The weight of my 20" Monarch Euro 63 wheels kill me. They look super nice but i think i want less weight and more rubber. After a year of 20's, I think I'll give up look for better performance.

Any of you dropped back to a lower size? Regret it?

 

I dropped from 19's (one set of 1pc and another set of 3pc) to 18's. No regrets here.

You will lose a little looks-wise, of course. But IMHO you can mitigate the loss with a nice aggressive offset and meaty tires.

I went with 18in CLS AMG wheels (the ones that look similar to E63 wheels but have a much more aggressive offset, and as a result, are concave both front and rear) and I'm not planning on changing my setup anytime soon. Love it.

Gluck w/your decision.

oh...and not to mention, ride quality was greatly improved for me, so it'll be even better for you!

 

you've come such a long way...don't go back to being a teenager again

 

My first set of aftermarket wheels were a set of 20 inch HRE's. It did slow down the car quite a bit. When I moved to 19's, I thought it was great! Well that was until I moved back to stockies for a bit to wait for my other set of 18's that I just recently picked up! DO IT!~!

 

those wheels are nice!

I have the 19's and love the look, but I feel that i might be loosing a bit of straight line performance but gaining a bit of better handling and feel.

Its a bit rougher than 18's but good enough for the wife and 2 boys. They don't really feel the difference.

I'm going to weigh my CLS 19 vs my stock 18 and see if it there is truly a big difference.

Probably a week -end project.

 

I would do it in a heart beat. 18's was the best set up when i had the E55. HRE547's with R888's all around FTW!!!

 

thinking about doing the same thing going from 20" wheels to 18's maybe still playing with the idea.........

 

get a set to light weight 18's and you will be happy

 

If you went from stock 18" to the 19", will there really be that much of a performance drop? I'm thinking that most of the time, you are keeping relatively the same diameter within a few percentages but I would imagine the biggest downside is that the larger wheel may be heavier, thus losing some power spinning them up. But the E55 has so much low end grunt, does it really hurt with the larger wheels??

 

As long as you stay with a relatively light 19 inch it will be about the same weight as the stock 18s is what i have read.

 

think i'm going to do it! Besides HRE, what other brands do you guys recommend for weight...

 

CCW's are light weight and reasonably priced...customer service is exceptional, too.

Jon

 

I did both and just recently dropped back down. 20's looked insane but lost alot off the line and down low. I felt a huge difference going back to 18's. Go for it.

 

Kinesis (before they got bought by Asanti), Volk, Renntech monolite, Fikse, CCW, etc etc. Look for a 1 piece forged for the lightest/strongest wheel. HRE's aren't that light. Usually the "show" wheels are relatively heavy

 

Fikse makes some beautiful wheels

 

+1
I owned Fikse (on a P-car) in the past. Really well-made, light, and strong enough for crappy roads. One of the best out there, imho.

 

My experience with going from 18's to 20's on my CLS so far have been a little sorted.

I got the Vossen 083's and have had them for about 1 week. What I do notice from the 18's a slightly different "spin" noise from the rims.

I also noticed the ride is a little rougher, but not too noticeable. I knew that from going in from talking with Vossen, D2, and Discount Tire. Ride still feels good, acceleration is still there. The Vossen's are approx 28lbs front and 30lbs rear, and are tilt-cast.