Berk Technology has been on a 1 year mission for a wheel manufacturer to step up and produce a 135i specific wheel for the 1er community. We are on our 4th set of wheels for our race car and we have tried about 10 different tire sizes & wheel combos in various permutations. That's my CV when it comes to knowledge in 135i wheel/tire fitments. I think we finally have reached our goal, we just need the backing of the 135i community to make sure these reach us in a timely manner! The more support we get the quicker this project will arrive on our doorsteps.
Enter Apex wheels......
We met up with Eddy of Apex wheels at Bimmerfest 2009. Apex has been producing BMW & Mini wheels for a few years now and we proposed the idea of making a 135i wheel for us. A few emails and phone calls later and Apex is now on board to produce us a 135i specific wheel!
A few manufacturers have attempted to use existing molds and just change the offsets but the unusually high offset that we require in the rear of the 135/128/120 necessitates a new wheel to be created from the ground up. The existing molds out there that are designed for lower offsets (30-45mm) simply don't have enough material built into them to shave the inner face/hub of the wheel to achieve the +60mm offset that the 135i NEEDS to have. Eddy & Apex will be designing this wheel from a clean sheet that will allow the wheels to be built with enough material and strength.
To reiterate, Berk Technology has tried more wheel and tire fitments and taken more measurements on the chassis than even the wheel manufacturers and here is what we've decided upon in conjunction with Apex wheels. This is what I believe would be the perfect setup for 95% of us and is as plug and play as possible for the performance orientated wheel/tire setup.
Front: 18x8.5 +38
Rear: 18x9.5 +62
The front wheel will allow us to use anything from the factory sized 215/40/18, all the way up to a 255/35/18.
The rear wheel will allow us to use anything from a skinny 235/40/18 all the way up to fat 265/35/18 or possibly 275/35/18 sized rubber with tons more grip!
So post your comments and questions here so we can all discuss!
The CAD drawings of the wheels:
Front - 18x8.5 +38
Rear - 18x9.5 +62
The actual GB thread is hereThis thread here is more of an open round table discussion.
http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=270937
Our car is currently on Dunlop Star Specs 255/35/18 front, 265/35/18 rear. (awesome tire BTW) Enkei 18x8.5 +38 with a 5mm spacer, 18x9.5 +58. With these Apex wheels we would have an additional 4mm of fender clearance and we just MIGHT be able to finally run a 275 in the rear!
