NightSea

Though I'm not an enthusiastic upgrader,
I would like to change my AMG multispoke wheels to
AMG multi-piece dual spoked wheel (Styling IV) .

8,5 x 19 ET 25 tyres 255/35(front only)
10 x 19 ET 28 tyres 285/30 (rear only)

Part number ; B6 603 1092 (FA) and B6 603 1093 (RA)

MB's authorized dealer here asks about $7,600 for 4 wheels.
It includes shipping cost from Germany , but excludes tires.

Tires they recommend are Continental, Michelin, or Pirelli.

My questions are;

1. 19" wheels are really O.K for SL55? What are pros and cons?
2. $7,600 is reasonable price?(Import tax of wheels is less than
8%)
3. Any recommendation for tires? As it snows during winter time,
I need 4 season tires.
4. Any alternative to AMG ?

Thanks

Felix

1. one of our customers changed this SL55 to his wheels, they look really awsome on the SL, a perfect match.
2. they cost about the same in €, the price should be ok!
3. Mr. Blaschke who drives this SL55 has the pirelli-tyres on them, and they are doing 300km/h on his car. removed 250km/h limiter
4. No. The multipiece dual spoked AMG wheels are perfect for the SL55 !! go for it, u will love them


btw.
to make no mistake, i wrote about the first wheel on this site:
http://www.wheelexperts.com/wheels/amg/line.html

northbenz

Unfortunately, if your goal is to have tires suitable for snow you will want to avoid the 19" wheels. There is a Scandinavian tiremaker who makes the maximum sized tires suitable for snow and as I recall it might have been as small as 17", but definitely not 19". In the US there is no such thing as a performance snow tire - but if anyone has it, it is the Scandinavians.

2fast4u

I'm agree with Northbenz, if You want a good snow tyre, buy a 17''.
Of course you can use the standard 18'' for winter time and fit a 19'' AMG (I'm also interested in buying but I also consider Lorinser one) for dry season.
When I change my 18'' wheels on the Audi RS4 with a wonderfull 19'' BBS CH the car was really harder on the street but also more difficult on when hard raining and It was a 4wd !!!!!

If You forget the styling, probably the standard measure is the perfect way cause you have a car not so hard (and this is good for confort not for feeling) on normal time and a reasonable car when raining (I test it and it's quite safe go at 160 kmh on highway surely less on normal street).

Bye

Andrea

NightSea

Felix, Northbenz, 2fast4u

Thanks a lot for your comments!
My understanding is 19" wheels are more slippy than the
smaller ones.

Based on your comments , I am going to order AMG 19" wheels
with Pirelli tyres. During wintertime , I will use my another MB,
S600 which will be replaced with new S600 by that time.

To change wheels, it takes 2-3 weeks from ordering to installing .
But my car is only temporary registered , waiting for
the government technical inspection that takes at least
4-5 months. Why so long? I think it is an import barrier.

Until I get the inspection, I can not do any upgrade
nor any modifying except driving the car as it is.

As soon as I change the wheels, I will post some pictures.

Thanks again!

Felix

nice to hear NightSea, you won´t regret your choice!

will keep my eyes open and if i see our customer with this wheels i´ll make a picture

London Lad

Will the arches need rolling?

My friends 55 is comming from AMG special vehicles and his printout shows a charge for body mods for 19" wheels?

graham.

jco-amg

This is true with most cars...but you cannot fit a 17" wheel on an SL 55..won't clear the brakes...only 18" or larger.

2fast4u

I've reason jco-amg, of course before fitting a different measure on the car you had to verify if the measure could work with breakes or chassis or body.
I only want to explain that for snow it's better have smaller tyre (a 17'' means that also the larger of the tyres it's less than stock one) so You have a smaller surface on the snow.

Sorry for the mistake

Bye

Richard

When the SL55 was first launched, I saw a writeup where an AMG spokesman said they fitted 18" because the found them better for drivers - the 19" would "tramline" more ...

I suspect that the difference is not much at normal speeds :-)

2fast4u

I don't know if we can compare the same result betwen SL and ML, but with my SL55 I keep (for now) the stock 18'' measure instead of with ML where I've change the stock 17'' in 18'' and a month later I fit a 22'' inch.
You feel the difference when You passed from a tyre 275/55-17 to a 285/50-18 and now a 285/30-22 .

The same change I do with AUDI RS4 when I change stock wheel 255/35-18 with a 265/30-19 and You feel the difference when driving at every speed.

Bye

davidegai

I think 19" wheels would dramatically decrease wet driving performance and confort

London Lad

Why?

davidegai

acquaplaning speed in inversely proportional to tire area, regardless of traction

blueSL

There's no doubt wide tires increase the tendency to acquaplane, as I found when I spun my F355 in the wet into a barrier. What a mess! The SL55 traction control is much more sophisticated and will make me appear a better driver than I am.

I think 18 inch wheels are the best compromise between comfort and performance plus I hear of people having problems getting the tires replaced without wrecking the rims. The SL55 is going to eat tires.

London Lad

............Are the 19” AMG wheels wider as well as a larger diameter then?

I can see your point but 1" wide tyres would not provide much latteral grip so there must be other factors involved.

I have owned some cars with very wide rears and they were no worse in the wet. Of course they will all step out of line with the electronic aids switched off and a heavy right foot.

davidegai

I think given the class and price range of the car if AMG had felt the 19" tires were better, they would have offered them from the beginning at least ad a factory option!

In my opinion the real issues about the car's feet is not the wheels, but rather:

1) what kind of tires are used
2) their inflation pressure

jco-amg

To quote Tobias Moers, Head of Large Scale Model Series at AMG regarding tire/wheel fitment on the SL55:

"You can 19 inch AMG five-spoke wheels as an option, but while they may look more aggressive to some eyes, they do begin to introduce a touch of tramlining on bumpy, cambered roads. This is the reason we used 17 and not 18 inch wheels on the C32 AMG.....Although we favor the Dunlop SP9000 on our bigger cars like the S55 and CL55 AMG, we settled on the Pirelli PZero Assimetrico and the Michelin Pilot Sport for the sporty SL55. Both work very well, but the Pirelli just has the edge for handling, the Michelins for comfort."

Interview from Mercedes Enthusiast

I have debating this for some time as I wanted a second set of wheels/tires
I have decided on the multi spoke AMG wheels for delivery and will also be ordering some 18" HRE's for a second set. My main concern is handling over comfort or looks...I think the 18" are the best option...also I like the idea of being able to swap tires from both sets of rims..

Felix

today i saw the one customer who bought the 19" AMG double-spoke wheels! since i have the Nokia 7650 i was able to make some snapshots of the car.

the SL55 you can see is the only one i´ve driven so far (~25km) but it was THE highlight in my car-driving career




as i promised some days/weeks before, you can see now that these wheels are looking awsome on the SL55, or am i wrong?

Richard

They remind me of the BMW M3 (E36) wheels (except these ones are multispoke) - they certainly are nice though ....

(Im still prefer my 5 spoke AMG's on the SL55)

bobafett

Felix: what wheels are those? I like them very much.

Honestly, I think I will end up with the Brabus wheels because they look absolutely stunning. None of the MB wheels do it for me.

--Dan

mookie

felix are those wheels a option u can order from mb or are they aftermarket

Felix

you can order these direct form Mercedes since they are official AMG wheels.

the new E55, S55 and CL55 will get neary the same, but these are made of one instead of 2-pieces.

Harris

Those wheels are the best looking AMG wheels in the entire AMG lineup. I was thinking of getting a set for my C32. I know the offset & lugs are totally wrong, but with some modifications, I think that is possible.

I will not recommend Pirelli tires, they wear out so fast and yet, they are so poor on wet. I will go for Toyo T1-S. They are good value and good performance.

Harris

Very nice wheels!!!! I want them on my C32 too.....:p