5-Lug

[Sijray21]

i remember thinking about this a while ago when i started seeing a craze in the 5-lug conversion.

The only performance advantage i can see with a 5-lug is that the load of car and the stress that is brought to wheel studs is spread out through more surface, thus reducing the opportunity for the wheel studs to break.

Same goes with the wider distance (114.5mm vs 100mm) putting less stress on the studs. (exception of the single lug high performance cars since their one HUGE lug is in the center of rotation)

It's pretty obvious in the heavy duty Trucks and heavy load bearing vans and trucks. The only advantage i can see with the R and other imports like it is that they might have anticipated more extreme driving conditions for those specific cars. Although 4 lugs could have provided similar support, the 5-lug almost guarantees that the studs will hold up without a problem assuming no heavy performance modifications.

With 5-lugs you can probably add stronger/bigger brakes (heavier), bigger wheels (heavier), and allow for a more aggressive approach to driving without the threat of breaking the studs.