<E30><Tires>Selecting the correct size.

[mdrainville@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Todd, when I wanted to go to wider tires for my 91 318IC I've been in the same
situation as you are. To have 225s with the same diameter, I had to buy
225-45-16. Not a lot of company make them and they are more expensive because
available only in ZR or VR.
So I finally bought 225-50-16 and 205-55-16 Comp T/A VR4. They are good quality
tires, they look good, and the price is quite low.  I know that some people will
think a BMW shouldn't have nothing less that Yokos or high dollars brand name
tires but for road only I think these tires are doing the job very well. (don't
confuse them with the cheaper BFG with white letters on the side).

Like you said they are almost 1" bigger in diameter. On my car it improved the
apparence. Now the car looks like one with lowering springs (almost). In normal
driving condition (two adult and a kid) there is no rubbing. In a parking lot,
if you turn the wheel at the limit, the tire will touch the plastic inside the
wheelwell, just backup the steering a bit to avoid that. At the rear, it rubs if
there is 3 adult and one child in the car AND I hit a BIG pothole or if I take
an highway exit at high speed. I could hammer a little bit the fender lip from
inside but the tires don't rub often enough to convience me to do that, when we
are 3 adult in the car I'm more carefull to check pot holes.

Another point, you will have to select the good offset for the wheels so they
don't stick out of the fender.

Hope this help.
Michel Drainville
91 318IC









In the near future I'd like to purchase 16" rims for my 325i.  I would like
to use 225/50's.  Yokohama recommends 22/45's, which are about $60 more per
tire.  By my calculations the 50's are less than 1" larger in diameter.
There seems to be a lot of space in the wheel well to accomodate even larger
tires.

Has anyone had any experience using 45's vs 50's or shed some light on why
you wouldn't?

Todd
'87 325i (Bilsteins on the way)
'90 325ic

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