Lawrence L.

I'm was thinking that the A8 would look nice with a set of 18" wheels,

something similar to the design of the 17" sport rims that BMW offers on the 328i/3 coupes.

I like the fact that they give you a 'sunken' effect, not exactly deep-dish either though... the centre of the wheel is sunken deeper in than the actual rim of the wheel, unlke the flatness of the avus wheels

Bill Mills

It is my understanding that Ronal makes Audi's wheels i.e. they are the OEM, although the stock Audi wheels are not part of Ronal's aftermarket catalog so I could be wrong. You can email Gary@ronal.com to verify this. I have replaced the stock 5 spoke 16" wheels on my A8 with the 7 spoke 17" Ronal R-28. They look nice but they do not have the inset center. I believe BBS, as well as many others, make a wheel of the type you described but I don't know if there is a bolt pattern match to the A8's in that style BBS. You can find links to websites for wheel manufactures & retailers by clicking on "links", the button between "Clubs & Events" and "About Us" at the top of this page. These sites have images of the wheels they offer and some even have the ability to show them with the car although I have yet to see one of these sites that has the A8 as an option when it comes to selecting the car.

Bill Mills

Ronal does have models that offer the sunken center. The R-28 comes in two versions, one with spokes that are flush to the rim and one where they are sunken. This is the only "one piece" style wheel I noted on thier site that has the sunken center. The LX, LZ, SX and R-67 are the sunken style but are also multi piece wheels. The Ronal website indicates they are the OEM for Audi and BMW (as well as many other brands)

Bart A. Lane

Keep in mind that the sunken wall of the BMW comes because the axles are shorter.

Your Audi axles come out pretty far (which I believe to better for handling but not 100% sure on that.) so to create the sunken look you will have to extend the wheels farther towards the outside of the car, perhaps past the fender lip even. Unless the spokes curve deeply in once they leave the hub but that would possibly interfere with the brake calipers.

I ordered some BBS wheels, the picture I looked at showed a deep lip on the rims but when I got mine for my car they were nearly flat.

Cameron

Road: Ronal Wheels
Touring: O.Z. Racing
Rally: O.Z. Racing
TTD (Sweden): BBS

Jimmy Pribble

I think that Ronal is indeed the OEM for NA wheels, however, the Euro-only (so far) S6 Avus rims are made by Speedline, and I suspect that the S8 Avus rims are, too. Maybe some of the other Euro Audi rims are also Speedline.

My '93 UrS4 has Speedline rims as original equipment. Ironically, Speedline was OEM for my car, but there was a Euro-only 17" wheel option that was made by...Ronal!

As for the semi-deep "dish" look, I like that look too, but Bart is right, you have to be careful. I was looking at OZ Nova rims (see tirerack) for my S4. The photo shows a nice deep lip. Well, it turns out that the lip is ONLY on the 18" version, which is ONLY available to BMW 5, 7, and 8 series cars. The 17" version is flush to the edge of the rim. Had I not found that out, I would have been mightily disappointed when opened those boxes. BTW, I saw (and drove) an S4tt with the 17" OZ Novas this past weekend, and they still look good...just not AS good.

HTH,

Jimmy<ul><li><a href="http://www.urs4.com">UrS4.com</a></li></ul>

RichD

you are correct, Speedline makes the S8 wheel.

GusS

It doesn't say Ronal on my 17" A8 rims, though it does so on the 16" A4 7-spokes...