otakki

Check the Replika's official site. You can narrow down to those wheels that have additional coating to protect against winter elements by selecting one of the tabs. BTW, they also come with free blank center caps.
https://www.replika.ca/default.aspx?lang=en-US

Thanks for sharing your experience with the DWS. I have read some comments about the good winter performance with DWS only exists when there are lots of meat on the tire or when the "S" can still be seen. After that, it's not so good for the winter. Is that true?

tfsiii

The DWS are designed to wear SNOW first, then WET, then DRY. This is according to their doc, and my experience with the one set on my 2012 was good tread wear throughout a light Winter, which exposed the sometimes scary characteristics I describe above. Regards, Tom

E63 Tony

i will use blizzak lm-32's... awesome snow tire.. 255/35/19 on some cheap 5 spoke tire rack wheels for 150 each...

PeterUbers

granted mine are brand new but I don't have these dry road issues

sleepy1950

My thanks to everyone for your helpful replies to my original post at the beginning of this thread. Here is what I have ordered:

1. Replika 157 wheels, 19x8.5 with 32 ET all around, Matte Black w/Machined Lip, genuine TPMS sensors and matching matte black OEM center caps
2. Michelin Pilot Alpin snow tires, 255/35R19 all around

Some of you suggested the R157 wheel and I liked it. Turns out Replika carries two versions - glossy back (the version some of you have) and matte black with machined lip (which I had not seen previously). I like the matte black - personal preference, obviously. Also, for what it's worth, I think it will look close to one version of OEM wheels for this car.

Mark Lacey of Tunerworks helped me with the decisions. Very knowledgeable, experienced, helpful guy. He went through with me in detail how the wheels would fit - no issues at all. (e.g. no centering rings required.) He also had positive comments regarding the quality of Replika wheels. I had (and still have) some concerns re how well the clear coat on the machined lip will survive the salt used on Calgary roads in winter, but Mark's opinion is these wheels will be fine. Regardless, I'm going to put some extra effort into taking care of them.

Here is a photo of the wheels. I've scheduled to have them installed October 17. If people are interested, I'll post a pic then of the wheels on the car.

Wickdwagon

That seems like a really solid option. I have to admit that I have been reading through all the e63s wheel posts and I am totally lost on what is the best setup for the winter. Might I ask where you ordered the wheels from and I am assuming you went with tire rack for tires?

sleepy1950

I've had good experiences with Tire Rack in the past, but they do not carry the Replika wheels I wanted (Canadian-made). I found a couple of websites that carry these wheels and probably could have saved a little money by ordering both the wheels and tires online. However I didn't have the same amount of confidence in the websites as I do Tire Rack. (Also, not easy to deal with any problems with items bought online.) In the end, I wanted the comfort of dealing with a knowledgeable company locally, so went with Tunerworks, a very reputable Calgary company that deals with high end performance cars.

mike041357

I'm in Colorado and just put a set on Nokian WRG3 tires on a spare set of wheels. These tires were highly recommended and are "all weather" as opposed to "all season". I figure Nov-March with the Nokian and April-October with the summer tires/wheels.

I'll let you know how the Nokians work out. I'll had Bizzaks on my other cars/wheels but they wear too fast on a high HP car.

V8Avant

Hi Sleepy,

Any reason you went with a square set up (same size on all wheels) rather than the staggered OEM set up?

Thanks in advance.

sleepy1950

Hi,

I decided to go with dedicated winter wheels, so I could change them myself if I wanted/needed to. Also to keep the OEM wheels pristine. I could have bought winter wheels in the staggered OEM sizes, but decided on the square set-up with narrower wheels to better handle snow than the wider OEM size. Also, more choice of snow tires with the square set-up. I was only able to confirm one snow tire for the staggered set-up - Pirelli Sottozero's - and read mixed reviews of that tire.

I read quite a few posts from members who chose the 8.5" square setup. One member in this thread posted that he went with 8.5" square and Michelin PA's that worked very well.

Having said all that, a fellow Calgary member went with the Pirelli's on OEM wheels and has them changed twice a year. He said that works fine for him.

In the end, personal choice, I guess. Good luck with your decision.

otakki

With snow, narrower tires are more preferable because it's more effective to slice through it rather than riding on top of it with wider tires. That's the reason for square set-up with narrow tires.

sleepy1950

Here are a couple of pics of the wheels above wheels/tires installed. Mark at Tunerworks Calgary was very helpful with not only the wheels/tires choices, offsets etc., but also small details at installation (e.g. slightly longer than stock black bolts and black collars for the TPMS sensors, to match the wheels).

Tylbran

Wheels look great! That version of the R157 rim was not available when I purchased mine last year. Your ready for the snow! Installing mine next weekend ��

sleepy1950

Thanks for your input in this thread. Really helped me make the choice. (Obviously, since the setup I chose is pretty much what you have, other than a slightly different version of the same wheel.) Hope I don't end up regretting the machined rims!

otakki

Sure looks nice. Well, if the machined lip gets chewed up, maybe you can get that lip clear coated or something.

sleepy1950

Thanks. I'm thinking about clear plastidipping the wheels. Apparently works very well. At the very least, I'll give them a coat of wax.

the58guy

So everything here points to using the same size tires and wheels for front and back when going to winter/snow tires. Is that true for both my E55 AMG and E63 S-AMG?