Winter wheel and tire sizes for the M5
 

Apparently the M5's massive brakes make it difficult to fit anything under 20". Tirerack doesn't offer anything under 20".

There is a 19" BMW M5 wheel, however. Model 705M. It is sold in "Orbit Grey" as the default wheel for a base M5. Base M5's come fitted with 265/40 R19 for the front and 285/40 19 for the rear. The wheels are 9.5" and 10.5" wide respectively.

BMW recommends buying the 705M in "Ferric Grey" for winter tires. These wheels only come in the size of the front 9.5" wide wheels so that one can go with 265/40 R19 winter tires all around.

I really do prefer the orbit grey finish but unless I buy 4 new front wheels I will get a staggered set. I will likely not drive the car in real snow. This video shows just how good the MPS All-Season 4 are in all but the worst of winter. So how bad can a staggered set of winter tires be?


Realistically, I could buy used from this place (seems to have good reviews), and get:

Used set of Ferric Grey square setup with used winter tires already mounted, or

Used set of staggered Orbit Grey with summer tires mounted that I can burn through.

Any thoughts are welcome.

The BMW tire recommendations are intended to allow for the installation of snow chains. That's why they are generally extremely undersized and goofy looking.

Staggered is fine. Imperfect? Sure, but not a real issue.

I have the Michelin All Seasons on staggered 20s (and my car is AWD). Have not seen snow yet with them but I imagine they would handle decently well.

I had the same tires on my 2 RWD series with LSD and 18s non-staggered, and they did slip as I made turns going up inclines when it encountered snow here a couple of times. So, not super confidence inspiring. (Atlanta is relatively hilly and all the roads are windy.)

AWD should help with the incline/turn part. But, if I lived further north and had to face regular snow, I'd run the All Seasons most of the year and swap to Winters for the coldest/snowiest months.

Thanks for the input. Oh and winter tires for the M5 sizes are crazy-expensive. Like $300-$380 each-expensive.

My takeaway from that video is a bit different, I guess. The truly awful performance of the summer tires kind of overshadows just how big a difference there is between the all seasons and the winter tires, but a 20 second gap on a 1 minute course is immense.

This video suggests to me that if you’ve got an AWD car in a place where it only snows occasionally (like DC), you can probably get away with the Michelin all seasons all year round.

But if you’re going to the trouble and expense of buying a whole separate set of wheels and tires for when it snows and you live somewhere that it snows routinely, I would definitely get the snow tires. And yeah I hear you about not meaning to drive the car when it snows a lot, but again if you’re spending the money and effort why not get the specialized tools that actually work? That way you don’t have to stress if you get caught in a storm somewhere, and you have more flexibility if you need to use the car.

I don’t disagree. The plan is to get performance winters.

That said, the test took place on a snow packed circuit.

Unrelated but wow:

https://rennlist.com/forums/992/1327...l#post18492764

Naturally, P-Zeros are not meant to be used in winter, btu it seems they are even worse than other summer tires. More likely to crack in cold weather just from storage. I noticed they were bad the other day when I drove them M5 in 39F. I didn't expect them to be good. But they were far worse than other summer tires at those temperatures.

Found the OG reddit thread. That’s totally nuts.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Audi/s/KzSPloHpTW

There’s even a disclaimer on Tire Rack about the PZ4s.

Also the idea that there are tires that cannot even be *parked* outside at temps below 45 degrees is asinine.

Funny, I just edited my post after finding similar info. And I have three sets all living in an unheated (though very well insulated garage). I just came in from starting the 240V space heater until the garage got up to 45F. I really need to install a mini-split there.

I recall Michelin having similar warnings about sub 30F temps. Sub 45F is insane.

When you say a split are you referring to a ductless system ?

I have a crazy heater in my garage hooked up to a thermostat and it keeps the garage as warm as you want and heats super fast. I don’t know if the ductless systems could keep up especially on days like today.

I don’t know if this is the exact model I have but it sure looks like it

https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/m...iABEgJ0y_D_BwE