By Shinoo Mapleton · July 8, 2026

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Spend enough time around enthusiasts and you’ll eventually hear someone talk about getting the “stance” just right. Lower the car another half inch. Push the wheels farther out toward the fenders. Fill the wheel wells. Eliminate the wheel gap.

I’ll admit, I appreciate a well-stanced car too. A sports car with the right proportions simply looks more purposeful. Like many enthusiasts, my inspiration often comes from race cars, where low ride heights, flush wheels, and aggressive proportions communicate speed before the engine is ever started.

Over the years, however, I’ve learned that the perfect stance isn’t necessarily the lowest one. It’s the one that best suits how the car will actually be driven. Like many things in automotive engineering, there are tradeoffs, and understanding those tradeoffs is often the difference between a car that simply looks fast and one that genuinely performs.

One of the biggest misconceptions enthusiasts make is assuming race cars represent the ideal solution for every situation. In reality, designing a race car is often simpler than designing a great street car because the environment is so much more controlled.

Race tracks are relatively smooth. Engineers know the surface, the tires, the fuel load, and the operating speeds. They don’t have to worry about potholes, steep driveways, frost heaves, speed bumps, or carrying four passengers and luggage for a weekend trip.

Street cars have to do all of those things.

That means production car engineers spend much of their time designing for conditions enthusiasts rarely think about. Ground clearance, suspension travel, curb strikes, durability, and regulations across dozens of countries all become part of the equation.

One of the first modifications many owners make is lowering their car. Visually, it almost always makes the car look more athletic, and I completely understand the appeal.

What many enthusiasts overlook is that manufacturers rarely leave wheel gap because they forgot to lower the car.

That space exists for suspension travel. It allows the car to absorb large bumps without damaging tires or bodywork. It provides clearance for different tire manufacturers, snow chains in some markets, and fully loaded vehicles carrying passengers and cargo. Engineers aren’t designing for Cars & Coffee. They’re designing for real roads in every climate where the car will be sold.

Enthusiasts are free to prioritize appearance over versatility, but it’s worth recognizing that every inch removed from the ride height is usually giving something back.

The same principle applies to wheel diameter.

As modern cars have grown larger, designers have increasingly relied on larger wheels to maintain visual balance. A small wheel under a tall-bodied modern car can make the entire vehicle appear awkward, so styling studios naturally push for larger diameters.

The recently introduced Ferrari Luce illustrates this perfectly. Its tall body, driven in part by its EV skateboard platform, requires enormous 23-inch front and 24-inch rear wheels simply to maintain the proportions Ferrari’s designers wanted. Whether you admire the styling or not, it demonstrates how modern vehicle architecture is pushing wheel diameters to unprecedented sizes.

Those larger wheels, however, introduce compromises. Unless they’re exceptionally expensive forged wheels, they usually weigh more than smaller alternatives. At the same time, lower-profile tires leave less rubber to absorb impacts, increasing the likelihood of bent wheels, damaged tires, and a harsher ride when encountering potholes or rough pavement.

Sometimes styling solves one problem while creating another.

Over the years we’ve developed suspension systems for Lotus models, and one lesson has remained remarkably consistent.

Making a car lower is easy. Making it better is much harder.

That philosophy heavily influenced our recent 996RR build. Like many modern sports cars, there is a temptation to install ever-larger wheels because they fill the wheel wells and create a more aggressive appearance. We deliberately chose a different direction.

We downsized to 17-inch wheels.

At first glance, that sounds like a step backward. In reality, it allowed us to fit a taller tire sidewall, giving the suspension more compliance over real-world roads. Rough pavement demands tire compliance just as much as suspension travel. The additional sidewall allows the tire to absorb imperfections before they ever reach the chassis, improving grip, confidence, and comfort.

We also revised the wheel offsets to widen the track slightly and position the wheels more naturally within the arches. The result is a broader, more purposeful stance that improves the car’s appearance while preserving the suspension geometry Porsche intended.

For me, that’s the sweet spot.

The car has the stance I wanted, but more importantly, it delivers the performance I wanted. It feels composed on rough back roads, stable at speed, and communicates with the driver in a way that oversized wheels and ultra-low-profile tires often cannot.

Enthusiasts have always borrowed ideas from racing, and that’s one of the reasons street cars continue to improve. Racing has given us better tires, stronger brakes, lighter materials, and countless engineering innovations.

It has also taught us that every design is a compromise.

A race car can afford to sacrifice comfort, durability, and practicality in pursuit of lap time. A great street car has a much more difficult job. It must perform well on roads that vary from freshly paved canyon routes to pothole-filled city streets, all while remaining comfortable and reliable enough to drive every day.

For me, the pursuit of stance isn’t about making a street car look like a race car. It’s about understanding why race cars look the way they do, then adapting those lessons to the realities of public roads.

The best stance isn’t the lowest one.

It’s the one that delivers the best balance of appearance, confidence, and performance for the way the car is actually driven.

— Shinoo Mapleton

InoKinetic Group, Inc. | Temecula, CA | inokinetic.com | drakancars.com

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