I recently decided to find a replacement wheel for the set that came on my brothers car. one rim was badly damaged and was taken to the scrap yard. My Dad put regular 15's on the car and the other three 17'' wheels went in to the shed. Thanks to some help on this forum i determined the wheels to be style 47's 8x17. They are not OEM wheels but are very similar in style and quality seems good.
The problems came when trying to locate said size style 47.The replica wheel is all but non-existent. The style 47 did come stock on the z3 coupe but in a 7x16 size. i tried contacting the dealer to see if they could search through their database for style 47 and give me the part number for the 8x17 variety. No, to do that id need the VIN the wheels came stock to or the actual part number. i began to consider finding a shop to remake a wheel from one of the remaining wheels. Luckily i found the correct part number for the wheel. the wheel didnt come as an option for US cars only European. so i called the dealership to see price on the wheel.
$329 for one wheel! i did not order the wheel yet and am seriously considering if i should. for a little more i could find a decent set of 4 rims but on the other hand... how many people are actually running style 47's? as far as i know 1 person has them on a ti but in the 7x16 size.
I really do like the wheel style but the ones i have would need to be refinished.
What do you guys think? Go for it and be one of a very few to run style 47's on a US e36 let alone ti? or just leave them and find another set of 17's somewhere else.
Here are some pics of one of the wheels.
link to oem pic
http://www.k-lach.net/