stickygreen

These are my new favorites for the w210...just got them installed

w221 S600 18x8.5 front et43 with 235/40 tires
w221 S600 18x9.6 rear et43 with 265/35 tires










Some old favorites:

17" early w220 S600 wheels





18" late w220 S600 wheels

ejsheltra

Don't drop your ride. That ET will surely mess with your fender lips

stickygreen

Wasn't planning on it. The rear tires currently sit flush with the fender and would be real close with a drop and unrolled fenders.

ohlord

also want to save your money up for the wheel bearings you are going to be needing.

stickygreen

And why would I be needing wheel bearings? These wheels are only 1/2" wider than the w210 e55 stock wheels f&r with a 2mm higher offset up front and 2mm lower offset in back with 10mm narrower tires all around.

Perhaps I should have bought cheap cast replica wheels from Discount Tire as you have been suggesting to everyone instead of using quality oem forged wheels...

aardvark

Good looking choice on the rims, Dude!
I like em.

There have been numerous postings of tire/wheel changes, and now I'm getting curious.
I heard some stock E-320's are already dropped from the factory , by "X" amount. How can you tell?
Mine seems lower than a stock version, and I am trying to verify this before proceeding .

Two things stand out to me. The car sits slightly lower than any car I have owned, and the fenders seemed rolled. I say the fenders have been rolled, because the paint has been coming off in chunks (since when you roll a fender you stress the paint , thus causing moisture to enter behind the paint). I have repaired most of the paint damage prior to winter setting in and will go after the rest in the spring.(luckily the car is black, so paint match has been a non issue)
I am running the stock rims, but with wide low profile rubber. No matter, and no problems.

Can someone give me a measurement from the top of the rims to the fender wells, or some other method of confirming my suspicions? A stock dimension would be a good reference point.

Aardvark
(Oh ok, My 92 Mustang is quite low as well, but some mods were done to it to make it stick good. Love the Stang cause you can run the crap out of it, and repairs are cheap.
~375 bhp after engine beefing)

ohlord

You do the math.E55 rims are 31et front and 35 rear.Your dish plate shaped rims are 43 et and almost all of the mass on the outer edge.Multiply the forces involved,compute why the E55 had the lower ET rims and add in the rotational mass of the extra 1/2 inch of rim times 4 rims times the area of that extra mass,and tell me why you will need new wheel bearings,all the while looking like a low rider with the rims pushed out so far a good bump will chew off the top of the tires.
You will also note that I say real w210 amg rims have the proper offsets,not just discount tires or tirerack or any of the other quality rim makers that meet the same specs as oem.But to each his own.In a year when your tires are worn out and the side load on the bearings takes its toll,then you can explain the math to the rest of us.For you will be the one with the hands on experience about the importance of proper offsets and wheel mass.Or maybe you know more than the engineers at Mercedes that designed the E55 w210 rims with one set of specs and designed a completely different rim and ET for the S600

ejsheltra

Those are cast wheels I believe. Take a look at HRE wheels for forged. Some ARE wheels were also two piece and forged. The lip will be thin and the wheel much lighter 20 lbs or less. Forged is much stronger than cast because of the much denser pressure compacted alloy. I race a 70 Boss 302 in SCCA GT1 B production running ARE forged two piece wheels. Dramatic weight difference from cast. Most wheels today are cast and most all the MB wheels I have seen are cast not forged. The centers of a forged wheel may be cast but the rim is forged. Hope that helps.

ejsheltra

If the lips have been rolled as you say then the lip from 10 to 2 would be laying nearly flat against the fender. Stock OEM has a very slight roll. Only the AMG vehicles came from the factory with stock true rolled lips. It sounds like a prior owner might have changed the fenders' lip and ride height. If you are going to do this right you must heat the paint with a heat gun so the paint will not crack as pressure is applied. A delicate job and not really for first timers. Eastwood Company sells the tool for the job which mounts to your hub. In 1969 and 70' Boss 302 and 429 Mustangs were some of the first to come from the factory with rolled lips to clear the new Wide Track Good Year F60-15 Belted series of performance tires. I have a Grabber green bone stock 70' and a race prepped Calypso Coral 70' in the garage. The green one still has the OEM Goodyears and original wheels on it. Both have Factory radiused and rolled fenders. But I digress... forgive please...

ejsheltra

Front fender gap to top of tire on OEM stock would be about 2.5 inches give or take.

stickygreen

Effective offset of my wheels is et33 (43mm offset with 10mm hubcentric spacers). I have put well over 100k miles in this car using the other two sets of s600 wheels pictured, and those were et46 (also run with the same 10mm spacers). Now that I think about it, I don't think we've ever replaced any of the wheel bearings, and car is currently at 240k miles.

Wheels are forged:

http://www.fuchsfelge.de/index.php?id=139&L=1

illest

the wheels look good, enjoy them.

ejsheltra

I stand corrected. My apologies. I read the Website you had included and had completely forgotten about the Windmill Porsche wheel by Otto Fuche. Out of curiosity did you happen to weigh the wheel tire combo before mounting? My factory OEM 16" w/ 215/55 was about 47.5 lbs for wheel/tire combo and the Brabus Monoblock V 18" with a 245 is about 54 lbs. Big difference.

stickygreen

Thanks!

True, but not so much different in actual shape than AMG monoblocks...and being that they are forged vs the cast AMG's, they should be lighter. But yes - a higher percentage of the wheels' total weight is placed outboard on the car. From what I recall-in a discussion with a mechanical engineer friend, higher offsets are better for performance and easier on wheel bearings due to the decreased "scrub radius".

I can't imagine that an extra 1/2" section of forged aluminum from the outer rim would weigh much more than 1/2" or rubber w/steel belts (265 vs 275mm for e55), which would have more of its weight further from the wheel center, and would therefore have a greater "area of the extra mass".

Sure the original wheel offset was designed for the S-Class, but the effective offset is within 2mm of the e55 wheels. The front tires fit perfectly between fender & control arm, while the top of the rear tire is flush with the fender. Under compression, the top of the tire bows in and appears to clear the unrolled fender lip.

If my wheel bearings go out then I'll have to attribute it to the age & mileage of the car...not the wheels. If they go out again within the next 200k, then I'll have to agree with you.

Anyways, I am thoroughly enjoying the new look...only thing I might change is to run a 5mm spacer out back instead of 10mm to increase effective offset to et38.

I'll try to get some daytime pics as the ones above do no justice.

stickygreen

No problem...I'm a bit of a nut when it comes to wheels. My other vehicles:

'97 Dodge Ram CTD with 16" forged Alcoa LTS
'08 Dodge Ram 1/2 ton with 20" forged Weld Andro
'83 635csi with factory/Fuchs forged 17" throwing stars

I forgot to weigh the wheels, but will try to remember at the first rotation (side-to-side).

aardvark

elsheltra. thanks, dude!
Looks like it was dropped some. I have 1" clear to top of rubber, and another 3 3/4" to top of stock 16" rim. Total to top of rim is 4 3/4". The tires are a mild low profile. YES!!
The ride is un-effected to my knowledge.

And don't apologize over going into 69-70 Stang Speak. My favorite years, and love the Boss. Used to run in a 70 Mach, with friends. I used to restore 64-5-6 fastbacks, and currently run a 92 GT (the last of the 302's, before the Mazda 4.6) with some tame mods. Now I digress, but it was fun whooping on the Chevys. Being a Detroiter in my early years was a unique experience. Motown Muscle was rampant.

Yup the fenders were rolled by an idiot, and I am presently repairing the paint below the fender lip body line for rust and paint flake. Paint blend is not bad considering it is black.
Next is a black out scenario similar to our euro bro with the Black and White post. I may change the rims off, but first want to try and paint them, to see the effect. Can't wait till spring in Chitown.

Aardvark

ohlord

have missed you mentioning
" Effective offset of my wheels is et33 (43mm offset with 10mm hubcentric spacers)"
in your first post on the thread.
That makes a huge difference in the equation

stickygreen

Some daytime pics of my filthy car with the new shoes...

illest

the front wheel gap looks good.

polish your headlights.

stickygreen

Rear wheel gap is a bit much, but I have no plans to modify the suspension on this car. I already have 2 other money pits, and don't want to deal with any potential camber issues that may arise from lowering the rear.

Agreed on the headlights. Was going to install oem xenons so didn't bother polishing, but the new headlights arrived damaged and are unusable.