New wheels

[mozzzy_2000]

Hey peeps. As mentioned previously I thought I'd post some pics up of my new set of 'shoes'. I'm going all Italian footwear. What I have put on is a set of OZ Bottecelli Crystal Titanium/Silver 17"x*8 rims ET35 5x100PCD. Squeezed onto these are 205/40/17 Marangoni Zeta Linea tyres but as you can see, these tyres stretch very well and look bigger than most 205s. Anyway here's some pics;

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/08/1403090111-1.jpg

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/08/140309013_blanked-1.jpg

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2009/08/140309012_blanked-1.jpg

[OscarJ]

Looks good! Especially on a red car.

[mozzzy_2000]

Yeah cheers. I must admit I am pretty stoked at the overall results. I love how much chunkier the rear looks npw. Those rims really fill it out in that department.

[philthy]

They look real nice. Love the rear three quarter piccy,

[VWindahouse]

Very, very nice! They fill the guards really well, congrats mate :banana:

Notice any difference with cornering?? Better with the much wider stance??

[Kiel_GTI]

Looks awesome mate,

just need some euro plates now :)

[OscarJ]

Yeah cheers. I must admit I am pretty stoked at the overall results. I love how much chunkier the rear looks npw. Those rims really fill it out in that department.

What suspension are you running? lowered 35mm?

[VWindahouse]

What suspension are you running? lowered 35mm?

Yes mate it's in his sig; H&R springs which are 35mm drop and Bilstein shocks

[seangti]

that looks sensational. very tidy with indeed.

[Petrina Polo]

I have to applaud the originality.

Wheels are very subjective, personally, I think your wheels look good, even better because they are original and different to what most would fit.

I really love the way mine looks at moment with Kura Intake wheels 18s.

[mozzzy_2000]

Cheers all for the comments! In regards to handling, to be honest not a lot feels different and if I am being truly honest I am slightly underwhelmed so far with these Marangoni's. But having said that I haven't put many kms on them so perhaps they will improve? But at the moment the car doesn't have the grip that the Dunlop SportMaxx provided previously which supprises me as I have added a couple of inches to the footprint. So I am just hoping these tyres come up to scratch as they wear in. They have zero straightline grip in the wet its just not funny. Oh well I guess.

Oh I should add if anyone is wondering but I bought these from TireRack.com in the USA and they cost just under $1600 landed for the 4 wheels. So that worked out to be less than $400 a wheel which is expensive but no where near the cost they are in Perth. Get this; there is only one PZ distributer in Perth, Barbagallo's and they quoted me approx $800 A WHEEL!!! Yikes!

[Gti Dave]

Hey Mozzy, the sportmaxx 205/40/R17 that I've got wrapped wround the Exor STP wheels have so far served me well and wheelspins no where near as much as before. So far so good and very happy with them. From what you're saying with the marangoni's I'll most likely stick with the sportmaxx tyres next time round. By the way, your new wheels look awesome and the stretched tyres give it the style that seems to be quite popular now in the UK (I think).

[mozzzy_2000]

Yeah cheers Dave. I'd go as far and say cornering and therefore sideways grip is superior to the Sportmaxx so you can corner super fast but in a straight line & in the rain yesterday left me spinning the wheels into 2nd gear and that just did not happen with the sportmaxx. You could drive probably upto about 75-80% of the cars potentional without ever breaking traction in the rain so I am just hoping these maragoni's get better with some Kms on them.

By the way the stretch dooesn't look too bad does it? Those 205s should actually be on 7.5" rim but they do say an 8" is maximum fittment so thats why they don't look too stretched. At least I don't think they do.

[VWindahouse]

Don't worry too much, they will wear in in time! It took my Goodyear Eagle
F1's ages to reach their full potential. Especially when hammering off the mark in a straight line. All good now but :banana:

[Whubbsie]

maybe it's just the photos but your tyres look like hey have more stretch than mine.

[Petrina Polo]

my tyres appear to have less grip than the stock dunlops despite being one size wider. Maybe tyre compound.

[noone]

Didn't you get Nexen's or something basic Petrina?

I'm not surprised you have less grip, the Conti's are a reasonably good tyre, to replace them with something cheap is likely to reduce traction.

[mozzzy_2000]

Yeah I still on the fence with these Marangoni's. I must admit though they do seem to getting a bit better the more I drive on them but geez any sign of a wet road, look out! They are very much a 'summer' tyre. Infact I don't know how some of you guys over east, where its usually wetter than Perth, like them so much cuz they seem to be really dreadful in the wet.

What gets me is that I have actually increased the width of the footprint by 3 inches yet there is not as much traction as the sportmaxx on much smaller rims. Hmmm..maybe more time is needed as suggested. I bloody hope so!

[Gti Dave]

Yeah cheers Dave. I'd go as far and say cornering and therefore sideways grip is superior to the Sportmaxx so you can corner super fast but in a straight line & in the rain yesterday left me spinning the wheels into 2nd gear and that just did not happen with the sportmaxx. You could drive probably upto about 75-80% of the cars potentional without ever breaking traction in the rain so I am just hoping these maragoni's get better with some Kms on them.

By the way the stretch dooesn't look too bad does it? Those 205s should actually be on 7.5" rim but they do say an 8" is maximum fittment so thats why they don't look too stretched. At least I don't think they do.

Nah mate they look awesome. Definately gives it the complete euro styling look.

[pixl]

What gets me is that I have actually increased the width of the footprint by 3 inches yet there is not as much traction as the sportmaxx on much smaller rims.

http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible_pg2.html

Because it's a long page, Find text with "fat or thin" -- such a great site, learnt so much from it.

[Y2008]

Oh I should add if anyone is wondering but I bought these from TireRack.com in the USA and they cost just under $1600 landed for the 4 wheels. So that worked out to be less than $400 a wheel which is expensive but no where near the cost they are in Perth. Get this; there is only one PZ distributer in Perth, Barbagallo's and they quoted me approx $800 A WHEEL!!! Yikes!

How did you go about the shipping and tax? Do they ship to Australia?

[PA77ON]

are you selling the std gti wheels??

[mozzzy_2000]

Sorry guys been a busy week. Well all up at the time of exchange rate, the total landed price worked out to be about $1595. What we did to avoid any chance of getting slugged import duties for being over $1000AUS was to split the packages into 2 wheels each and I sent one pack to a mates house & one to me. Easy as pie! But to break it down the wheels themselves were about $1100 and so the postage was about $500. Now that seems like heaps for shipping but you should see how large the 2 packages were! Massive.

No I don't have any plans to sell the stock rims as yet. Not sure what I will do with those but I have flirted with the idea of putting them back on whilst its still raining here. Those Marangonis actually make me feel unsafe in the wet and I really think they should not be used in winter to be honest. But ESP keeps everything in check I guess but geez if it wasn't for the ESP I may not be talking to you at this moment in time. You live & learn as they say! lol

[Y2008]

was the ordering process easy...did u need to go through any special processes to be able to have them split it into two packages and get them to ship to australia and so on?

[mozzzy_2000]

No the only issue I had with them was that for some strange reason Tirerack don't accept mastercard or visa from Australian customers. They only accept Amex or a bank/wire transfer. They said they are unable to verfiy personal details with mc & visa and since they have had heaps of fraudulent purchases in the past they will only do Amex or bank transfers. So if you can do that its no problem. Just tell them you wanna split the packages if the total value of the wheels themselves are over $1000. Don't include the postage in that value remember, its solely the value of goods. And besides there are a tonne of other wheels that are cheaper than what I got and so you wouldn't have to worry about import duties in the first place. But with OZ they are generally pretty pricey and mine where on the bottom scale of price. There are some cheaper still but most are more than what mine cost especially the spoked ones that are very popular.
Just remember though that if you split them up you do pay a bit extra for the 2 packages but its less than what you would get slugged if you were charged import duties on one package of 4 wheels.

[Alcip]

Mozzy,
Congratulations on the new wheels.Your new wheels are 17"x8,right?Do you have any problems fitting the new wheels at the rear side since you have the Whiteline Rear Sway Bar,such as scrubbing against the RSB?
I'm planning to get a 17"x8 wheels too and I also have the Whiteline RSB.I'm afraid that they might scrub against each other.
Thanks.

[Whubbsie]

Mozzy,
Congratulations on the new wheels.Your new wheels are 17"x8,right?Do you have any problems fitting the new wheels at the rear side since you have the Whiteline Rear Sway Bar,such as scrubbing against the RSB?
I'm planning to get a 17"x8 wheels too and I also have the Whiteline RSB.I'm afraid that they might scrub against each other.
Thanks.
It won't I was running the same with RSB no issues at all highest offset I ran was +35

[Alcip]

Thanks for the reply Whubbsie,
What if the offset is 38?Would it be a problem?
Thanks

[mozzzy_2000]

yeah they are 17x8" ET35 and no they don't scrub on anything at all. Actually there seems to be tonnes of room in the rear wheels and the only thing stopping you going wider still is the wheel arches. Having seen the results with a 205/40 tyre I'd say that with these wheels you would just be able to get a 215/40 on without any scrubbing but I'd say it would be only mms from that occuring. Its really the front wheels that are of concern as there is not as much room as in the rear.

[Whubbsie]

Thanks for the reply Whubbsie,
What if the offset is 38?Would it be a problem?
Thanks

Untested by me but I think someone else on here had 8s at +38 but yeah can't say for certian if they will be fine.

If they don't work you can always strap on some 5mm spacers they are cheap and you can probably get away with using the original bolts.
I was running +19 at the rear and only scrubbing on really tight corners 5mm spacers wil bring you down +33 which you won't have any problems with.

[Alcip]

Actually my main concern is whether the width of the rims is going to disturb the RSB or not.Hopefully they won't.
Thanks for the info.

[GTIJNR]

NIce job, looks great.
However stretch tyre will never give proper grip, just looks at one of the drift car, don't blame those maragoni yet lol. Maybe increase a bit more pressure to get the middle tread to contact.

[mozzzy_2000]

Yeah I was kinda thinking perhaps the stretch was affecting it but I don't think it is. They're just not that stretched and its within the Marangoni fitment guidelines for the size of tyre. A 7.5" wide rim is the ideal fit according to them so I wouldn't have thought an 8" rim would make too much of a difference. In regards to contact on the ground there is plenty and there is no distortion or uneveness to the footprint.

These tyres are getting better the more time on them. Its just that they're pretty crappy in the wet thats all and are definately a summer only tyre I think. But in the dry they are pretty good & are becoming comparable to the sportmax in grip but I just feel that they are just not quite as good. Simple as that really. Though they are pretty cheap on the pocket so I guess you get what you paid for.

The only other factor that may be playing a part in this traction issue is that these wheels & tyres are substantially lighter than the stock wheels & tyres and my theory is that this could be translating to more torque being applied to the wheel causing it to loose traction. There is also some torque steer evident which wasn't apparant before I put these wheels on & so I think I maybe onto something there.

And from as far as I can tell in terms of rim clearance, these rims do not rub against the whiteline RSB.