[BetweenTheWheels]

Hi all, I posted this question in the main forum and realized it probably belongs here:

I'm deciding how I'll do some modest lowering of my 228i M Sport - springs or coilovers - with the later being likely because the car will see track duty a few times a year.

I also would love to go from the 18s I currently have to 19s with the reasons against this coming down to the cost to replace tires (see above reference to track time).

I know that choosing the correct tire profile with any wheel choice is important so that total outside diameter doesn't change and speedometer calibration is not thrown off. If not for this, I would like to do a 19 inch wheel with a thick enough tire profile that the wheel and tire fill the wheel well more fully. I am not a fan of the lowered car look when a gap is left in front of and behind the wheel inside the wheel well. I actually think it looks worse than leaving a slight wheel gap at the top of the wheel.

Here's the question: What solutions exist for a lowering plus tire and wheel combo that fills the entire wheel well without issues of rubbing or scraping? Or, do those that go with a larger diameter just live with the resulting error in accurate mph measurement?

Thanks for any advice.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by BetweenTheWheels

I'm deciding how I'll do some modest lowering of my 228i M Sport - springs or coilovers - with the later being likely because the car will see track duty a few times a year.

I also would love to go from the 18s I currently have to 19s with the reasons against this coming down to the cost to replace tires (see above reference to track time).

I would like to do a 19 inch wheel with a thick enough tire profile that the wheel and tire fill the wheel well more fully.

Here's the question: What solutions exist for a lowering plus tire and wheel combo that fills the entire wheel well without issues of rubbing or scraping?

Reading this, a question comes to mind. Which of these is your overriding goal:

1) The aesthetic improvements you want to achieve,
2) The level of the car's performance at the track, or
3) A roughly equal balance between the two?

Also, what tire will you run on the street; and, if they're different, what tire will you run at the track?

The reason I ask is that 19s and the track can be made to go together, but for the track it's generally easier to stick with 18s. Some drivers choose to drop down to 17s.

I went with 17s in the front and 18s in the rear when preparing my car for the track. The overriding goal was 255s all around in the tire class I'd chosen. Below, you can see how they fill the rear wheel well (the front is filled more or less the same). I realize the wheels are not the size you prefer.

My full build with coilovers, drop, sizes, et al. is described here: https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show....php?t=1532418.

[BetweenTheWheels]

Thanks for the info and I've seen your build before, nice work!

You hit the nail on the head with my deliberations between style and track worthiness. 19s would look great but provided I can get the right amount of 'poke' and very subtle drop (I'm not a 'tucked' kind of guy), I will likely go 18s for all the obvious reasons.

Some questions for you:

1) You say square was your goal, but why square vs staggered setup? I'm an intermediate track driver and am very intent on achieving a balance of street and track but I'm curious how a square set up provides benefit. My 2 and my previous track/weekender (a Merc SLK) have/had staggered setups so I'm curious of how the 2 feels with square vs staggered.
2) Do you have any issues with clearance? No fender rolling?
3) I read a bit of the feedback in your thread about the feel with solid bushings. I think I'm a few rungs beneath you in track skill/experience but, out of curiosity, is the benefit worth the trade off in road comfort?
4) I see you're running a 5 mil spacer on rear only and your wheels/tires look nicely flush to me. What width are your wheels? (You may have this listed and I missed it)

Thanks!

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by BetweenTheWheels

Thanks for the info and I've seen your build before, nice work!

You hit the nail on the head with my deliberations between style and track worthiness. 19s would look great but provided I can get the right amount of 'poke' and very subtle drop (I'm not a 'tucked' kind of guy), I will likely go 18s for all the obvious reasons.

Some questions for you:

1) You say square was your goal, but why square vs staggered setup? I'm an intermediate track driver and am very intent on achieving a balance of street and track but I'm curious how a square set up provides benefit. My 2 and my previous track/weekender (a Merc SLK) have/had staggered setups so I'm curious of how the 2 feels with square vs staggered.
2) Do you have any issues with clearance? No fender rolling?
3) I read a bit of the feedback in your thread about the feel with solid bushings. I think I'm a few rungs beneath you in track skill/experience but, out of curiosity, is the benefit worth the trade off in road comfort?
4) I see you're running a 5 mil spacer on rear only and your wheels/tires look nicely flush to me. What width are your wheels? (You may have this listed and I missed it)

Thanks!

1) Force of habit, I suppose – that was the common setup on the E36 I used to run (I'm not sure anyone ran staggered on E36 track cars). My concern was front-end push, and I expected a narrower front tire to produce that result. As the car stands now, there is no push. One issue in this regard is how hard the driver is pushing the car (no pun intended ). Most of us are not driving our cars anywhere near their limits; in those cases, concerns about push may be unwarranted. Not that they won't push if the driver is simply overdriving the car into a corner (a popular way of ensuring slow laps ); but that's just poor driving technique that needs to be corrected anyway. Also, you generally don't want to create a car that you then have to re-modify to match your improved driving skills. A qualified shop that knows BMWs and isn't only about selling you parts should be able to help in this regard.

2) No. Look at the link to the build, and you'll see the different parts that resulted in no rub. One part is that the fenders are rolled. It's a very mild roll, however, and I can't tell it's there. It's always possible that someone with more experience with this sort of modification might be able to tell.

3) For me, there was no tradeoff in daily driving comfort – whatever difference there is, I don't feel it, and I would have accepted a fair amount of difference so that I could realize the most from the limited slip differential. However, I don't drive daily, I'd only put 1,972 miles (all highway) on the car when the bushings were installed, and so I wasn't able to experience an A/B comparison of the difference in NVH. I will say this: the front coilovers are single-adjustables only, while the rears are double-adjustables, and the reason for this is that the shop that specified and installed the build components told me that front double-adjustables wouldn't be pleasant on the street. I expect they would have alerted me if the solid rear subframe bushings were going to be that way, too. Mind you, they would have earned more money by selling me front double-adjustables (the coilover kit is designed by them and manufactured to their specification; it's also sold by them and others, including at least one sponsor of this forum).

4) The Apex ARC-8 wheels are: Front – 17X9 ET42 and Rear – 18X9½ ET58 (effectively ET53 with the spacer).