Alpina Wheels... 14x7 vs 16x7/8 why the preference of 16?

Yeah, Carl does have a certain "disdain" for the 16" staggered Alpinas. When I visited his shop about 5 years ago, funny thing, he had on 15" mesh styled setup on his coupe, guess he split the difference between the 14's and the 16's.

This is what I think best suits the appereance of a coupe with stock suspention:

I'll use them on my 72 csi euro.

The 14x7 ALPINAs were produced in 1972.These are really rear even in Germany.







I used to have BBS-Mahle on my other car,which I think also looks very good.Tyres are FULDA AZZURRO 205/70/14:

sorry...the one on the polaris is FULDA ASSURO CARAT 205x70x14.
It is still available in Europe.
I bought mine for $350 (4).

BBS RA's 16/7 and 16/8 with same offset as Alpina's

[Broken External Image]:http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee11/mpelly/misc033.jpg

Re: BBS RA's 16/7 and 16/8 with same offset as Alpina's

Mike Pelly said:

[Broken External Image]:http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee11/mpelly/misc033.jpg

Click to expand...

love the "proportional looks" of the 16" rims and tires setup. Sure looks period correct to me.

10 years ago when i bought my Orange I drove 205/65/14 Continental Super Contact.
This was the best option to 195/70/14 as you can see in my list below.
Since these dimension were not available anymore, i changed to:
205/60/14 on front and 215/60/14 on rear (215 on front is too large for the fenders)
Bought this set for 300€ 2 years ago from my colleague Günter.

195/70/14 is original---->circumference is 191,1 cm
205/65/14 --------------->circumference is 189.1 cm speedometer - 1%
205/70/14 --------------->circumference is 195.4 cm speedometer + 2%
205/60/14 --------------->circumference is 182.9 cm speedometer - 4%
215/60/14 --------------->circumference is 186.5 cm speedometer - 2%

See calculator (german) :

http://www.reifensuchmaschine.de/reifen_rechner/reifenrechner.htm

About the 14x7 Alpinas:

Since Alpina doesn´t really make any wheels themselves, they were a commissioning job. The original Alpina 14x7 wheels were in fact made by FPS.

Later the very same wheels became available via BMW, still made by FPS. Called something like "SPECIAL ACCESSORIES
LIGHT ALLOY RIM", part # 36111117425.
In fact you can still buy them from your local BMW dealer (and for a reasonable price) or from Walloth and Nesh. I believe a complete set is around 1000 Euros. Including bolts and centers.

http://bmwfans.info/original/E9/Cou/3.0CS-M30/ECE/L/M/1973/01/mg-36/ill-36_0366/


The only real difference between the "real" Alpina 14inchers and the ones you can buy at the BMW dealer is in a small Alpina Logo cast into the center of the wheel.

Funny how anything with an Alpina logo demands such a premium (yes, I agree, the cars are great, but it´s engineering, not religion...)

In the late 70s and early 80s the design was also copied by many other makers such as OZ and ATS. Some of them look very very similar to the Alpina. I believe Orangener is currently selling a set made by OZ that is more or less identical.

So if your cool with a "fake", the FPS Alpina style 14x7 ET 10 is one of the few wheels still available new, at a reasonable price, looks great and suits the Coupe very well. Aesthetically as well as technically.

Also, pretty decent rubber is available in the original 195/70 VR14 format, at least in Europe.

Fulda makes the Carrat Assuro

http://www.fulda.com/fulda_de_de/our_tires/classic_line/Assuro.jsp

and Vredestein the Sprint classic

http://www.vredestein.com/Banden_Ba...17&PageID=2&Rimsize=14&UserSessionID=23508418

I paid about 100 Euros per tire for the Fulda and it´s a pretty good and very durable tire. Maybe it would make sense to have a set shipped to the new world.

Tierfreund said:

I belive Orangener is currently selling a set made by OZ that is more or less identical.

Click to expand...

You´re right, thanks Tierfreund !

http://cgi.ebay.at/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300286234067&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=020

Tierfreund:

The ALPINA you can buy from walloth&nesch is NOT the period correct original one.
It has 5 additional holes between the 5 holes for the nuts+bolts.

http://www.wallothnesch.com/e/frameparts.htm


If a set of this cost 1000 EUR,how much the original worth ?

Thanks Orangener

The data and tire size web site will be very helpful...

bela22 said:

Tierfreund:

The ALPINA you can buy from walloth&nesch is NOT the period correct original one.
It has 5 additional holes between the 5 holes for the nuts+bolts.

http://www.wallothnesch.com/e/frameparts.htm


If a set of this cost 1000 EUR,how much the original worth ?

Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct.

I believe the set that W&N sells is actually the same wheel as the BMW wheel (one would have to ask W&N to be sure, they´ll certainly be frank about it). There´s the lack of a logo and the additional holes (I forgot to mention the holes in my post).

Still, they are very very similar and certainly more "period correct" than 16inchers or many other options.

Besides, to me, though I like originality, a set of new, unused FPS 7x14 Alpina "style" wheels (which really are technically identical) would be worth more than any 37 year old "original" Alpina wheels.

But I´m sure, the Alpina cultists would see that differently...

Anorak fact:
The BBS Mahle 7x14 came in different flavours as well. The ones with the plastic centers that are shown above and are quite common are actually from the mid- to late 70s.
There is a different, earlier Version (KBA40070 instead of KBA40160) that looks slightly different (more "deep-dishy I believe), is ET10 instead of ET11 and should have a chromed metal center cap (though they get lost very often and are often replaced with the plastic ones...). That one would be even more "period correct" having been cast in the early 70s...

Oh dear, the useless knowledge that accumulates over time... To quote Kelly Bundy: "Who´s that strange old man on the couch..."

P.S.

I still like the Wolfraces best. Especially on an orange E9!

Now if only I could find a set. And with TUEV as well...

....... i´m completely at a loss .......

Wheels

Is sit corrected, and apologize for my ignorance on this subject. Here is a photo of the wheel in question. Any value to these other than aestetics? I see on the photo from bela22, he also has 205/70 rubber. YBnormal did some calculations in this regard. Thanks for that. Any more input on this thread is appreciated.

Orangener said:

Tierfreund said:

I belive Orangener is currently selling a set made by OZ that is more or less identical.

Click to expand...

You´re right, thanks Tierfreund !

http://cgi.ebay.at/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300286234067&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=020

Click to expand...

Speaking of OZ Alpina replicas, I've a set of 15x7" MSW 20 spoke rims made by OZ mounted with 205/60 tires on my coupe now. This is one odd size Alpina replica, have not seen too many of them. I do have a set of newly refurbished staggered Alpinas with new tires waiting to be mounted.



Bert
72 3.5 CSi
88 M6

Meats

Maybe a bit dumbass, but food for thought.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=7

This site is very useful when it comes to multiple tire/rim calculations. Makes tire/rim comparisions a whole lot easier and simpler.
http://powerdog.com/tiresize.cgi

Meats

Hmm...
195/70 - 74.6 mph
205/70 -76.6 mph
215/60 -72.8 mph
205/55 - 69.01 mph
This is assuming 7 X14 wheel, 3500 rpm, 4th gear @ 1 to 1, final @3.45 to 1
unloaded tire O.D. Minus 9% is a good number for loaded O.D. (Y.B.) but I think the numbers speak themselves. Will it be P.I.R. or Laguna ? That Hoosier size might be a killer for autocross/hill climb. You Csi guys have a 3.25 rear. Well... I wanted to know !

Wheel Tire Trade-offs - Calculator

Here's a nice calculator, in English, from the CS Registry site. Caution: it doesn't work properly in Firefox; I have to view it in IE.

http://www.bmwcsregistry.org/Technical/e9_tire_alternatives.htm

Charlie