Wheels for an E36 328i track car

[SlimRick]

Hi all - I have an E36 coupe which I plan to use as a track day car. I have a set of 17" wheels with Dunlop slicks fitted:



These sit in the arch nicely, with good clearance and work well. I've bought a second set of wheels so I can fit road tyres to it, but even though the offset is listed as the same, they fill the arches a bit too much:



I'd say the overall diameter is about an inch bigger due to the tyre profile, but the wheels also seem to sit wider in the arches and will no doubt rub.

I know it's probably difficult to tell from the pics, but would rolling the arches sort the issue, or is it just worth binning the new wheels and trying a different set?

Edited by SlimRick on Wednesday 17th November 08:39

[dan101smith]

Are the wheels actually wider?

[Babu 01]

Looking at that 2nd photo I'd say it's new wheels required.

If you do try to roll them bear in mind that the rears in particular are real rust traps.

[griffter]

I have 8J Alpinas on my e36 with an offset of e46. They wear 235/40/17 at the back and 215/45/17 at the front. No rubbing. However I think in the past wider rubber has been fitted to the front as there are signs of rubbing on the inner wing.

This leads me to believe that this combo is OK without arch modfication (weirdly one rear arch is rolled, the other isn't!), but wider rear rubber will need rolled arches, and wider front rubber will rub.

Hope that helps.

[dan101smith]

There's an offset calculator ::here:: that should tell you everything you need to know.

For reference, I used to run 225/45/17s on the front of my M3 with 9j et13 wheels. A lot will depend on your geometry as well, being a track car one would assume you are running a reasonable amount of negative camber front and rear?

[TheEnd]

By the way the front is sitting, I think you might have the 5 series wheels.
Style 32 I think.

[dan101smith]

TheEnd said:

By the way the front is sitting, I think you might have the 5 series wheels.
Style 32 I think.

E39? In which case the centre bore is wrong for an E36, so there will be play on the hub spigot.

[V8mate]

dan101smith said:

I used to run 225/45/17s on the front of my M3

I use that size on my E36 too.

[griffter]

SlimRick said:

the offset is listed as the same

Have you checked the offset on the wheels themselves? It's cast into the metal by the wheel bolt holes. These are BK171 Alpina replicas and not genuine Alpinas. The BK reps came in et twenty-something and et38 offset. You'd need et38 for the e36. I suspect you've got the lower offset wheels there - for the e28, e34 etc. That would explain why they protrude.

[TheEnd]

Ah.. different wheels.
I saw the top pic, and assumed the second was a wider angle of the same thing.