Some of you may think I'm crazy for wanting to switch out my Renntech 20" 2-piece multispoke wheels to a replica set of 19's that costs exactly one-tenth of the price of the Renntechs, but the simple fact is that I wanted to go more towards an OEM look. I spent a long time looking for the "right" set of wheels, and originally really wanted a set of original graphite colored SL65 double 5-spokes. But after finding that they are very difficult to find, and that most of the sets were going to cost me around $2500, I just couldn't make the deal. I especially couldn't make the deal when many of these had already been re-painted a different color, and more importantly, many of them had already been welded because of cracks! Why would I want to pay a lot of money for already cracked wheels. So I figured heck, if I'm going to crack some wheels, I'm at least going to crack some cheap ones that I can buy twice over for the money.

These wheels are a 35mm offset, and there were concerns from both me and the shop that they wouldn't clear the 15.4" brakes, offset or not. I asked them if they had templates of the wheels, but they didn't. I asked them if I made a template, would check the wheels for me:



Here is where I have to give many compliments to OEMWheelsPlus, where I bought these wheels, and specifically to Steve on the phone, the guy who helped me out. He went above and beyond to get the wheels shipped in from the warehouse, printed out my template, opened up the wheels, and checked them. He called me to tell me that they wheels had about 1/2 to 1" of clearance all the way around. This kind of concerned me, because there's no way they had this much clearance. Not with these brakes, and not in 19's. Sure enough when I received the wheels, he was right. Lots of brake clearance - a rarity - I love it! Again, I must say that even in my first dealings with OEMWheelsPlus, through email on Ebay, they continuously answered my laundry list of questions over and over. Versus the other three ebay sellers who sold these same wheels, and even one of the sellers here on MBW, that would just ignore my questions and send back vague emails without answers. Customer service at OEMWheelsPlus is why I bought from them.

At the right angle, these wheels with the machined finish fit the car very well. They balanced out just fine and roll smooth on the highway. The overall quality is good - it's not great, as per a set of HRE's, for example, there's a few bubbles in the clearcoat. Big deal. Best bang for the buck in my opinion. And they came with graphite Mercedes centercaps too.

I put on Bridgestone S-04 Pole Position tires in the stock size. It seems that not many on here run these tires, but a check through a lot of other forums seems to show good results. Just slightly below the Michelin Super Sports, which is the tire I really wanted but didn't want to bump up to the 295 rear because of potential fit problems. I'll let you guys know in the future how these tires hold up. So far so good. I also bought the TPMS sensors from Discount Tire (where I got the tires from and mounted). They gave me a pretty good discount; very good really - a price I've never seen advertised anywhere. I figured if these don't work, because they sold them to me, they won't charge me to dismount the tires and remount them to put in other ones .

Overall, I'm satisfied. 19x8.5/9.5 35mm. Now if I only had a 1/2" drop....

PS - if anyone wants the brake templates (for the 390mm front 6 piston and 360mm rear 4 piston setup), I can email them to you, just send me a PM. Also yes, my Renntech 20's are for sale as well.

 

i am running S-04
not as good as the hankook V12
but still good tires