Winter Tire/Wheel question for Gary

[BimmerESQ]

Im sure questions like these have been posted non-stop lately, but I was thinking of getting the Blizzak LM-22 RFT, 205/55 16s, and the Borbet Type CA 16x7 rims for winter use on my 2006 325i Sport. I live on Long island in NY, and we sometimes get a decent amount of snow, but nothing crazy, and I dont want to sacrifice too much handling in non snow conditions.

Is this a good combo? I should have no problem with these fitting on car, even though from factory is staggered setup and bigger wheels?

Also, when would be a good time to change to the winter tires? We probably wont have first real snowfall (hopefully) until late dec/jan, but Ive heard that summer performance tires will not grip well in cold weather even absent the snow.

Also, would you happen to know the measurement of the Borbet Center cap on the wheel? I was thinking about getting BMW adhesive emblems or center caps to stick on there.

I realize this is alot of questions, but I would really appreciate any help/advice you could give me. Thanks so much in advance for any help/advice you can give.

Chris :)

[Gary@Tirerack]

Im sure questions like these have been posted non-stop lately, but I was thinking of getting the Blizzak LM-22 RFT, 205/55 16s, and the Borbet Type CA 16x7 rims for winter use on my 2006 325i Sport. I live on Long island in NY, and we sometimes get a decent amount of snow, but nothing crazy, and I dont want to sacrifice too much handling in non snow conditions.

Is this a good combo? I should have no problem with these fitting on car, even though from factory is staggered setup and bigger wheels?

Also, when would be a good time to change to the winter tires? We probably wont have first real snowfall (hopefully) until late dec/jan, but Ive heard that summer performance tires will not grip well in cold weather even absent the snow.

Also, would you happen to know the measurement of the Borbet Center cap on the wheel? I was thinking about getting BMW adhesive emblems or center caps to stick on there.

I realize this is alot of questions, but I would really appreciate any help/advice you could give me. Thanks so much in advance for any help/advice you can give.

Chris :)

You want them on for the snow of course, but its hard to say when the best time to install them would be. I put mine on when the average high temps start to get consistantly low enough for snow to be a threat, say in the Mid 40's. I realize this is vague but there is not a concrete answer. At that point many summer performance tires will start to lose some grip.

This setup you described does indeed fit the car with no problems. Going to 205/55R16 and eliminating the stagger is pretty common to use for winter packages. There are Q rated tires available that are better in snow than the H/V rated performance snow tires that you selected, but these will give up some dry handling to get that better snow capability. A bit more info can be had in the snow tire sticky here :

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112228

Unfortunately BMW caps do not fit this wheel.. Although I don't have a measurement on the center caps, I've heard of some guys buying roundel stickers from BMP or Bavauto. Just measure the caps when the wheels arrive to best decide which size sticker to buy.

[BimmerESQ]

Thank you so much for the info and your quick response! Im going to have to buy these soon, as the temp seems to be continually dropping. Thanks again! :)