjust track by MM's..

[Lloyd]

Will no doubt change it. Whether its for better or worse, or if you'll ever notice might be a different story

[Emperor]

The other question would be, would it be better making the track wider with a spacer, or with adjusting the suspension side of things

[Lloyd]

With track width adjusters? o_O

[Bling]

I would have thought the wider the track the better, harder to roll over

[Dragger_Dan]

The other question would be, would it be better making the track wider with a spacer, or with adjusting the suspension side of things

I'd say change your wheels. Safer vs spacers and much cheaper than rebuilding suspention if it wasn't already track adjustable.

[d1 mule]

on my old Z10 i swapped some 5mm spacers i had on the back to the front at a drift day and it made a MASSIVE difference to how the car handeled

[rollaholic]

but was it good or bad? :O

[Malcolm]

increasing the track width at one end of the car will increase the resistance to roll at that end (by the percentage that you increase width), which will shift your roll stiffness distribution to that end, which will decrease grip at that end, but it'll be f*ck all change.

the change of track width also decreases the total lateral weight transfer, which should increase grip (once again, at the values you're talking about it will be bugger all)

With most suspension systems, adding spacers will also change the motion ratio of the springs/dampers, changing the wheel rates, which would be a larger effect (it'll soften it at the end you increase the width at).

There will also be an effect if you add spacers at the front, not specifically on the performance but on the steering feel. The effect will depend on whether you have a negative or a positive kingpin offset (scrub radius), but it'll either decrease or increasing steering effort and feel. On my MR2 there is a negative scrub radius and increasing the track width (through different offset wheels) decreased the steering effort and feel.

To answer the question of whether it's better to do with spacers or suspension - if you have double wishbone suspension then it would be nicer to do it with new wishbones, but it's way easier to do it with spacers/offsets if you're happy with the effects that has on the steering feel.