thinking of new wheels /tires for my 91 850i,the car came with the originals
i know its a matter of taste but are there some more popular than others or do people like the oem;s? also can you change the tire size without further modification?

I have AC Schnitzer Type II Racing wheels on mine. You can change wheel / tire size within reason. I run 245 width tires in front and 285 widths in back.

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/mm46/Chuck850/4angiefest%202009-2/IMG_0223-1.jpg

OK this is a big deal have you thought about staggered vs same offset all the way around?
How much are you looking to spend?
when i looked for wheels took me a good 3 months 17" vs 18" do you care about ride quality?

thinking of new wheels /tires for my 91 850i,the car came with the originals
i know its a matter of taste but are there some more popular than others or do people like the oem;s? also can you change the tire size without further modification?

the most important question for you should be:
WHAT DO YOU LIKE?
Don't care about other people's taste, it's your car and you have to be happy with it.

I do care about ride qualit but i do like the idea of running a wider width on the back, are 285 a problem?i did see a car with alpina wheels on the forum,are they still available or do i have to find them on ebay?

I do care about ride qualit but i do like the idea of running a wider width on the back, are 285 a problem?i did see a car with alpina wheels on the forum,are they still available or do i have to find them on ebay?

285 is not a problem if the rim isn't too wide. I'm sure the ALPINA wheels are still available brand new - but certainly costing you an arm and a leg. I recently purchased a brand new 16" set directly from ALPINA for a Greek customer. You don't want to know the price :D

I'm sure the ALPINA wheels are still available brand new - but certainly costing you an arm and a leg.

18" Alpina: be sure that they are sold out.

You won´t get them new for arms, legs and money :D

18" MKs could be available again in the meantime, Randy might know more about it.

285 is the borderline for all rims I know exept you have a widened body.

Get the right combonation for you:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1173132

18" Alpina: be sure that they are sold out.

You won´t get them new for arms, legs and money :D

18" MKs could be available again in the meantime, Randy might know more about it.

285 is the borderline for all rims I know exept you have a widened body.

Get the right combonation for you:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1173132

did you call them or how do you know?

did you call them or how do you know?

afaik the very last classic set was sold two years ago to the swizz twins from 8.org - a dramatic deal however worth to be told at a meeting, the same person is to blame who caused my complete stop of engagement for 8.de some weeks ago...

Regarding MKs, personally I think those people are crazy. I wanted to buy a set of caps and emailed back and forth to Oktavia Krankenberg. She would not sell to a US customer because of the issues they had with the copies being made and marketed here, and the legal battle wasn't over yet. I always felt there was an underlying insinuation that I was trying to get parts for copied wheels. For the restoration of authentic E31-specific wheels I'm doing I emailed a couple times to get even their special bolts and a tool for the caps, and even sent pictures of the progress of the wheels, and got no response whatsoever. Laszlo who runs MK-E31.com did a large purchase of their products to market here, especially 10-12 sets of wheels, and has been put on hold with them having his money for a very long time now. He made an anouncement a few months ago that MK1's were to begin production again but there has been no update or definite timeframe for this. You folks in Germany could do much better to find out information and/or buy something from them there by walking into their business and doing it. My impression still is that they don't want to do any business with a damn Yankee.....:(

:eek: new infos from Buchloe(Alpinacity :D)

Wheelset is available, phoned to the reponsible men a few minutes ago, will get an email and give you more informations soon...

update:

Alpina sells via

KSK Distributing
Mrs Susan Kruser
Mr Keith Kruser
723 E. Tujunga Ave., Unit B
91501 Burbank, CA
Tel.: 818-843-2620
Fax. 818-843-4493
E-Mail: ksk-alpina@att.net

the official Alpina partner of the U.S.

price for th 18" wheelset front and rear 9" in Germany currently € 2450,- = $ 3410,- - front 9" rear 10,5" € 2490,- = $ 4466,-

:banghead: note: I should learn not to believe all storytellers :rolleyes

Like Harry mentioned, the wheels are still available via Alpina USA c/o KSK Distributing.

The only trouble is that they are not really $4466! The total for a new set of staggered E31-specific 18" wheels is around $5000 with shipping fees.

Wheel set, staggered:
8 (E31) 36 11 673 two 9” x 18” and two 10.5” x 18” light alloy wheels, including locking wheel caps - $4481.00

Individual replacement wheels:
8 (E31) 36 11 650 aluminum wheel 9” x 18” - offset 12 - $1484.00
36 11 651 aluminum wheel 10.5” x 18” - offset 20 - $1523.00

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/1826/img6047.jpg

Dang....they're nice, but not THAT nice.........another notch for the price of cool... btw Koiz, your switch is on it's way bro.

Dang....they're nice, but not THAT nice.........another notch for the price of cool... btw Koiz, your switch is on it's way bro.

I would never pay that $ for wheels on an 8. I got real lucky scoring my used but refinished Alpina wheels. I was about to pull the trigger on a new set of MK-I wheels and then Alpina offer came up.

Lookin' forward to the switch (no pun intended, haha!)

Cheers

thanks for all the info but it is too steep for me,maybe ill keep the original set,the spare dznt look like it ever touched the ground

thanks for all the info but it is too steep for me,maybe ill keep the original set,the spare dznt look like it ever touched the ground

Why not score a set of staggered 18" M-Parallel wheels? They look great on the 8, and you can get them for very little $

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/539/img5765mw5.jpg

those ALPINA wheel prices are just crazy and MK's behaviour I don't even want to comment.
Guess why we in Germany say that we live in a service dessert?
"Business could be so much easier without those damned customers" seems to be the attitude of many companies.

those ALPINA wheel prices are just crazy

When I prepared the rims for painting I realised, that they where produced by Ronal :eek: not real premium class...

When I prepared the rims for painting I realised, that they where produced by Ronal :eek: not real premium class...

but rather small quantites drive up the price. Quality wise ALPINA wheels are by no means high class - not at all.

Theres always custom made if you have $500 per wheel

i spoke with a wheel guy and he recommended that i go for replicas if i want m parallells,being new vs old,no chance of being bent etc...anyone with replicas?and what are your thoughts?there is a set of originals on ebay but they;ve been curbed and shipping will put them over 700 and the auction isnt over

BBS LM (Le Mans) and Rondell 58 are very popular BMW wheels if you want to stay with the classic look.
However these wheels to me are like 13 on a dozen, "everyone" has them.

I decided to be bald and go for something completely different.
Chrome 3-piece wheels from Work.
I have 9" fronts and 10,5" rears with 245 and 275 tires, due to offset I can't go wider without rubbing.

And as Wokke said, it's your car, do as you like.
I did, and I've had a lot of positive and negative coments on my choice.
It's my car, and wheels can be replaced.

Here is my offering. I am biased. Like it better than Alpina. Lighter than 18" alpina too.:) Flame suit on.
http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs034.snc/3253_641669957309_120812041_40973958_3946452_n.jpg

I have a set of m-par reps from discount tire, they look great, they did have the indent for the m emblem ( got the emblem off the bay) and got new caps from the dealer, wheels were 450 then 25 for the caps and emblems.

sounds good ill call them and check it out,thanks

I just got some good deal on these and they look really nice i really like them the car looks much "younger" now.

.....
I decided to be bald and go for something completely different.
Chrome 3-piece wheels from Work.
.....
I did, and I've had a lot of positive and negative coments on my choice.
It's my car, and wheels can be replaced.

guess what some people tell me when they see these super rare ACS Type-I in 9"/11" being completely powder coated in matte black. But I'm sort of tired of all this bling bling. :D

http://www.wokke.de/GALLERY-Dateien/E31_04/04.jpg

You can pick up some 20' M-par Replica's like these for about 2G's
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k273/144543/2009_0405Image0009.jpg
They came with the car when I bought it, have the receipts. I personally would stick with 18" if I were to purchase wheels, 20"s work but I like a little more sidewall. The Chrome does look bitchin' with Schwarz no? :crazya Sorry Wokke about the Bling.... I do love chrome though :pimpflash

You can pick up some 20' M-par Replica's like these for about 2G's
http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k273/144543/2009_0405Image0009.jpg
They came with the car when I bought it, have the receipts. I personally would stick with 18" if I were to purchase wheels, 20"s work but I like a little more sidewall. The Chrome does look bitchin' with Schwarz no? :crazya

I haven't been asked so I'm not going to say that I don't like those wheels on the E31 :D

+1. Might help if the car were lowered, but generally 20" is just a tad too big.....

Well if I won the lotto I'd put on some HRE's like the ones on Marks850, they are beautiful. Meanwhile I'm finacially challenged so the 20"s gotta stay. And +2 on the size. 18"s are what I'll be shopping for when it's time to replace them. But the Chrome does looks good on Schwarz. What I'd really like would be Style 5's with gold centers polished lips in 18X8 or 9 and 18X10.5. Dream on right? sounds like a custom set up.

Style 5's are 8" in front, and 9" in back in 17's. The 18" style 5's are E38 specific so the front offset is wrong - needs spacers.

As for the 20's, wasn't meant as a put-down, was more of a practical response. I understand the fact that they came with the car , at least you are heading in the right direction with 18's or smaller...
Those HRE's are nice (saw them in person), just a bit on the expensive side $2K+ per wheel....