We just didn’t like the Style 161 wheels that came on our BMW 328i. They were mundane, heavy (at a scale-busting 30 pounds each) and somewhat small at 17x8 inches. They were also equipped with Pirelli tires that were near the end of their lives.
While that is the bad news, the good news is that these old, worn-out tires did get us home and take us on a couple of adventures afterwards.
What to do next? We asked a couple of experts–specifically BimmerWorld’s James Clay as well as Andy Hollis, our resident tire tester. They both agreed that an 18x9-inch wheel is about as far as you want to go on one of these cars. You can run 19-inch wheels, but they tend to weigh more, negatively impact the ride and, potentially, rub on things.
We looked in the BimmerWorld catalog, as it contains some attractive, light and reasonably priced wheels for most BMWs. The TA5R caught our eye: It came in our desired 18x9-inch size with the correct offset for our E90-chassis BMW.
Other features include a reinforced inner lip plus a strong, lightweight flow-formed barrel. A knurled bead seat helps reduce tire slippage, while the 32mm lug hole accepts a 19mm socket. The spokes are formed to provide clearance for big brakes. The wheel even accepts the factory center cap, although BimmerWorld includes its own caps. At 19.42 pounds each and with a price tag of $373.99 apiece, it seemed like a good fit.
Once ordered, the wheels arrived in just a couple of days and were exactly as ordered. As usual, BimmerWorld customer service was flawless.
So, what tires to wrap around these wheels? Run a 225/40R18 tire, which is a little short at only 25 inches tall, or fit a taller 25.7-inch-diameter 245/40R18?
Andy Hollis reminded us that you want the tread width to be close to the wheel width. About half an inch of stretch here is about as far as you want to go, meaning that a 245mm tire would be a good match for an 8.5- or 9-inch wheel.
BFGoodrich has just come out with its new g-Force Phenom T/A, a high-performance summer tire that performed well in our own tests. A set of four in our 245/40R18 size can be had from Tire Rack for a rather reasonable $827.96.
[Performance tires that won't break the bank? | Budget UHP tire test.]
Our new setup, an 18x9-inch TA5R wheel wrapped in a 245/40R18 BFGoodrich g-Force Phenom T/A tire (left) vs. the old stock setup (right).
They weigh 27 pounds each, which brings our tire/wheel package in at about 46.5 pounds. Our stock 17-inch setup weighed more than 60 pounds per corner.
Saving nearly 15 pounds a corner while running a slightly wider tire should significantly improve performance: increased grip plus snapper acceleration and handling.
We headed over to the Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park, set pressures at 32 psi for a starting point, and put Tech Editor JG Pasterjak back behind the wheel.
His feedback:
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“On track, this bargain 328i is better than it has any right to be, right off the used car lot. Credit a lot of that goodness to the inherent balance and driver-centricity of BMWs, even the ones without the fancy performance packages. Cars designed for the rigors of the Autobahn tend to be friendly, if not downright capable, on track.
"Even with the well-worn Pirellis that came with the car, there was a lot of predictability, although maybe not a huge amount of absolute grip. But the responsive and supple chassis did its best to keep the tires under it and actually put up some decent lateral grip numbers in a couple corners. They did take a while to build the cornering load, and they were clearly the weakest link in the system, but they never did anything unpredictable.
"Maybe their biggest weakness was getting power to the ground, which is kind of surprising considering the 328i is by no means a fast car in a straight line. It could barely touch 95 mph on the fastest straight, where modern hot hatches like the Hyundai Elantra N can easily top 105-110. But in the slower corners, particularly the FIRM’s tight second-gear hairpin, the rear end was eager to light up. It was controllable but did nothing to increase the pace.
"Cut to a set of BFGoodrich Phenom tires on wider, lighter wheels, and things instantly became better. Which is not surprising, but it’s always nice to be able to put quantifiable numbers behind just how much tires and wheels matter. We hooked up the VBox data acquisition for all our testing, and the numbers showed us that even the seat of our pants was underappreciating the impact the new shoes were having.
"For example, sustained braking force increased by nearly 20% in most hard-braking areas, with the Phenoms coming tantalizingly close to 1g of deceleration force. The braking traces of the BFGs are cleaner, too, with no telltale signs of early ABS intervention. Just smooth, clean arresting force throughout the braking event.
"Cornering, too, was dramatically augmented. Minimum corner speed in the FIRM’s fastest corner, the right-hand kink of Turn 4, was increased by 6 mph, which represents nearly a 10% bump.
"Likewise, cornering speeds through the long, left-hand Turn 8 sweeper jumped by around 10%, with a faster entry and a much cleaner middle section showing up on the data.
"And that hairpin? Now it had a full-throttle exit with the minimum cornering speed increasing by nearly 20%, which provided a 10% boost in speed at corner exit.
"So, what’s the downside? Well, all that grip is going to put more stress on the chassis, and the 328i got very familiar with the bump stops in several corners with the BFG Phenom tire mounted. More grip means more cornering speed which means more weight transfer which means more roll, and those bump stops got a workout, particularly in that fast Turn 4 if we didn’t make the entry particularly gentle.
"Still, there’s good bones here, and subtle chassis augmentations should calm things down and still make it possible to maintain the car’s chill, friendly character.
"On the clock, the BMW picked up nearly 4 full seconds on a tire/wheel switch alone, from a 1:31.24 to a 1:27.43, putting it in the same league as modern performance cars like the VW GTI and Mazda MX-5. Not bad for a 15-year-old $8000 cruiser.”
So, for less than $2500, including mounting and balancing, we had incredible-looking and well-performing tires and wheels for our budget BMW. We had transformed the look from an aged commuter to a proper touring car.
We do need to cover a couple of reality checks, though. The E90 was one of the first BMWs to use run-flat tires. This means that we don’t have a spare tire with us. You can solve this by picking up an early X5 save-a-spare and carrying it with you for longer trips.
While the E90 does have a large enough storage bin under the trunk to carry tools and a jack, there is no room to carry the spare tire.
Another issue is with the TPMS sensors. You will need to either transfer your old TPMS sensors or buy new ones. Discount Tire sold us a set for about $250. Sensors don’t last forever, so we decided to start with a fresh set.
These wheels and tires showed us what’s next, too: We knew that the original shock absorbers were a bit worn out, and now they must go.
