If I put RWD 123 wheels in the rear on my Xi, provided I rolled the fenders juuuuust a tiny bit?

Basic principles of arithmetics are telling me that the wheel will extend 23 mm more when you go from ET43 to ET20. I've looked at the fender and tried to do a very unsofisticated approximation and I think if I rolled the fenders just a tiny bit (may not even have to at all, actually), it would fit and a. look better than the Xi rims in the back and b. solve my problem of finding a style 123 rim

So isn't putting a wheels with 20 offset vs a 43 offset is basically the same thing as putting on a 20 mm spacer, except better? or am I missing smth?

 

Yes it's basically the same.
Of course, in your Xi, either 20mm spacer or ET20 will strain the wheel bearing equally. How much? I don't know, maybe the influence is minimal.
But who am I to say, I use 12mm spacers in my winter setup .

 

Paljon kiitoksia

Basically, the reason I've even thought about this is because the 43 offset wheels are so hard to find. A friend in the area has 124s staggered and his fronts are 20 offset, so I'll give it try tomorrow - will write up if any meaningful results come from it...

 

Wow !

Finnish roots or just dug it up from the web?!

 

Neither, but if I tell you, promise not to hold it against me my mother is married to a proper Finnish gentleman, they reside in Savonlinna. Are you Finnish? I have not been in Finland since a very long time ago (was it 1994? ), but I still remember how beautiful the fishing was and overall, I think its one of the nicest places I've ever visited

I am from St. Petersburg originally though, so I've learned some Finnish when I was a kid back in the late 1980's - back then we had quite a little bit of a trade going hahaha wow, its been such a long time... anyway, I live in the U.S. now.

 

Yes I'm Finnish ! And a real hillbilly. Only foreign countries I've ever visited are Norway, Sweden and Malta .
And as a Finnish, the Norway and Sweden can barely be counted. Visiting them is like you guys visiting some other state there in US .

 

Yep, that's no surprise haha but I'm more curious about Malta - did you go for business or pleasure?

 

It was a school trip in 1994! I was 16 years old back then...

 

then that's pleasure