Definitely experiences do differ. I couldn't disagree more with mmm-five on this. I'm not being rude but you're not the only person to drive your car hard on at times pretty poor road surfaces. I've had the 18's and the 19's on my car and I wouldn't go back to the 18's for anything. Plenty of outright grip to be had on 19's. Put the looks aside (which is hard to do I admit), the car rides grips and handles extremely well on the 19" CSL's and if you and your test driver have found an improvement on the 18's then I'm missing something that you are more perceptive towards than me. My comments all relate to 19's on PS2's so I can't speak to variable ride quality on other tyre makes. Remember that BMW chose to put the 19" wheels on their more track orientated M3 CSL which would have been a strange choice if it had a negative effect on the performance abilities of the car would it not? This isn't about peer pressure or justifying your choice between 18's and 19's, the 19's are suited to the feel and characteristics of the car and should have been supplied as OEM in the first place IMO.
IF you had a set of csls??????.....................
- Thread starter Beedub
- Start date
I think it's fair to say that 18s on decent tyres (NOT the standard Conti crap) will definitely ride better. It stands to reason that the slightly larger sidewall will give a more compliant suspension feel, expecially on the UKs poor road surfaces. There's quite a lot of M3 (E46 and current) owners that think their cars ride better on 18s as well. I think the problem for some (me included) is that our 18s look so plain and uninspiring for such a "hot" M division car. The CSLs or BBS Ch etc just look much better and differentiate M cars from the crowds. It's all subjective of course and there's also a movement that prefers the standard, perhaps more subtle look.
For me the ride is crap on all wheels, so i might as well look good as i crash through low speed potholes!
For me the ride is crap on all wheels, so i might as well look good as i crash through low speed potholes!
dgm said:
BMW put 19" on the CSL probably because they offer superior stiffness ideal for response for track work. Also, the car was designed specifically for those wheels, both tyre size and width, and rim size and width. The M Z4 was designed on 18" wheels and the slightly taller side walls.
I think alot is down to design of the suspension setup, kinematics can be optimised for wheels in certain ranges, and even tyres with expected stifnesses, and to go out of these ranges might not be ideal.
I think a valid test is always enjoying both for your desired use for the car, and choose the ones you like best, which the OP and mmm-five appear to have done or will do, so great, they end up with the ones best for them
From general experience, bigger is almost always worse for road work when all else is the same. Plenty of driving the same model car with different wheels often will soon make it easy to spot what feels good and not for you
Dave
Liverpool
Beedub said:
I had my 350Z wheels refurbed at Laptab in shadow chrome and they did a good job
but are quite expensive. Cost me nearly £300 from memory.Found a guy in brum who fitted my tyres the other week, who specialises in alloy refurbs and said he could do my 18" M wheels for just under £200. Can't vouch for his quality of work as I haven't used him, its only a small unit, but he seemed quite professional, had a number of examples on display and did a good job fitting my tyres!
Website is http://www.speedwells.co.uk/
MarkW said:Beedub said:
I had my 350Z wheels refurbed at Laptab in shadow chrome and they did a good job
Found a guy in brum who fitted my tyres the other week, who specialises in alloy refurbs and said he could do my 18" M wheels for just under £200. Can't vouch for his quality of work as I haven't used him, its only a small unit, but he seemed quite professional, had a number of examples on display and did a good job fitting my tyres!
Website is http://www.speedwells.co.uk/
cheers for the comments, im going to stick with laptab on this one purely because their literally down the road from work and plus i know their works very good!! but again really appreciate the heads up on the other guys.
dgm said:
I agree with this, in particular the last comment about the 19's suiting the car.
The one thing that initially put me off going for the 19's was the idea that it would increase the amount of tramlining in the car (one of my pet hates) much to my surprise I noticed less tramlining on changing over.
I had my 350Z wheels refurbed at Laptab in shadow chrome and they did a good job
Found a guy in brum who fitted my tyres the other week, who specialises in alloy refurbs and said he could do my 18" M wheels for just under £200. Can't vouch for his quality of work as I haven't used him, its only a small unit, but he seemed quite professional, had a number of examples on display and did a good job fitting my tyres!
Website is http://www.speedwells.co.uk/
I can vouch for speedwells, He did my 17" ACS Type 2's for my TI compact, got them off ebay for cheap, and he brought them up like new. They where pretty bad kerbing. IIRC he doesn't have as many finishes as laptap etc but well worth it. Do you want some pics ?
At the end of the day, they are wheels afterall, all this talk about keeping cars / looking after them etc. You will prob get them refurbed every 2 years if its your P&J No ? And by that I mean the CSL's are prone to stone chipping, as we have seen - I've never kerbed any of the wheels on my Z4 but my OEMS suffered major paint flake (replaced under warranty) and s**t happens !
Or if your like me, you want to change the colour every 6 months
Well thats it, dropped off the alloys this morning, i decided to go with the original decsision and go with antracite! i think their going to look amazind with some other dark detailing i have planned for the car ( carbon mirrors ect ect). so i will be picking up the alloys tuesday morning i believe, so pics will be soon!!
I have managed to source a set of pilot sport cups (the road legal slicks used on the CSL) new for an absolute steal, so these should transform the dry weather performance and the cars on track behavour, my next track day will be 18th july so very excited!!
i am looking forward to seeing the chances the larger diametre/lower unsprung weight will make to the car, if any! cheers for the advice guys.
what tyre pressures you guys running on the CSls,
byron
I have managed to source a set of pilot sport cups (the road legal slicks used on the CSL) new for an absolute steal, so these should transform the dry weather performance and the cars on track behavour, my next track day will be 18th july so very excited!!
i am looking forward to seeing the chances the larger diametre/lower unsprung weight will make to the car, if any! cheers for the advice guys.
what tyre pressures you guys running on the CSls,
byron