Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Easy enough, I didn't want aftermarket, I wanted an OEM+ look with OE 20" staggered wheels, didn't want to run an E70 wheel as it wouldn't fit with my theme, etc.

My problem wasn't necessarily the older tires on the sets I was finding, it was that they were mismatched (I can't stand that, as we all know the tires should wear evenly and be replaced in sets, not pairs on our vehicles), or they were summers.

Did I mention all the OE style 168 or 87's I was finding were curbed, dinged up etc?

So I didn't want to spend 1000 on a used set of wheels, pay to have them refinished to my standard, then have to buy a new set of 20" tires and have mounted and balanced if the tires on the set were summers.

I'm very happy with the 1750 I've spent on the replica wheels, if I wanted true performance with my E53 I would have gotten light as hell forged aftermarket 18" wheels and ran 255-55-18 lightweight summer tires all around, and gotten a big brake kit on each corner to reduce unsprung weight.

My 3 ton SAV is just day driving cruiser however, its quick enough with my manny tranny for my needs and goes wherever it needs to go with my wheel/tire combo, so I'm satisfied.



The short story is, with my OEM+ theme I don't want someone to look at my X and say "That looks aftermarket", with all due respect Tiag although your wheels are lovely and very unique, something like that would not work for me, the wheels do look aftermarket and I like to fly a bit more under the radar. You look at 168's or 87's on other E53's, and you say to yourself, "yeah, those wheels came on other E53, they look nice on the 'normal' 3.0", thats what I was going for. Different, but still OEM.

Same reasoning for my choice in Titan silver trim as opposed to wrapping in Carbon Fiber.