What tyres?

[raceboy]

My old man is in need of some new tyres for his E36 B3, standard fittment is 265/35/17 Michelin Pilot Sports, but these are a bit on the rare side and a silly price to match, think his last ones were on the wrong side of £200 each
I'm sure M3's had a different size rear tyre to this on the same size 9" rim, and I've seem a few B3's on 255/40/17's so are there any alternatives, it's not like he's a trackday demon so in basic road driving I doubt he's going to miss 10mm of width at the rear?

[plowy]

A lot of people are raving about the Falken FK452 at the moment and i am one of them, ditched the run flats on my Z4 for these and the are awesome tyres which are cheap, i will never again waste money on shitty over priced branded stuff like pilot sports etc, don't know if you'll get the size you want but try here.

www.falkentyres.co.uk

[jamoor]

also consider Eagle F1s, they do 2 different types, both are decent, they are bieng phased out slowly, no longer availible in sizes for a 330d sport.

I have ordered a fresh set all round of fk452s from camskill.

[iguana]

255/40/17 will fit fine, I've Alpina rims with the 9j rears too & Toyo T1R is my recommendation or Goodyear F1s (tho ive run falken 452 & Khumo estaca on other cars & they werent too bad)

265 is way oversized on e36 anyway, particually a wheezy b3 more lithe on slimmer rubbber- original e36 M3 size was 235/40 on 7.5j after all.

Its not definate ref the size loss either, differnt tyre types can be wider/thinner than other types.

[raceboy]

As the 255 Toyos are about half the price of the 265 Michelin's I think I'll point him in that direction.
To get through the MOT he's popped on a pair of my old Alpina fronts with 235's on and I bet he wouldn't even feel any difference with them, but the wider rears do give it a more purposefull stance.

[derin100]

The initial Alpina B3 (i.e 3.0L versions) were fitted with 265/35/17 rears. For the later 3.2L versions this was altered to 245/40/17. Although slightly narrower these still have a slightly higher rolling circumference (77.6" vs 76.4" ) and will give a 1.7% " too slow " reading on the speedo fitted to your 3.0L.

255/40/17 is actually an EVEN bigger discrepancy and will give a 3% "too slow" discrepancy.

Although they will fit physically (just!) I personally wouldn't recommend 255/40/17.

I fitted this size (Michelins) to my ex-B3 just before I sold it as the Toyo Proxes that I'd used on the car were almost worn out.

See pics on this page of the car with 255/40/17at the rear:

http://www.bmwclassics.co.uk/alpina_b3/index.html)

Apart from the speedo discrepancy as described above - which probably isn't that big a deal - the main problem was the car just didn't 'feel right' to drive on those taller back tyres.

Again, personally I wouldn't go for the Toyos again particularly if I were thinking in terms of cost. Sure they were very grippy tyres but in my experience with them they really didn't last very long at all!

I'd go for 245/40/17's again but would try a different make.

Edited by derin100 on Friday 28th December 16:19

[raceboy]

Interesting...

How did the 245's look on the 9" rim?
Have images of them being a bit 'Euro Style' but then I guess 245mm is more than 9" so it shouldn't be streched too much. But would the tyre give the rim much protection against scuffs?

[derin100]

Here are some pics of the car when it was still wearing the Toyo Proxes with the 245's at the back.

http://www.thealpinaregister.com/photos/B3/3.0/cou...

[raceboy]

Passed on the findings to my old man, and it matched (sort of) what he'd managed to find out.
The main stealer came out with a bit of rubbish about having to change the fronts to 225's if you fit 245's on the back, which I think is usual dealer pap, especially as they said 8" rims with 235's wouldn't fit on the back, errr oh yes they do, there's the the car sat on them outside.
It also appears that the original equipent 265's aren't actually in production anymore, so even ignoring the cost factor they aren't an available option anyway.

So....now it's just down to picking a 245/40/17.

[berry100]

Another vote here for the Falken FK452's....got them on my 535d and they are pretty good....

[derin100]

Yes but the dealer is actually correct in that the fronts should be 225/45/17 (NOTE: "45" at the front not "40" ).

This is in accordance with testing done by Alpina themselves with this tyre combination. This is the size combination you see my ex-car sitting on in the second link.

Edited by derin100 on Tuesday 1st January 14:07

Edited by derin100 on Tuesday 1st January 14:07

[raceboy]

Fair enough, but in real world road driving is a pensioner who uses the car to go to go to his part time job and Morrisions once a week really going to spot the difference in the finer points of handling.
Taking off the perfectly good fronts because the rears need changing and Michelin don't make then any more and because an Alpina employed racing driving can shave a few tenths of his Nurburgring lap time no doubt, is all very well in a bottomless pit of money world and if the car was driven 10/10ths once in while, but in reality it's an old BMW, it's mint and looked after impecably, but theres a point were common sense has to take over.
I can see the logic if the car was spending it's time lapping Donington but it isn't.
By the time the fronts need replacing the car will be probably mine, he's currently looking for a replacement (and to highlight his handling needs he thought a SLK200 wasn't that bad ) and then I might switch to the 225 fronts.

Cheers for all the info, I'll point him in the direction of some Falkens as they seem to be getting quite a few recommendations, or the Toyos as they seem ok on the back of my TVR and are wearing well even after quite a few trackdays.