My Quartz Grey Sportline should (normally) arrive with anthracite Supernovas which other than the official image from Skoda's shop I have never seen on another Superb anywhere, let alone on a Quartz Grey car in particular:



 As I wanted gloss black alloys to go with the black trim of the Sportline but that was not an option at the time of the order (only standard Vegas and anthracite Supernova's where available) I am pretty sure I will remove them immediately and put them for sale, provided I'd have already got a replacement set. So, just curious to see what people think would suit the car better by checking these quick Photoshops I did. My top choices are 2,3,4,5 but I added some more designs as it was easy within the configurator, and also, some of these images might help anyone else considering a similar design to any of those.

Of-course if anyone has a suggestion that thinks is similar to 2,3,4,5 options please do share.


1. Gloss black Supernovas (only for relative reference as mine will be anthracite and won't be going for them)

 

2. Pretorias - OEM choice on the Golf R / GTI Clubsport - have a set already and love how they look. Problem is their are 8.0J x 19 ET50 so they sit 6mm more inside (closer to the struts) compared to stock alloys and would need spacers to correct the look, of which I am not a fan in general.

 

 

 

 

3. ATS Racelight -  Similar design to Pretorias but available at width and offset combo that sits same as stock




4. GMP Atom - Typical Audi-favourite design, one of the few non full gloss black that I could consider

 

5. GMP Enigma - Another diamond-cut design that I like, not very aggressive so maybe more suitable for the Superb but not sure about the non-symmetric design

6. GMP Astral - Not very fond of but since I am experimenting with GMP's fitting configurator why not...

7. GMP Paky - Same as above although I like those more than the Astral

8. GMP Stellar - Not my 1st choice but a typical multi-spoke design

 

Edited 14 January, 20197 yr by newbie69

I've got supernovas ordered on mine today, sales guy said they would be gloss black , what makes you think they would be anthracite, I've got a meteor grey car on order, to me, grey wheels would just look stupid on a grey car, so they'd better come black or there will be trouble

I looked at aftermarket wheels too, I quite liked the BBS XA design

Out of your choices I like these the best 

5 minutes ago, SteHaworth said:

I've got supernovas ordered on mine today, sales guy said they would be gloss black , what makes you think they would be anthracite, I've got a meteor grey car on order, to me, grey wheels would just look stupid on a grey car, so they'd better come black or there will be trouble

I looked at aftermarket wheels too, I quite liked the BBS XA design

Don't worry, I'm based in Sweden so the options here don't mean anything for your UK order. Some weird Skoda Sweden choice I guess, anthracite was the only option on the configurator, and same is confirmed in the order documentation. No gloss black choice for some reason. The only other alloy was the Vegas which are really not my cup of tea to put it gently.

Alloys preferences are such a personal thing, ask 10 people between 10 different alloys and you'll get 10 different answers. Not into those BBS too much I think, but I have started considering diamond cut alternatives, particularly no.4 and (to my surprise) no.5 too, as opposed to full gloss blacks which were my initial choice. I have a bit less than a month to make up my mind...

28 minutes ago, SteHaworth said:

I've got supernovas ordered on mine today, sales guy said they would be gloss black , what makes you think they would be anthracite, I've got a meteor grey car on order, to me, grey wheels would just look stupid on a grey car, so they'd better come black or there will be trouble

 

On a second thought - and check - I think you might want to dig deeper into which alloy you're getting:

I just visited the UK configurator, there is no explicit option for the Supernova's colour (as wasn't in the Swedish one either) and if your car was similar to what is shown in the 3D rendered image below, according to my dealer this is the anthracite Supernovas:




You can double check this by checking your customer's copy of the placed order. Where the equipment is listed in detail, there is a 3-digit code next to each item. Next to my alloys it reads: PJZ  Does yours reference the same code?

I think we are getting the same alloys (no choice either on UK or Swedish configurators) but one of our dealers is clueless, hope it's mine so that I get blacks at least, I might even consider keeping them in that case.

On my list there's one item, GPJZPJZ so maybe mine are grey :-(

11 minutes ago, SteHaworth said:

On my list there's one item, GPJZPJZ so maybe mine are grey :-(

I'll be asking my dealer tomorrow again quoting "contradicting internet info" to double check with Skoda which alloy in particular does the PJZ code refer to. Of what I'm sure is that we're getting the same ones as the GPJZPJZ is also mentioned on my online saved config, but on the detail order copy it says merely PJZ as I said. 

I'd much prefer 16" wheels as I have to drive my car. I even tried to go for the optional 17" downgrade but it was not available on the high spec car I ordered. Surely manufacturers know how poor our roads are!

I love this! I can't tell you how many hours I spent photoshopping rims on my Brera before I settled on Wolfrace Assassins.

 

I prefer the Enigma rims. I like them because 1) they are in the spirit of the original Vega and 2) they are the least black. However, they look the most difficult to clean.

21 minutes ago, freelunch said:

I love this! I can't tell you how many hours I spent photoshopping rims on my Brera before I settled on Wolfrace Assassins.

 

I prefer the Enigma rims. I like them because 1) they are in the spirit of the original Vega and 2) they are the least black. However, they look the most difficult to clean.

Lol, no matter how many hours you tell me, I'll believe it. I've spent the best part of six months going through every online alloy catalogue deciding for which ones to go for on my Clubsport (ended up with no.2 Pretorias which were a more expensive OEM option I hadn't ticked at purchase).

And now I fear it all comes back except it seems harder to pick one as some options look too race-y on this car (esp. no.3).  My original plan was to throw the Pretorias (no.2) on but also on the verge of whether it suits the car or not.

Strangely I like the Enigmas too. I never would consider such a design on older cars of mine but on the Superb there's something that seems to match. But as you say my thoughts are that they'll be a nightmare to clean. But probably they will not look so bad so quick as gloss black ones.

Like you, I'm currently looking to change the wheels on our Superb Sportline (Dragon Green) and initially thought I would go with something in Silver and Black/Grey to maintain a reasonably "factory" look , but have since made my mind up 90% towards something a bit more standout like the car, but we will be going 20".

 

Just waiting for ours to have the lowered springs put on next week before finally committing to a wheel choice and colour.

 

IMO, the Pretorias look nice though out of your choices.

On 14/01/2019 at 19:42, SteHaworth said:

Out of your choices I like these the best 

Like an obvious wig on a

cross dresser.

7 hours ago, SummersetBoy said:

Like you, I'm currently looking to change the wheels on our Superb Sportline (Dragon Green) and initially thought I would go with something in Silver and Black/Grey to maintain a reasonably "factory" look , but have since made my mind up 90% towards something a bit more standout like the car, but we will be going 20".

 

Just waiting for ours to have the lowered springs put on next week before finally committing to a wheel choice and colour.

 

IMO, the Pretorias look nice though out of your choices.

I hear you. It's a big car so even If I wouldn't go for 20" personally I don't think they will look out of place. Do you have a shortlist of possible options?  Also, which springs are you getting fitted?

Pretorias were supposed to be the solution so as not to enter another alloy seeking saga. I have them, I love their looks (not too race-y, not too typical) I'd swap them over and that's it. Then I realized they will be sitting 6mm more inside compared to stock, so I'd probably need to look for spacers and I've read stories about failed spacer hubs or vibrations/oscillations at certain speeds and I'd hate to have to deal with that, might just buy a suitable alloy instead.

However at the moment, I can't seem to find many options that I like, that are also lighweight and not too race-y. I fear this will come down to waiting for delivery, then putting Pretorias on to see how they look and take it from there...

Edited 16 January, 20197 yr by newbie69

24 minutes ago, newbie69 said:

I hear you. It's a big car so even If I wouldn't go for 20" personally I don't think they will look out of place. Do you have a shortlist of possible options?  Also, which springs are you getting fitted?

Pretorias were supposed to be the solution so as not to enter another alloy seeking saga. I have them, I love their looks (not too race-y, not too typical) I'd swap them over and that's it. Then I realized they will be sitting 6mm more inside compared to stock, so I'd probably need to look for spacers and I've read stories about failed spacer hubs or vibrations/oscillations at certain speeds and I'd hate to have to deal with that, might just buy a suitable alloy instead.

However at the moment, I can't seem to find many options that I like, that are also lighweight and not too race-y. I fear this will come down to waiting for delivery, then putting Pretorias on to see how they look and take it from there...

The springs are Eibach which weren't necessarily my first choice as I would've preferred H&R, but were all that were available anyway and they're still excellent quality. 

 

My choice for wheels is more limited because of the colour I'm fairly certain I'll choose, or even more so by the other option!

 

I've narrowed it down to either Japan Racing or Ispiri Flow Formed.

 

Whilst I'm not bothered by weight, a Superb is hardly a track veteran to begin with, the Ispiri are light(er) due to the process, it will ultimately come down to price and availability.

 

As for your Pretoria's and spacer's, a 5mm hubcentric quality spacer isn't likely to cause issues?

2 minutes ago, SummersetBoy said:

The springs are Eibach which weren't necessarily my first choice as I would've preferred H&R, but were all that were available anyway and they're still excellent quality. 

 

My choice for wheels is more limited because of the colour I'm fairly certain I'll choose, or even more so by the other option!

 

I've narrowed it down to either Japan Racing or Ispiri Flow Formed.

 

Whilst I'm not bothered by weight, a Superb is hardly a track veteran to begin with, the Ispiri are light(er) due to the process, it will ultimately come down to price and availability.

 

As for your Pretoria's and spacer's, a 5mm hubcentric quality spacer isn't likely to cause issues?

Ok a few things here:

1) Springs. Another member here put Eibachs on his 280 L&K DCC. Said it improved the handling but that Comfort mode became unusable. Not that he cared because even in Normal the car was pretty comfortable, just a side-effect of the change. I take this as a sign that the DCC calibration on the L&K was done (not surprisingly) towards comfort, hence with the 30mm drop, on the softest setting the car was "jumping" too much. Now Sportline sits already 10mm lower than L&K and ( this is only a guess ) the DCC should be tuned that bit tighter as manufacturers usually don't alter ride heights without matching the dampers characteristics. If my guess is true, then Eibachs will give a nice 15-20mm drop (as opposed to 25-30mm on L&K) but without hitting the bump stops in Comfort.

Not sure how H&R would differ to the Eibachs without comparing spring rates but I don't have those. From experience H&R would be firmer which may be ok on the Sportline as it's got plenty of "comfort" room to begin with but maybe a Sportline on Eibachs is already enough. At the moment Eibachs are also my choice unless someone in a Sportline specifically reports otherwise.

2) I would avoid anything JR. Questionable quality, and just copycats of all the popular designs at a cheap price, easy to see why they've become so popular. Nothing to do with Japan either, they are massively made in Taiwan.

3) The Superb may not be a track car but this doesn't mean that ,like every other car, it won't benefit from such a huge unsprung mass reduction. Stock alloys might be strong but they weigh 14.9kg, a lightweight aftermarket 19" is around 10kg or less so there's a great potential for improvement right there. In fact it's precisely a car with such heavy stock alloys that would benefit the most from going to a lightweight aftermarket, just the steering feel improvement alone is worth it, apart from the overall weight loss. I also plan to do a few other suspension mods like springs and arb so together with the lighter wheels it will all work together to improve agility, response and control.

4) Not sure if 5mm hubcentric exists, probably would go for 10mm to get a subtle 10-6 = 4mm push out compared to stock, always works well. Just realised there's another issue with Prets though. Hub caps are apparently larger on VW? So I'd have to somehow get  65mm Skoda caps too... pfff...
 

6 hours ago, newbie69 said:

Ok a few things here:

1) Springs. Another member here put Eibachs on his 280 L&K DCC. Said it improved the handling but that Comfort mode became unusable. Not that he cared because even in Normal the car was pretty comfortable, just a side-effect of the change. I take this as a sign that the DCC calibration on the L&K was done (not surprisingly) towards comfort, hence with the 30mm drop, on the softest setting the car was "jumping" too much. Now Sportline sits already 10mm lower than L&K and ( this is only a guess ) the DCC should be tuned that bit tighter as manufacturers usually don't alter ride heights without matching the dampers characteristics. If my guess is true, then Eibachs will give a nice 15-20mm drop (as opposed to 25-30mm on L&K) but without hitting the bump stops in Comfort.

Not sure how H&R would differ to the Eibachs without comparing spring rates but I don't have those. From experience H&R would be firmer which may be ok on the Sportline as it's got plenty of "comfort" room to begin with but maybe a Sportline on Eibachs is already enough. At the moment Eibachs are also my choice unless someone in a Sportline specifically reports otherwise.

2) I would avoid anything JR. Questionable quality, and just copycats of all the popular designs at a cheap price, easy to see why they've become so popular. Nothing to do with Japan either, they are massively made in Taiwan.

3) The Superb may not be a track car but this doesn't mean that ,like every other car, it won't benefit from such a huge unsprung mass reduction. Stock alloys might be strong but they weigh 14.9kg, a lightweight aftermarket 19" is around 10kg or less so there's a great potential for improvement right there. In fact it's precisely a car with such heavy stock alloys that would benefit the most from going to a lightweight aftermarket, just the steering feel improvement alone is worth it, apart from the overall weight loss. I also plan to do a few other suspension mods like springs and arb so together with the lighter wheels it will all work together to improve agility, response and control.

4) Not sure if 5mm hubcentric exists, probably would go for 10mm to get a subtle 10-6 = 4mm push out compared to stock, always works well. Just realised there's another issue with Prets though. Hub caps are apparently larger on VW? So I'd have to somehow get  65mm Skoda caps too... pfff...
 

1. Nothing to do with differing spring rates etc for me, I've previously had Eibachs on 3 or 4 cars and whilst very impressive on the first one, I've personally been less impressed with successive fitments, whereas H&R when I tried them were a great fit for what I was looking for. Either are quality options though, which is what I wanted on a nearly new car.

 

Time will tell!

 

2. It's difficult to really know who is copying who when it comes to wheel designs, as there seem to be very few fresh looks, so they generally seem to be based around the same few styles.

 

It's interesting you say about questionable quality with the JR's, and it's something for me to think about before placing any order as I've never had them before, but a couple of your choices look like being replicas of manufacturers oem  wheels and I know you have to be careful with where these are actually manufactured compared with what's claimed!

 

Interestingly, their website seems to point to Poland?

 

They certainly aren't a cheap option as there seems to be little difference in price between the JR's and the Ispiris, maybe £50'ish per wheel. They certainly aren't the eBay specials at circa £600 set.

 

A bit more research for me is needed.

 

Sadly, no one (local at least) holds any stock anymore, so it isn't easy to see any of them in person. I know the one place that is local to me that used to carry lots of different wheels, particularly for very high end cars, now carries much less, and have always claimed they designed and had made lot's of their stock, when the reality is that are simply cheap knock off wheels that are available all over the net significantly cheaper.

 

3. I've had OZ's (Superleggeras) previously, and you are right, you can feel the difference with a genuine lightweight wheel (at the time I owned an Ariel Atom as well, so was pretty obsessive about unsprung mass), but I stand by the fact a Skoda Superb doesn't justify seeking this sort of wheel out specifically.......it depends what your looking for.

 

4. Hubcentric maybe not, but certainly numerous top quality stud pattern specific spacers, rather than just multi drilled bits of cheap tin.

 

It sounds like you're making your own mind up gradually with the look and style you want though, and it's always best with mods to do your own thing and to hell with what others think, it's your car and your choice .

 

I know mine won't be to many others taste when I'm finished, as with at least one of my other current cars and plenty of my previous ones, but if I get to the end and i like it, I've succeeded , and if not, I can always get them redone for minimal cost.

 

Look forward to seeing yours finished, it's not an easy car to get stuff for as not many people choose them as projects.

Personally only had H&R in the past and they were up to the job, although a bit on the firm side, no experience with Eibachs but other owners with the same car reported less drop and less tight ride compared to H&R so given that I'm not going to be tracking this car I think they will be ok. In what way you were not impressed by Eibachs? Ride height or firmness? 

Regarding JR it's not so much the design copying but the low quality. Even a quick search on FB and car groups will bring up several cases of wrecked JR alloys and it's no surprise that their wheels lack any TUV certificate (the one advertised in their page is regarding the facility, which is something different. Every single wheel needs its own TUV certificate and JR don't have it). The company is Polish but wheels are made in whatever un-certified process in Taiwan. There's usually big discussions about them in car forums. I can understand a budget but tires and alloys are not something you want to go cheap. Funny thing is their prices have gone up lately exploiting their increasing market share with mostly unaware owners. No reason to even consider them at prices close to the Ispiris, those seem like a quality alloy.

I guess we agree on the benefits of the weight reduction especially via unsprung mass. I am a bit fussed about performance and for me the car is slow as stock. So extra power and reasonable weight reduction in the form of lighter wheels are an easy and obvious step. Not going to be removing seat benches and similar and if the car came with say 12kg alloys I would never bother switching to 10kg ones, But 15 freaking kg is enormous and it just cries out for improvement. Given that I am not particularly crazy about the stock alloys it's two birds with one shot. Who does not like a more lively steering? Coupled with springs and ARB it should get it closer to my past cars.

After all, not sure if people have checked the numbers, but a 280 hatch with lighter wheels and no spare will be a mere 30-50kg more than a Golf R, no reason why one can be hitting the track or at least driving pretty decently and the other one not. I guess the Superb's length makes people think of it as a 2-ton boat when it's nowhere near as bad.
 

33% saving on unsprung weight is significant. Like @newbie69 said, if going for a change anyway, might as well choose light weight wheels to take advantage. 

 

I think wheels are personal tastes so I didn't vote....

On 14/01/2019 at 20:20, newbie69 said:

On a second thought - and check - I think you might want to dig deeper into which alloy you're getting:

I just visited the UK configurator, there is no explicit option for the Supernova's colour (as wasn't in the Swedish one either) and if your car was similar to what is shown in the 3D rendered image below, according to my dealer this is the anthracite Supernovas:



 

My dealer got back to me today about the supernova wheel colour, here's what they messaged me

 

"Hi Stephen,

 

our Manager has had correspondence with Skoda in reference to your querie on the "colour of the Alloy wheel upgrade Supanova" two images attached and he has confirmed in e-mail below the colour difference.

 

SportLine and SportLine Plus come with the Vega wheel, which are anthracite:

Optional wheels on SportLine Plus are the Supernova in black:

This should answer the question.

Kind Regards"

 

and here are the two attachments

Edited 18 January, 20197 yr by SteHaworth

Clearly in that image the supernovas are gloss black, not anthracite as feared, And at first I thought I would question this further, but have decided that it will serve me better if the supernova wheels on my car come grey, I have it in writing that the wheels will be gloss black, if they're black then all is well, if they are grey it's on the boss at the dealership

Hi I've a superb l and k due for delivery 8th march 19.

Question on supernovas black or grey ,car is brilliant silver.

Any opinions welcome. 

David 

3 hours ago, SteHaworth said:

Clearly in that image the supernovas are gloss black, not anthracite as feared, And at first I thought I would question this further, but have decided that it will serve me better if the supernova wheels on my car come grey, I have it in writing that the wheels will be gloss black, if they're black then all is well, if they are grey it's on the boss at the dealership

If you mean in the image of the wheel alone then certainly they are black. What can I say, my dealer said they will be anthracite but that was to a quick question I asked him without further investigation/confirmation, the casual quick answer without thinking too much.

I have now sent him an e-mail asking to verify what the PJZ code refers to so that we have a definitive answer but he hasn't come back yet.

 

I hope your dealer is the right one in this case, although black or anthracite regardless, I will putting different wheels and tires on since day 1.

PS. After writing this message I thought of trying the German configurator hoping for more info on the alloys as in both the UK one and the Swedish one they only bother to write "19 Supernova alloys" on the Info button. However, hover the mouse over the same Info button on the German Skoda website and voila: "schwarz glanzgedreht"  (glossy black)    Seems your dealer was the right one then!

Hi,

 

If you're looking for glossy black 19" wheels, what about Phoenix ones (also called Trinity in France)?

 

Edited 18 January, 20197 yr by Bap33

On 16/01/2019 at 17:46, newbie69 said:

Personally only had H&R in the past and they were up to the job, although a bit on the firm side, no experience with Eibachs but other owners with the same car reported less drop and less tight ride compared to H&R so given that I'm not going to be tracking this car I think they will be ok. In what way you were not impressed by Eibachs? Ride height or firmness? 

 

As said, the first time I has them (Mk1 Seat Leon Cupra R) they were brilliant.......nicely lowered, improved the standard ride and made a big difference to handling. 

 

I know i then had them on two more cars but can only remember one, but do remember all the above never materialised.

 

It did make me question whether they were genuine Eibachs on the second car though as they were bought brand new via eBay UK but we're from a Polish dealer selling at a good enough reduction to make a difference, but not great enough to question authenticity.

 

Anyway, mine's being left at the garage tomorrow for fitting Monday so we'll see!

 

Btw, decision made and my wheels were ordered today after luckily getting a good discount. Ispiris won for me in the end as they were always my preferred choice as they sound like a quality product.

 

30 minutes ago, Bap33 said:

Hi,

 

If you're looking for glossy black 19" wheels, what about Phoenix ones (also called Trinity in France)?

 

Bonsoir,

Yes those would look nice on the Superb and if they were an option I would have chosen them over the Supernovas. I realized after photoshoping over 30+ different models  that either many thin spokes (like Phoenix/Trinity) or 5x twin spokes are the two best designs that work for me on this car. However, since the order is placed already I would never spend 1.1K eur (price from Skoda Shop) to get such heavy alloys as an aftermarket purchase.

After speaking with a few other people, I have made up my mind and really the solution is rather straight-forward  - have to thank @SummersetBoy for that!

I mean I already have a set of lightweight 19" alloys (only 9.6kg) in the colour and design I like: The Pretorias. The offset issue is easily solved by some 10mm quality spacers (hubcentric) and I would be good to go. Like that I wouldn't have to worry about selling two different sets (Supernovas AND Pretorias) and finding new ones that tick all the boxes ( relatively affordable, lightweight, in the designs that I like), seems like the way to go.

Edited 18 January, 20197 yr by newbie69