[Richardo]

I've an E90 335i with the sports package that I've autocrossed on my stock 18-inch Bridgestone runflats. I'm looking to improve my times and am signing up for an out-of-state autocross driving school (roughly 500 miles away).

I'm assuming that the driving school will be pretty hard on my tires, and I'll certainly want to race at least several times next year to apply what I learned. As such, I think it might be a good time to get a second set of wheels with street-legal race tires.

Currently I have different sized wheels front and rear (225/40-18 front and 255/35-18 rear). Regarding the new wheels and tires, I've two questions for the experienced autocrossers in this forum:

1. Without making any modifications to my sports package suspension setup, is it possible to run with 17" wheels and tires (all the same size) front and rear? That should lower the car by half an inch, and running the same size on all four wheels would allow me to rotate them more effectively. If it can be done, can anyone recommend the maximum allowable width without rubbing along the wheel wells?

2. Is it realistic to plan on driving 1,000 miles roundtrip (plus 2 days of driving school) on the new wheels and tires, or should I just bring them along and install (and uninstall) them at the school?

Thanks for your help!

[vwong]

Originally Posted by Richardo

1. Without making any modifications to my sports package suspension setup, is it possible to run with 17" wheels and tires (all the same size) front and rear? That should lower the car by half an inch, and running the same size on all four wheels would allow me to rotate them more effectively. If it can be done, can anyone recommend the maximum allowable width without rubbing along the wheel wells?

2. Is it realistic to plan on driving 1,000 miles roundtrip (plus 2 days of driving school) on the new wheels and tires, or should I just bring them along and install (and uninstall) them at the school?

Thanks for your help!

1. First of all, what class are you planning on running? If you're running in stock class, forget about changing wheels. Since your car comes with the sport package (and 18" wheels are part of the sport package), you must run those 18" wheels or some aftermarket lightweight 18" wheels that meet the OEM specifications. If you're running any classes other than stock, then yes, you can run 17" wheels. I don't have experience on this size wheels/tires, but I would assume that it's quite easy to fit a set of 17x8.5" on 255/40/17 all the way around.

2. If you can run 17" wheels, I would recommend bring the tires to the event and change them there.

[Richardo]

Thanks for the response.

1. I've Dinan Stage 1, so I have to run BSP, but otherwise it's stock.

2. I thought that was probably the case but wasn't sure because the highway driving shouldn't pose a lot of wear and tear. Still, 1,000 miles on wide sticky tires is probably just asking for a flat.