Z3 wheel fitment

Mark, I would go only with what Tire Rack says will fit. When I bought my '97 Z3 2.8, the previous owner has replaced the stock wheels with M wheels. While it looked good, I soon found out that there was not enough clearance in the rear. I do believe the M has wider wheel wells to accomodate. With casual driving, I did not have a problem. But when I hit a dipped section in the road, or was driving in a manner that required more suspension travel, I would be greeted with a terrible crunching sound of the tire scraping the wheel well. After this happened a few times, the side walls of the tires started getting damaged. I ended up replacing the wheels with ones that were the same size, but had the proper offset and have had no problems.

Hope this helps.

-=- Tom

Although my Z3 was a '97, it had the same size 16" OEM wheels front and rear and I felt there was too much understeer. Since a wider rear tire tends to increase understeer, is this what you want?

Tom K.

Mark, with 17'' rims on the rear & 245x40 tires, the handling of the coupé is a pain in the ass ! I suspect that with 18'' rims and a lower side, it will almost be impossible to drive the car unless you only use highways or closed circuits.

Today, with 5-year experience, two kinds of tires (Dunlop Sport & Potenza S03 Bridgestone), I'd order standard 16'' rims !

Now, it's up to you ...

a écrit dans le message news: WCj9h.33624$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.southeast.rr.com...

Tirerack.com

M cars definitely have wheel well flairs that the standard Z3s do not. I can park my 1.9 Z3 next to a M or even most of the 6-cylinder non-Ms and the difference is obvious. The suggestion to stay with 16s is a good one, IMHO. Tires are cheaper, and you can get some good rubber in that size.

Thanks to all !!!

Mark