looking for a set alpina wheels not sure how much to pay

The rewards come later after you done the spending bit

Hi Steve,

got a slight problem with these M6 wheels that I bought, hopefully you can shed some light on it.

The wheels are 255/40/19 at front, The rears are 285/35/19.

The rears fit fine, but the fronts are too big and touch the suspension mounts and there's no way you could actually run the car as they are. I'm thinking of getting 245/30/19 tyres for the fronts to make them fit, what do you reckon ?

I knew it wouldnt be easy, but for the price I ended up paying for the full set, only £850, I dont mind experimenting a little. Your or anyone's experience would be much appreciated,

cheers,

Tony

Tony , on reading my emails i've replied to your pm then i just got to this message ,so reading it again i think i now understand

19" rims & 40 profile dont suit the 8 , i would talk to a decent tyre company ,try a 245 or 255/ 35 profile.

I have 19's using 245/35 fronts but my rims up front are 8.5" yours are 9.0 i think, but 40 profile definatly too big

Tony,
I fed your sizes (and others) into my home made tyre calculator.
The top row shows your rear tyres and the rest then compare with these.
You need to keep the % difference as low as possible to avoid freaking out your ASC.
I put in the Csi 285/35x18 size in for interest.
You can download the calculator from an earlier post if you want to try more size combinations.

Good luck!

thanks for your responses guys.

I've found out tonight that the fronts are only 8.5" wide so that is good. The full fitments I've found out to be as follows.

M6 wheels - 8,5 x 19 Front / ET 12 - 9,5 x 19 Rear / ET 17

Steve, having thought about how they (didnt) fit under the suspension then I'd say 245/30/19 plus 5mm spacers would do - this would bring tyre wall 15mm in and 10mm down from the struts, plus I dont want rubbing issues with the front arches if I can avoid it. I will take a front wheel to a tyre centre in the coming few days and get them to fit a used tyre of this size to my rim and then attempt to fit it in the arch, then see if I need spacers - sadly Nuneaton is miles away from Lancashire where I am. Best price I can find for these tyres is 180 quid each, Dunlop S9000s.

It would still only then be 5mm difference diameter between front and rear, as it is now with 265/40/17 rear and 235/45/17 fronts.

Just a note on the ASC problem. I actually did go for a spin with just the new rears on to check that there was no rubbing - this raised a few eyebrows on my industrial estate with the huge rears and smallish fronts making it look like a dragster - and the ASC didnt freak out at all as I'd heard it would.

I knew I'd have to do something to 'make' them fit, it's just a shame they didnt bolt straight on - but then what ever does ???

Still, the rears looked very cool indeed when on

You will have NO further problems with 245/35's and a spacer

Your definatly on the right track, wack some piccies up when done

good man

Really looking forward to sorting this out, coupled with the Bilsteins the ride is going to be totally and infinitely better I'm sure. It'll look good too especially when I get these carbon vents in too.... !

Hi everyone,

Can someone tell me what real alpina's look like? That is, what are the key characteristics in order to avoid ending up with fake ones.

Cheers,

Peter

The 1st page on this thread

Mmmm right. Sorry about that. Must have still been sleepy

Apart from the exterior, a real Alpina will have an ALPINA serial number plaque above the interior mirror (though there are people on ebay selling these). The interior will be FULL leather, including steering wheel, dash and door cappings. The cars have BMW "propeller" badges except for on the steering wheel and the wheels, where ALPINA badges are used. The instument binnacle has a dark blue background with red pointers and markings similar to the CSi and with an ALPINA logo. If one of the latter B12-5.7, the bonnet will be of carbon-fibre with the louvres and the wheels will be 18" Alpina classic style. The engine will have ALPINA in red on the black intake manifolds. The car will also have two VIN numbers. The original BMW one and the Alpina one. The BMW VIN will be a WBS (BMW Motorsport) number for UK cars after March 1993. But the best way to check is to contact Alpina.de to verify a car's particulars. However, there were only about 7 UK RHD cars built and 50 odd European ones, so it shouldn't be that dificult to weed out any fakes.

Arnie,

Great post mate, but I was talking about just the wheels.

Peter

...Oh, you're talking about the wheels.
well, Alpina wheels have 20 spokes and most replicas have fewer or more spokes. (Actually, an even number of spokes is a bad thing dynamically for vibration modes, but in this case the wheels would never reach the critical speed/ frequency.) In some of the later models the inflation valve is concealed under the centre cap and the air passes through a hollow spoke. Also, the incriptions in the hub wil have ALPINA and also the manufacturer's logo BBS or whoever.

LMFAO

Nice one Arnie, you annorak!!

Arnie,

Thanks for the kowledge.

Peter

I have to agree with hythe. I think the 18" ALPINA's look the dogs..B on the 8 and I prefer the original deep dish ALPINAS shown on HYTHES car. I know this bloke whos got a set of 18" original alpinas on an E34 530. They look great as it compliments the car. however the car has been parked up on a main road for about a year now and im intrested to buy the alloys if hes willing to sell which I doubt.

I currently have a set of 17" Schitzner Type two alloys on my 8 series. Theyre a split rim alloy with a deep dish. When I swapped my Sreg Velvet blue 840CI SPORT I had the BBS 17" alloys. I think that the BBS is the only 17" alloy that looks good on the 8. The car sits really well on them.

I paid £500 when I bought them earlier this year. The dealer who I part exd from did give me the chance to swap alloys over but a friend of mine thought that the newer car looked better on the schitzners and convinced me to keep them. Now I'm not so sure.

I will be selling the Schitzner type two alloys soon once fully refurbished.
If anyone is intrested please let me know.