Wheels for a C-class

[Chimaera]

My tyres are nearly bald on my horrid little steelies and instead of new tyres, I've decided to buy some alloys but the problem is which ones?

They're gonna be AMG replica's but I'm undecided between Styling 2 or Styling 3.

The car is a '96 C200 Elegance in silver. It's not lowered (yet) and from what I've seen the Styling 3's look best on an otherwise standard car.

What do you guys's think or can you think of any other nice wheels that'll look good on it?

 

[DITTRICH]

This is the "classic" styling which I think looks the best.
My C230K is silver and the alloys look great.
Regards
Les

 

[DITTRICH]

...further comment

I assume you know about the cost of tyres. On the AMG 17" alloys fitted to my car, the front tyres are different to the rear ones - different profile and width. I got 37,000 miles out of a set of new continental sport contact tyres which came with my car when I bought it. To replace with similar would cost £400 - £500 for a set of four.
Regards
Les

 

[Chimaera]

Re: ...further comment

I assume you know about the cost of tyres. On the AMG 17" alloys fitted to my car, the front tyres are different to the rear ones - different profile and width. I got 37,000 miles out of a set of new continental sport contact tyres which came with my car when I bought it. To replace with similar would cost £400 - £500 for a set of four.
Regards
Les

I'm buying replicas which are the same width front and rear. Also as I'm in the trade I can get the tyres for between £60 and £100 + VAT.

And the styling 2's do look good. I am very tempted.

 

[gareth_r]

Dittrich, do you know the front and rear width and offset of your alloys?

Thanks
G

 

[DITTRICH]

...WHEELS

I don't know the wheel definitions, but the tyres are...
1 Front 225/45 R17 91W
2 Rear 245/40 ZR17
3 all Continental ContiSportContact

Roughly translated...
1 225, 245 refers to width of tyre in millimetres.
2 45, 40 is a % which I think is tyre thickness/outer edge tyre radius
(so 0% would be a metal wheel and 100% would be a rubber wheel)
3 R refers to "radial"
4 17 refers to wheel diameter
5 Z, W are speed ratings
6 91 refers to a loading rating
I'm not really sure if this is what you want, but if you are buying tyres, then 1, 2, 4 and 5 are the important bits. Note 4 and 2 are important for maintaining the overall diameter of the wheel+tyre and hence might affect speedometer/mileometer but as I,m not mechanically minded, this is just a guess.
Regards
Les

 

[DITTRICH]

...MORE INFO

..SORRY - just found out what offset means.
Based on info at web address below...

http://www.elitedirect.com/amg-stuff/amg-styling-2.html

the specs for my wheels are...
Front 7.5x17 et35 225/45r17
Back 8.5x17 et30 245/40r17

now i did see on another site that the "et" bit refers to the offset, so I would assume 35, 30 refers to mm. Apparently, offset can be +/- too? and this data is supposed to be stamped on the wheels somewhere - but i draw the line at getting under the car to check for you. Look under someone else's !!

Regards
Les

 

[gareth_r]

Thanks Les.

Perfect answer! (and I've just noticed that the widths are on the pic, sorry)

I had thought that the wheel / tyre sizes would be what you have when the front / rear rims are different widths, and you have confirmed it.

I've been offered a set of wheels in exactly those sizes and I just wanted to confirm that they'd fit a 202.

Then all I need is to lower it to "Sport" specs....

Much appreciated.

Thanks again
Gareth

 

[gareth_r]

The "40" or "45" is the aspect ratio -- the height of the sidewall (that is, from ground to rim) as a percentage of the tyre width.

BTW, this is a really good tyre size calculator which lets you compare as many different sizes as you want
http://www.powerdog.com/tiresize.cgi

and this page explains offset etc quite well
http://www.tyresave.co.uk/fitment.html#TECH