I wanted to provide a little background on my rationale for the change in wheels. Obviously, wheels are a pretty easy way to make a reasonably big change in a car's appearance, but it wasn't going to be something I was going to jump into right away, being more concerned with getting the car mechanically sorted first.

I did know that I wasn't a huge fan of the 15-hole wheels the car came with. Don't get me wrong - they're kind of cool, and very 80's, but overall I think the 8-hole wheels offer a similar character and feel in a better look. And I was pretty sure I wanted to do a Sportline chassis retrofit, so the 8-holes made a lot of sense, since they were original equipment for that package and the extra half-inch of width would allow for the use of Sportline-spec 205/60 tires, rather than the stock 195/65.

So, all of this was in my head before I even bought the car, and then I went and looked at the thing: it had Michelin tires, but they were not all the same tire! Nor were they all the same age. Now, I'm a huge tire snob - I've replaced OE tires on all my vehicles (including my trailer) and I even have two sets of wheels for my BMW (one for street and one for autocross) - so I knew this was going to be a problem for me. And it made sense to replace tires while I was having things like fluids and bushings replaced, in preparation for the 300-mile drive home.

Thing is, it really didn't make sense to put new 195/65 tires on when I was planning on replacing the wheels before too long, probably much sooner than the tires would be worn. So I bumped up my wheel-buying timeline, and started looking on eBay - and there was a dearth of decent-quality 8-hole wheels. I figured a could pick up a used set for $200-$300, but I only found one wheel that was acceptable cosmetically (it was in such good shape and there was only one because it was a spare, perhaps never even used).

I briefly flirted with the idea of AMG monoblocks. Gorgeous period wheels, in my opinion, and there were several vendors selling reconditioned sets out of Germany and Russia. But not cheaply! I really didn't want to spend $1800 on a set of used wheels for an old car, and I especially didn't want to send that kind of money to some Russian with pretty pictures, and maybe not much else.

Then I stumbled on the ASA Type 8's, which if you don't know are replicas of the Mercedes-Benz 8-hole wheel, offered in 15" and 16" sizes:


They seemed perfect - reasonably priced, unblemished 8-holes, plus I could get Tire Rack to mount tires on them at no additional cost and have the whole set shipped right to my car. I was originally going to get 15", in the interest of trying to duplicate the Sportline chassis as closely as possible, but it turns out there aren't any tires that interest me in the 205/60 size, and Tire Rack kept trying to sell me 195/65's - the same size that was stock on the slightly narrower 15-holes! So I stepped up to the 16" size for the much wider tire selection. 16" is still a pretty small wheel by today's standards, with plenty of sidewall, so I reckon the ride quality won't be affected too much, if at all (and honestly, I wouldn't mind a slightly sportier set up, I just don't want to totally kill the plush Benz feel).

For tires, I chose Continental PureContacts. German tires for German cars! Not really, as I'm pretty sure the tires aren't manufactured in Deutschland, but I wanted Contis because of my recent good experience with the ExtremeContact DWS 06 as the street tire on my BMW coupe. I was leaning towards buying another set of the DWS's, but stumbled on the PureContact, a grand touring all-season tire geared towards "luxury performance sedans" but also with Continental's EcoPlus tech for improved fuel efficiency - maybe I'm a sucker for copy writing, but it seemed like a perfect fit for my diesel Mercedes sedan.