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T H E W H E E L S
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The GTV/Spider comes originally equipped with 205/50 tyres on 16"
rims (some are delivered with 195/60/15 – yak!), but it definitely
deserves something else.
 The ultimate Alfa rim, is in my opinion
the ones made by German company
Zender especially for Alfa. The old "Milano"
–
now deleted – and the "Siena" are both looking excellent on most
Alfa models. They both come in 17" and 18", although the 18" with
225/40 rubber looks definitely best. Together with a 30mm lowering,
this looks excellent, but it suffers a bit in comfort
on sharp bumps. Also beware that a 18" set will be adding a good
deal of weight to your Spider resulting in poorer speed. Guess you can’t
have it all…
Tire pressure
Tire pressure on your GTV/Spider
should be 2.7 bar front and 2.5 bar rear. For high speed driving:
front 3.0 bar, rear 2.8 bar. Remember to check pressures while the
tires are cold. Surveys done by Dunlop show that at least 25 per
cent of all tires examined are under-inflated by more than 10%!
Bolts and things
The GTV/Spider rims uses 5 x 98mm bolts.
Bolt size is 12×1,25mm. The center hole is 58,1mm. Original offset
depth (ET) is 35mm and EU regulations says +- 15mm, but
with an ET larger than 40 mm, the wheels will probably sit in too
deep, and cause problems with the discs or rub against the inside
of your wheel arches.
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Actual speed or just happy
reading?
The speedometer is
notoriously known to give you a too high reading, – in worst
cases up to +10% – but by changing the tire size you could
actually end up getting a none intentional speeding ticket. So if you’re planning on a
new set of wheels, check how your speedo reading will change with a different
tire option.
What tyre size
should you use on… |
| 15"
rim |
16"
rim |
17"
rim |
18"
rim |
195/60/15
[1932mm] |
205/50/16
[1920mm] |
215/45/17
[1964mm] |
225/35/18
[1931mm] |
|
225/45/16
[1912mm] |
215/40/17
[1897mm] |
225/40/18
[2001mm] |
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235/40/17
[1947mm] |
235/35/18
[1953mm] |
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245/35/17
[1895mm] |
245/35/18
[1975mm] |
For more info on wheels and tyres in general, try the
excellent
Wheel & Tyre Bible.
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![Alfa Spider w/ Zender Siena 18" wheels](javascript:ViewImage('images/alfa_spider_2001_3_700.jpg',700,450,'Alfa Romeo Spider w/ Zender Siena 18" wheels'))