Project E90 M3: Part 4 – Wheels and Tires

Project E90 M3 Part 4 Wheels and Tire Cover

Choosing a tire is one of the most important decisions that anyone will make for their car. Since our M3 is a daily driver in Florida, wet-weather performance is very important along with excellent dry grip and stability for spirited driving, which is a prerequisite for an M3.  To give our car a more sporty appearance, we turn to VMR Wheels for a set of competition inspired 19” V703 wheels to replace our standard 19” wheels wrapped in Continental’s ExtremeContact DW tire.  We then head to Palm Beach International Raceway to log some laps to see how the new package performs.

If you follow Project E90 M3, you know that we focused on power without much attention to the car’s cosmetics.  While we have increased the 4.0L V8’s power by 51whp over stock with test pipes and a tune; we now turn our attention to improve the M3’s aesthetics with a set of sporty “CSL”-style 19-inch VMR V703 (aka: VB3) wheels and pushed them out with a set of Turner Motorsport (TMS) wheel spacers.  Since our tires are bald, it was also time to get some new rubber with Continental ExtremeContact DW tires.

Base wheelOur 2009 E90 M3 is very stock in appearance, down to the factory 19-inch 220M wheels.
Base wheel rearViewing the car from the rear, the factory wheels do not have an aggressive offset, especially at the front which is quite inset from the outer edge of the fender.
Worn TiresWhile the 2009 M3 with the optional 19-inch 220M wheels were factory equipped with Continental ContiSport Contact 3 tires, our M3 was shod in Continental’s ExtremeContact DW, which have proven to be a fantastic tire, but ours were in desperate need of replacement.
Wheels PorchAs a car guy, it always feels like Christmas when you see boxes of car parts on your front porch.

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