>This seems clearly to go against the spirit of the rules however, I can
>see how the rules could be interpreted in this way.
Unfortunately they cannot. The general idea of stock class rules is that the
car has to be as it was available from the factory except for the parts that
are deemed free in the rules. In other words, if you car came stock with
17x7.5F and 17x8.5R then you have to run it that way, except for the 1/4"
offset allowance. If your car came standard with 16x7" wheels and there was a
standalone *factory* option for the 17s, then you could run either. But if it
is a dealer installed option, no dice. Similarly if the wheels came with some
other option package, you would have to retrofit the car so that every option
was identical to how you could have bought it from the factory, unless the
other differences are free parts in the rules. This is why the WRX's can't run
the 17" wheels, because they are dealer installed. And that has been tested.
The only other choice you might have is that some E46 3 series came with 17x8s
all around, but you'd have to check if those were available standalone on your
car.
The same thing goes for pretty much all the rest of the rules. If you couldn't
get it from the factory, you can't run it. The new MINI is very nicely
configured for autoxers because all the options that make up the packages are
also available as standalone factory options. So you have your choice of 15 or
16" wheels for the Cooper, 16 or 17" wheels for the Cooper S, no matter what
other options you have.
Now, to your question of finding lightweight wheels, it is true there are not
many in that size, offset and bolt pattern. I ran a '99 Z3 2.8 Coupe for 2
years and faced a similar problem. About the only available rim that's lighter
than stock is the BMW factory forged LTW wheel that was an option on the E36 M3
from I think '96 or '97 on. The '95 M3 LTW had forged wheels that looked just
like these, but they were 7.5" wide all around. On the later cars they were
available as an option in the staggered sizes. I have them on my Coupe now,
which I no longer autox, and I believe they are about 19lbs F and 21lbs R, not
that light but a good 4 pounds or so lighter than the cast BMW wheels.
I bought my set on eBay a long time ago, you might check if anyone has them.
Here is an example of what it looks like:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2400334541&category=33748
Good luck,
Peter
|