PaulW

I'm an A8'r here, but thought you guys might like to see these wheels. I bought them off a guy who bought an A6 4.2, took them off and put on the BBS spoke wheels, but he had them chromed. Bad choice in my opinion.

I had the 16" stock A8 wheels (five spoke) on my A8. Wanted more performance and looks. Got these wheels but had to determine what size tire to put on the wheel.

To maintain the OD of the stock A8 wheel (16", 17" and 18" S8" wheels all have same O.D., which is much bigger than a 255/40/17, which came on the A6 4.2.

After a lot of research, I determined a 245 width is better than a 255 width for the 8" wide wheel, and to keep the stock OD of the A8, the tire size would have to be 245/50/17.

The only ultra high performance tire in that size is a pirelli Pzero Asymetrical. Bought two off of ebay and two off of Just Tires with road hazard. The rest below is a previous post of mine:

BTW, the car handles like it is on a rail now! The tires are awesome!
So I bought two tires for my new wheels on ebay. Got them from a guy in NJ who says he is selling them for a friend. I think he got them as take-offs from somewhere and sold them on ebay, he has had a couple auctions for various tires.

I bought the Pirelli Pzero asymetricals. It's the only ultra high performance tire that comes in this size, 245/50/17. The wheel originally came with 255/40/17 for the A6 4.2. However, I decided to go with the 245 width because a 255 should go on a 8.5" wide rim, it's not really recommended for a 8" rim.

I just dropped them off at the tire dealer to have them mounted and balanced. I was careful to speak with the monkey lad (I hope he isn't one, but he's about 18!) and showed him how to mount the tires, there is an inner and outer, that's why they are called asymetrical. They actually run opposite rotation on each side of the car. I also informed him NOT TO SCRATCH THEM! I'll almost be surprised if they don't. Can't wait to see them!

That tire and size comes stock on the Jaguar XK8 coupe and convertible. Just figured that out yesterday. That's probably where these came from.

So I'm dying to buy the other two, here's the prices:

Tire Rack: $221 each about $10 shipping each
NTB Local: $329 each without mounting or road hazard
Just Tires Local: $260 each, but you can always talk them down, road hazard $26 each, with tax about $308 each.
Discount Tire Local: $228 each, asked about road hazard, quoted $579 out the door for two with road hazard and tax, that's $289.50 each.

I'm either going to try like hell and find two tires on some kind of Jaguar or wheel site in the next two weeks and see if I can get them cheap, or flip for the new tires with road hazard, you never know when something might happen! :-)

The first two tires I got for $188 plus shipping, $225 Total for both!

So my total cost for wheels/tires (and I thought I did it the cheap route!)

A6 4.2 forged wheels: $800
Two Pirelli Pzero's on ebay: $225
Mounting and balancing: $41.00
Two new tires with road hazard: $579

Grand Total: $1,645

I guess looking back at it, $400 dollars a wheel for forged wheels and tires that cost $225 each is a damn good deal, but you have to be ready to fork it over.

I might not be like all A8 owners here, bought it used and cheap, looks as good as new, am 36, work for myself and developing a business, still work on my own car....you get the picture, I don't have the money that somebody would who might buy a brand new A8 or S8.

This is one thing I'm glad I spent my money on!

Will post pictures of the car as soon as I get them on, which won't be long. Won't miss those Blizzaks!

Ye Hah!

pw<ul><li><a href="http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/iwantpaulw/lst?.dir=/a8+wheels&.view=t">A8 with A6 4.2 wheels</a></li></ul>