Having discarded the idea of buying an alarm in favour of a big chunky Disklok, I'm now thinking up other things to spend money I can't really afford on. Looking at www.performancealloys.com came up with these babies that appear to be OK for the vRS:

I've used the tyre calc to determine that getting 18 inchers, with 225/40 (EDIT: Changed the tyre size to the correct one) tyres should result in an overall wheel radius of +0.2mm, or 1.26mm circumference (0.06%). With that in mind, is it safe to keep the existing 205/50R17 alloy as a spare, or is it necessary to buy 5 wheels?

At the moment, it's purely academic as the overall cost is still going to reach to about

Excellent choice. Will suit the RS nicely.

I'd use 225/40R18 as the tyre size.

The existing alloy spare should work fine or you could sell all five and use the profits to buy a 5th Mille Migglia.

Hi Witchfinder-at-Work,

I was looking at these wheels as well, as I am going to change my wheels in the next few weeks. But I can't quite make my mind up I was looking at the OZ Superleggeras but these won't be available for at least a month!!! These Miglia HT3s look great but I am worried about the wheel strength i.e. they look good but are they up to the pounding of London streets?

Later

LLB

Originally posted by Freakcrab in this post

Excellent choice. Will suit the RS nicely.

I'd use 225/40R18 as the tyre size.

The existing alloy spare should work fine or you could sell all five and use the profits to buy a 5th Mille Migglia.

Sorry, the 235/40 was a typo - it should of course have read 225/40.

A 5th Mille Miglia would be nice, but it's roughly another 350 quid :shocked:

Actually, now I think on it. Would an 18" wheel fit in the space available for the spare?

I know the diameter would be roughly the same but the width is likely to be 0.5 - 1 inch more.

If the rolling radius is approx the same there should be no problem with fitting in the well but......

......would the floor lie flat with the wider spare in place?

I think this is what you meant?

Rob,

Bloody great wheels m8...I'd buy a 5th as it's cheaper than this "living outside your means" thought I had

Originally posted by SkodiRS in this post

If the rolling radius is approx the same there should be no problem with fitting in the well but......

......would the floor lie flat with the wider spare in place?

I think this is what you meant?

Precisely - another 20mm width might not go into the well...

Anyway, as I said, unless the money magically appears via some form of miraculous bonus from work, it's all academic. Buying a new PC just cost me an arm and a leg!

With that in mind, is it safe to keep the existing 205/50R17 alloy as a spare, or is it necessary to buy 5 wheels?

Some space-saver spare wheels are vastly different in size and construction to the regular wheels, but many if not most have a speed and distance restriction on their use. I would think that if you intend using the 17" wheel only as an emergency spare, it should be safe - but I'm not sure of the legality of doing so since you will in effect be mixing wheel sizes on the same axle.

DGW

If it isnt legal to have 2 different sized wheels on 1 axle , then Skoda sold me an illegal RS , as it came with a 15 inch steel spare wheel (now replaced with an alloy 17 incher) , and i have been informed that you need a 16 to clear the front brakes on the RS , so my steelie would have been as much use as a chocolate fireguard!

Strange since my car came with a 16" steel wheel. I guess they expected you to put the 15" one on the rear. In case of a flat at the front, move the rear wheel to the front and fit the 15" on the rear. For maximum inconvenience.:(

I was told by a wheel specialist when trying to sort my wheels & being keen to increase the width that I should be very careful as on some cars this cocks up the steering geometry, I couldnt get my head round that one but as he was talking me out of buying wider wheels (which were available) I guess there is some truth in it.

Re fitting wider wheels in wells. I have heard of people who have taken a sheet of solid Insulation (Like polystyrene but denser) & cut it to the shape of the boot with a hole for the wheel

I also know people with odd tyres front & rear & no spare (no where to put it) who rely on a tin of tyre weld & AA membership to get home.

Re directional tyres, I had long chats with Bridgestone before last years cannonball as I only wanted to take one spare & certainly with their tyres there is no difference to the basic tyre construction for direction, the difference is only in the tread pattern & therefore it would be fairly safe to run a tyre the wrong way round at high speed in the dry but extreme caution should be exercised in the wet as the tyre will not disperse water as intended in fact the opposite may happen.

They also recomended that you should set your spare up for the nearside as "generally" this tyre is more likely to puncture due to kerbings & also sharp objects tend to lay in the edge of the road

Those wheels do look NICE. I've just stuck some ex-VW "Evolo" 17" alloys on my Fabia, and had to put on new 205/40 R17 Marshall tyres in order to keep the same wheel circumference (ish). I don't have a piccie of the new alloys but they look sweet on the Fabia. Only drawback is slower 70-90 mph acceleration and poor fuel economy, which I had got used to with the TDi engine. Got to get a pic....

Having a chat with Mrs. Witchfinder last night soon put the kibosh on my cunning plan. It may be I have to resort to plan B, ie: getting the stock wheels painted anthracite... let's face it, the stock 17s aren't bad wheels, so I suppose I'll just have to manage

Was it Jon who had his wheels painted? What sort of price am I looking at for that? Anyone seen any pics of his motor with the "new" wheels?

Must admit I don't understand why you get worse mpg:confused:. If you've kept the same rolling radius (more of less) then it should make little difference to the overall gearing. I also imagine that they're also no heavier than your previous wheels (may be a tad little perhaps?).

Unless of course the Marshall tyres you've fitted have high "grippyness" (doh! I can't remember the correct term).

Cheers.

Adrian.

I assume the worse mpg comes from the car having to drag around 205/40 tyres, which are a bit wider than the 185/60 the car came with..? I don't know what affect tyre width would have apart from better grip around corners. The marshalls are quite grippy, but so were the continental eco-contacts I had on the car originally...? I'm confused by it really, and even considering putting the steels back on during the week when I commute along motorway, and putting alloys on at weekends. As for wheel size, I know from Protyre that the new setup is marginally bigger (I think the old ones were 1596mm around, and the new setup is 1605mm or something like that. Thats only a really tiny upsizing. I'm gonna stick to the reason that the tyre width is to blame...Call Sherlock to investigate!! PS: I don't particularly care about the mpg when the wheels look like they do. I really DO have to get a pic of it somehow.

Whitchfinder,

If you want to do the wheels cheaply (not neccesarily badly) find a local sprayshop, remove the tyres first, give them a good clean including the back & then get them to spray & bake them in the oven. Got my Scoob (god that word again) wheels done for

Twas me who had their wheels done. Mine had a full refurb ie bead blasted, chemical bath, all scrapes and dents removed, reoainted and re-lacquered. Total cost was about

Originally posted by TaviaRS in this post

Twas me who had their wheels done. Mine had a full refurb ie bead blasted, chemical bath, all scrapes and dents removed, reoainted and re-lacquered. Total cost was about