I've done lots of reading and research on this topic, and I *THINK* I've come up with the correct, or mostly correct, solution. Looking for a bit of confirmation from the community and feedback from folks who have tried this specific setup:
I want to run the biggest brakes and 5 lug + hub setup I can on my turbo e30, so my plan is to go with the e36 front brake/hub setup and the Z3M rear trailing arm/hub/brake setup. In addition to that, I would like to have classic style wheels with as much meat on the tire as possible to maintain the classic look of the e30. Hence: 16" basket-weave style wheels are my preferred choice.
That specific 5-lug setup requires an ET ~20 up front and ET ~40 in the rear. So while the e38 Style 5 wheels are definitely a great option for what I'm looking for, they won't work in the rear unless I run a skinny tire (based on the info I've read so far).
Thus, I'm considering going with a BBS 3-piece wheel where I can build the wheels to the right size and offset. This is where I come to questions:
Front:
I would like to run the same tires on all 4 corners if possible, so first up:
Has anyone had any luck stuffing a 245/45/R16 in the front fenders on an e30? Did you do this with an 8" wide, ET20 wheel, or something else? I know the fenders will be rolled to accomodate this, but is that enough? How much more was required to get it to work? If this is not really feasible, I will go with a 225 tire, but it would be cool if the 245 can fit without dramatically changing the look of the front fenders.
Front wheel choice: BBS RS061 (16x8, ET20)
Rear:
I have an '84, so I understand the rear fenders can take wider tires than late model e30's. Challenge is the classic looking wheel in an et40 as required by the Z3M rear trailing arms. I understand a 245 or even 255 tire can fit in the rear with minimal mods (fender rolling only?) given the proper offset. There is no classic BBS RS wheel that has anything close to an ET40 offset, so I've come up with a few custom build options, and I'm hoping someone has tried and verified one of these options:
First of all, here's a screenshot of all the BMW 5-lug, 16" wheels based on a table I found:
I used this table to look to see what different center plate offsets are available. It looks like there are 5 (or possibly 6?, see the BBS RS211) center face offsets. If I combine those center face offsets with available lips and barrels, I come up with four "viable" rear wheels: 1.5" lip on all options, with either a 6 or 6.5" barrel:
So the question is this: does anyone have any experience with the 4 options "Setups that work"? I think the 8" wide wheel with an offset of 36.4 would be the "easiest" one to build: It would only require me to get a full set of 4 of the BBS RS061, and then swap out the face plate of the rear wheels with a faceplate from a variety of BBS wheels: RS 005, 021, 050, or 076.
The other option is that I'll need an ET40+ offset, but those face plates that create that offset appear to be more rare, and then I might need to run a spacer.
Any experience with doing this rear wheel setup? Any further input on the front wheel setup with the e36 M3 brakes?
Thanks for any help!
I want to run the biggest brakes and 5 lug + hub setup I can on my turbo e30, so my plan is to go with the e36 front brake/hub setup and the Z3M rear trailing arm/hub/brake setup. In addition to that, I would like to have classic style wheels with as much meat on the tire as possible to maintain the classic look of the e30. Hence: 16" basket-weave style wheels are my preferred choice.
That specific 5-lug setup requires an ET ~20 up front and ET ~40 in the rear. So while the e38 Style 5 wheels are definitely a great option for what I'm looking for, they won't work in the rear unless I run a skinny tire (based on the info I've read so far).
Thus, I'm considering going with a BBS 3-piece wheel where I can build the wheels to the right size and offset. This is where I come to questions:
Front:
I would like to run the same tires on all 4 corners if possible, so first up:
Has anyone had any luck stuffing a 245/45/R16 in the front fenders on an e30? Did you do this with an 8" wide, ET20 wheel, or something else? I know the fenders will be rolled to accomodate this, but is that enough? How much more was required to get it to work? If this is not really feasible, I will go with a 225 tire, but it would be cool if the 245 can fit without dramatically changing the look of the front fenders.
Front wheel choice: BBS RS061 (16x8, ET20)
Rear:
I have an '84, so I understand the rear fenders can take wider tires than late model e30's. Challenge is the classic looking wheel in an et40 as required by the Z3M rear trailing arms. I understand a 245 or even 255 tire can fit in the rear with minimal mods (fender rolling only?) given the proper offset. There is no classic BBS RS wheel that has anything close to an ET40 offset, so I've come up with a few custom build options, and I'm hoping someone has tried and verified one of these options:
First of all, here's a screenshot of all the BMW 5-lug, 16" wheels based on a table I found:
I used this table to look to see what different center plate offsets are available. It looks like there are 5 (or possibly 6?, see the BBS RS211) center face offsets. If I combine those center face offsets with available lips and barrels, I come up with four "viable" rear wheels: 1.5" lip on all options, with either a 6 or 6.5" barrel:
So the question is this: does anyone have any experience with the 4 options "Setups that work"? I think the 8" wide wheel with an offset of 36.4 would be the "easiest" one to build: It would only require me to get a full set of 4 of the BBS RS061, and then swap out the face plate of the rear wheels with a faceplate from a variety of BBS wheels: RS 005, 021, 050, or 076.
The other option is that I'll need an ET40+ offset, but those face plates that create that offset appear to be more rare, and then I might need to run a spacer.
Any experience with doing this rear wheel setup? Any further input on the front wheel setup with the e36 M3 brakes?
Thanks for any help!
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