Since getting the car back on the road last summer, I've been increasingly disappointed with the look of the original 14" wheels. Also, the handling of the wheels and tires was not up to the level that the chassis was capable of. I've always lusted after a set of vintage, open-lug Alpina 16x7/16x8 wheels but abruptly something in me snapped last Fall. These are admittedly beautiful wheels, but they always trade at a huge price premium that I have never felt was completely justified. Figure $1500 for a nice set. I had always planned on buying a set that needed refinishing because I wanted to powdercoat the centers and do a silver lip. However, I came to the conclusion (very suddenly) that I would rather have BBS wheels on my car, and the ones I wanted were the three-piece RS type.

I can blame Zane Coker and Peter Pratter for this disease. I kept looking long and hard at their BBS RS wheels eventually deciding that I really wanted to do the same thing although not quite as wide. Both of them are running 10" wide rear BBS RS wheels with a 245 stretched over that which required rear-end modifications for fitment. No, I was willing to roll my fenders, but that was about it. I also didn't want the BBS RS sizes more commonly found in the United States, which are 16x7/16x8. After researching through Peter and Zane and learning about the vibrant trade going on over at ebay.de in these wheels, I decided to look for a set. I wanted a set of 16x8 et11 front and 16x9 et24 rear to be a little different from the crowd. These are the same offsets as the Alpina open lug wheels which work perfectly on an E12. I had a feeling that even with the wider widths, these offsets in a BBS RS would work as well. I also wanted a set of these wheels with black centers and a polished lip. I knew finding this exact set on ebay.de would be slim but I was looking anyway. Eventually a set came up on ebay.de that were very close, but with a 20mm front offset which I couldn't use. I emailed the seller and it turns out he can get near anything for you through his connections so I had him "build" me a set to my specs and refinish them with black centers. His name is Markus and he's a regular on the E30 M3 website, s14.net. I can put you in contact with him if you are interested in a set of these wheels for your own.

After waiting for weeks to have Markus locate the right set of wheels, then take them apart and refinish them, reseal the three pieces and rebuild them (torquing to the right specs), they finally arrived Feb 6th. They were so beautiful! I skimped on rubber for now since I didn't want to blow $800 for a set of Bridgestone S03's like I wanted. I bought some used Dunlop SP8000's which will be fine for my current amount of driving (2500 miles a year, usually much less) until I feel the need to replace them. Sizes are 225/50/16 front and 245/45/16 rear. The pictures on the right speak for themselves. I think the car looks stunning although the look isn't for everyone. Most agree that the black centers look good on the white car, but they are very shiny and make a statement. Some feel that this statement is wrong on the car.

A few points of clarification in my defense for this modification. These BBS RS wheels are vintage 1980's and would have represented a typical aftermarket addition by a BMW 5-series owner in that decade. Whenever I have done modifications to my car, I have tried to think "What would an owner in the first few years of ownership have done to the car, particularly in Germany?". That is why my car has Alpina springs and some other items that in my opinion are "period correct modifications". It's a fine line, and my rule has always been that the mods should be reversible. Ah, but you point out, fender rolling is NOT reversible. Very true, and this was a difficult decision to make. However, my E34 M5 has rolled fenders from either the factory or a previous owner in Germany. Done right it is very hard to tell this is done without running your finger inside the fender wells to check. So I decided that I could live with it and it would be an o.k. modification for the car. Fender flares and extreme cutting would not be!

To close, the fender rolling still has to be done. The fitment of the wheels and tires is beautiful, but they are very close to the front strut and the rears are very close to the fender lip. I also need to install the rear camber kit I already have to hopefully "tuck" the tops of the tires in the fenders. Also I'm unhappy with the ride height even with the supposedly "very low" Alpina springs. I need to get the front lowered somehow. Finally, I have the rear subframe mount stiffeners on order from BMP Design (cheap insurance, $35) to keep the rear subframe from shifting and having the tires rub, even with rolled fenders. I'll tackle the fender rolling in the Spring (I need to borrow my friend's 14" wheels and tires from his E12 to drive the car somewhere for the rolling job!).