Changing Wheels

[Car-Nut]

Hi Guys,

Looking to change my wheels as new tyres are due soon.

I was thinking of getting 7X17 but someone told me that if I went over 15s it would ruin the handling is that correct?

Im looking for Black wheels with a silver rim any recomendations?

Clive

[orangecurry]

ho ho ho

that can of worms

do a 'search' as opinions differ - some people with 17s say they have no handling issues - other people who HAD 17s and have gone back to 15s say there is a huge difference

smartalecs say buy 16s...

IMHO the 17s mean you have too small a sidewall for the E30 to cope with the ordinary road surface. The E30 has stone-age rear suspension design (trailing arms), and if your sidewall is so short that it no longer contributes to the 'suspension' of the car, you'd better have very good reactions in the wet to avoid extensive trips into the scenery - again IMHO 17s will take away part of the joy of the E30 - it's lovely predictable and controllable oversteer....

ok so now lets start the

[Bob_S]

orange curry tells it how it is

[stevenannahouse]

true true,,i had 17's on my old 318 and it totally ruined the feel of the car..Im the same as you buddy i want black with a silver lip for my red sport but 16's are the only way...no bigger

[hammoj28]

im not keen on 17's but they look dam cool. 16's rule. 15's handle ace.

[noney82]

i went from 15s to 17s and there is a difference as in smoothness off the ride with 17s its bumpy to hell but i find the handle alot better than 15s on corners

[Gouki]

havent had handling issues or any other probs with 17's. They look nicer 15's all nice but a bit small.

[noney82]

you just dont get any bounce from the low profile tyres

[Car-Nut]

what size tyres do you put on when you change them at the moment the walls are about 6" deep

[orangecurry]

bit more info needed...

but the 'correct' rolling diamter for an E30 is achieved by fitting

205/55/15, the tyre wall 'depth' is 55% of 205mm, or 112.75mm

205/50/16 50% of 205mm or 102.5mm

205/45/17 45% of 205mm or 92.25mm

215/40/17 40% of 215mm or 86mm

but it's not quite as simple as just size - 'low' profile tyres tend to have stiffer sidewalls anyway, with different construction and so higher speed ratings

[Simon13]

the key with 17's does lie in the side wall because there is little flex. This is key because on the smaller rims u can feel the car reaching it's limits. 17's mask this, so when she breaks it going to be "where the hell did that come from" where as on 15's u know about half an hour before the back end breaks.

So 17's will feel better but i don't think they really are....................

[FBF]

just put 17s on my car and it looks great but tracks on motorways and has left the steering vague. that said im getting more feel from the road and the car holds firmer when cornering 'what would a touring car use' may be the question you need to ask

[orangecurry]

no no no

touring cars race on a race circuit, which is a completely different surface from ordinary roads - there is no comparison whatsoever

[FBF]

but surely if hes worried about ruining the handling then it'd be logical to look at these cars where they handle best. id say touring car... no?

otherwise just put the original wheels and tyres back on the car.

[orangecurry]

yes touring (or any race) cars handle very very very well - mostly as they have almost no suspension and race on a perfectly(ish!) flat surface; please do a search on google or whatever to get more info.

So a race circuit is very different from the roads we all drive on.

The main differences are
1) it is flat - I mean there is no camber
2) it is flat - here I mean there are no bumps or undulations
3) they are solid - go and have a look at a real road - lots of holes in the tarmac to stop water sitting on the top

real roads are NOT flat; rather the opposite - they deliberately are NOT flat so that there is more grip in the wet for ordinary road users - the camber means the water runs off to the side, the bumps/undulations mean the water is LESS in contact with your tyres

so that a car is driveable (and many other reasons - comfort being one of them) on real roads, real cars have suspension.

I used to drive my 'race' car on real roads - I was so poor (due to racing!) that I only had the one car.

The suspension was so hard that on a corner the front of the car would skip on the undulations in the road and understeer.

They are two different horses on different courses - there is no comparison. If you try and put racing set-up on the road, your handling will worsen.

ok?

[Falkster]

I would either stay 15s or max 16s. Since putting 18s on my M3 I just dont like the ride at all!!

[Simon13]

rubbish race cars have no relevance to a road car or this particular subject. It's almost like comparing a lorry to a car in handling and suspension differences

[FBF]

rubbish race cars have no relevance to a road car or this particular subject. It's almost like comparing a lorry to a car in handling and suspension differences

my opinion is rudely shot down.. i will keep it to myself next time.

[m3ben05]

The suspension design on the group A touring cars is completely in a different league to any other e30. To put it in context, a complete set of group A suspension parts costs more than 90% of cars on this site.

As has been said, you cant compair a race car to a road car, even a modified M3 is of no comparison to a group A m3.

BTW, for the record, they actually used 18" wheels, not 17"

[hammoj28]

Yeah i bought an e30 book and it had piccies of the e30 m3 touring cars. the wheels were massive!! But the car would be perfectly set up for em.

I reckon for road use the best set up would be a good suspension kit, thick anti-roll bars, poly bushes and 15's or 16's with maybe a slighly lower profile than normal but not too low. Just my thoughts but then again i ain't got a clue.

[dan_emaps]

rubbish race cars have no relevance to a road car or this particular subject. It's almost like comparing a lorry to a car in handling and suspension differences

my opinion is rudely shot down.. i will keep it to myself next time.

I have to say i think you guys were a tad harsh here, i could be wrong but i think FBF was only trying to say that touring cars run very low profile tyres because in that situation it improves the handling, a touring car running 15's with big ol' tyres would be rubbish.

We all know that our roads are not like race tracks! but on a flat bend with few undulations a lower profile tyre will help.

Imo i'd agree with the majority of others and say 16s, good combo of looks and handling.

[orangecurry]

rubbish race cars have no relevance to a road car or this particular subject. It's almost like comparing a lorry to a car in handling and suspension differences

my opinion is rudely shot down.. i will keep it to myself next time.

please don't keep anything to yourself!!! how can we learn if we don't have a good old debate

Simon wasn't rude - he was simply... economic with his words

[Simon13]

I wanted to be clear so people don't think that buy fitting 18's on their road E30 it will handle better because thats what E30 DTM cars did!

Ben i thought the sport evo had different front wings to regular E30 M3's so on the factory works cars they could use 18's................

[m3ben05]

Yes, one of the reasons the sport evo was made was so BMW could run larger wheels but IIRC they were already using 18"s but they needed to run 10" wide rears

[Car-Nut]

Guys,

Thanks for all the replies seemed to opened a can of worms here

Think I'll go with 16" s

Wolfrace Snipers or something like it want something easy to clease unlike the genuine wheels