Bl4ckwing Duck
Member
Hello All - I finally got the time to wash my car after having my new VMR V802 anthracite wheels installed.
I’m hopeful this post can answer the questions I had throughout this process for others.
My car came with the 18” OEM set of the satin black wheels with the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires which are:
Front
18 x 9 et 28
255/35
Rear
18 x 9.5 et 48
275 x 35
The first thing I did after buying my car (CPO with 12,000 miles) just before winter in NY was order some winter tires. They were hard to find in the unique size but were totally necessary. The stock tires were rock hard as soon as it got below 40 or 50 degrees. Tire rack was completely sold out but I was able to find a set that I could make work from Costco. I had the winter tires swapped onto the OEM wheels.
Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 Studless Snow Tires:
Front
255/35
These match stock tires.
Rear
265/35
These are skinnier than the stock tires but I was fine with this for a winter setup. I’m not sure if they sell the appropriate width or if I just couldn’t find an available pair. They worked great all winter and will go back on come fall/winter this year.
Costco wouldn’t mount these for me because they didn’t match OEM spec, but I had it done at a local shop with no issue.
Once I had a full winter set the search began for another set of wheels to use with the OEM tires as my full summer set.
I really like the style of the bronze OEM wheels, but I’m definitely not a fan of bronze wheels on a blue car. I considered buying a pair of the tech bronze wheels and having them refinished, but they are wildly expensive. I considered even taking the risk of buying replicas on Alibaba but that was around the time all the trump China tariffs kicked off. There are a few manufacturers that sell similar looking designs so I decided I would go that route to keep an OEMish look.
I had VMRs that I bought used on my BMW for the last 10 years and didn’t have any issues so I decided I would be a “repeat” customer if they had something that worked.
I was on the fence between the look of the flow formed V802s and the Forged V902s. Although I was leaning toward the fully forged option I thought they looked a little thin/light for the robust look of the 4BW. What ultimately made the decision for me was that the 902s did not come in the sizes I needed to stick with the OEM 18” tires.
There wasn’t much information available on sizing when I was looking to purchase wheels to use with the 18” OEM tires but Brandon from VMR (Velocity Motoring) was incredibly helpful in the process.
VMR didn’t offer the exact size wheel to match the unique 4BW OEM tire sizes. What I ended up going with was a square wheel setup with the staggered width OEM tires. All four wheels are 18x9.5 et 35. The fronts are 1/2” wider than stock which still let me use the OEM tires with a minor amount of stretch. Once these tires need to be replaced I may try to find wider ones for the fronts.
The offset ends up with a more aggressive stance which I like but caused some issues that needed to be worked through. Again Brendan from VMR was very helpful with this as was my local tire shop. My local shop was also patient which was very helpful!
The rear wheels are offset 11mm less than stock and sit slightly wider which I like. These installed nice and easy with no rubbing or fitment issues.
Originally I agreed with Brendan to try a 10mm hubcentric spacer along with some deeper milling for the lugs on the fronts to get the slightly wider stance I was looking for, but with that large of a spacer, the new lug nuts that came with the spacers did not have enough thread exposed to safely install the the fronts.
12mm C8 Corvette Camaro Hub Centric Wheel Spacers 1/2 Inch 5x120 66.9
Going with some trial and error I ordered 8MM spacers.
Amazon.com
With the 8MM I was able to get the wheels put on at the shop and had just enough thread for the lug nuts to secure the wheels.
After accounting for the change in wheel diameter and difference in offset. Those sit nicely as well a little wider than OEM. They just clear on the inside and have no issues fully turning the wheels even with everyday driving.
I know the changes I made probably aren’t improving the driving experience, but for me how it looks is more important on a daily basis. I trust the Cadillac Engineers knew what they were doing, so If I were to ever track the car I would get a third setup that better matches OEM spec specifically for that purpose.
Although I’ve been driving in the limited thread engagement with no issue for the last few weeks, I’m still not comfortable with how little thread is engaged so I ordered a new set of bolts that I still need to have swapped out, but I don’t know if that will give me future trouble when I go to put the winter setup with the OEM wheels back on. I think the extended thread lugs that came with the 10MM spacers should make the longer bolts work with the OEM wheels.
Dorman Wheel Stud 610-428.1
The thread below was also helpful for me in this process, and was my inspiration for writing this detailed post to hopefully help others.
Winter Wheels and Tires for CT4-V Blackwing
In addition to the wheels and tires info, I couldn’t live without finding a way to get OEM Cadillac crest/shield (which is it?) center caps to work despite having a different center hub size. I saw in another thread someone tried to make an adapter by cutting out Cadillac sized (66.72mm) holes in BMW sized (68mm OD/66.5 ID/clips) center caps. After scouring the internet for aftermarket caps in the size I needed that matched the OEM look with no success, I opted to go the custom adapter route as well.
ebay.us
I used a 2-1/4” hole saw to cut out the center of the friendly priced bmw center caps to receive the Cadillac center caps. Because the clips are meant for a deeper engagement, like the other thread I saw I needed to glue the Cadillac caps into the homemade adapters. The user who wrote the other thread used Hot glue but I opted to go with gel style crazy glue which worked well and a few weeks later now are still on the car with no issue.
A few bonus pics with my previous car that I refuse to sell.
2011 BMW 328i E90 m-sport 6MT Lemans Blue
I bought it new in 2010 and haven’t found a car suitable to replace it until I found this wave blue 4BW. The BMW has 19” VMR V703 CSL replicas in Hyoer Black.
Seeing them side by side makes me wish I went with 19s on the BW but after reading up on why Cadillac stuck with the 18s I was convinced to stay with the 18s. The cost difference of buying more expensive wheels and then needing four new expensive tires made it an easier decision at the time, but let’s see how long that lasts! If I make any changes to the setup I’ll follow up!
I’m eager to hear feedback on the look and what anyone knowledgeable about minor wheel/tire size changes can expect to have on the driving dynamics should be. I can’t say I’ve noticed much, but maybe I’m not looking for the right thing.
I’ll follow up with some more info and pics soon to go along with all of the above.
I’m hopeful this post can answer the questions I had throughout this process for others.
My car came with the 18” OEM set of the satin black wheels with the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires which are:
Front
18 x 9 et 28
255/35
Rear
18 x 9.5 et 48
275 x 35
The first thing I did after buying my car (CPO with 12,000 miles) just before winter in NY was order some winter tires. They were hard to find in the unique size but were totally necessary. The stock tires were rock hard as soon as it got below 40 or 50 degrees. Tire rack was completely sold out but I was able to find a set that I could make work from Costco. I had the winter tires swapped onto the OEM wheels.
Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 Studless Snow Tires:
Front
255/35
These match stock tires.
Rear
265/35
These are skinnier than the stock tires but I was fine with this for a winter setup. I’m not sure if they sell the appropriate width or if I just couldn’t find an available pair. They worked great all winter and will go back on come fall/winter this year.
Costco wouldn’t mount these for me because they didn’t match OEM spec, but I had it done at a local shop with no issue.
Once I had a full winter set the search began for another set of wheels to use with the OEM tires as my full summer set.
I really like the style of the bronze OEM wheels, but I’m definitely not a fan of bronze wheels on a blue car. I considered buying a pair of the tech bronze wheels and having them refinished, but they are wildly expensive. I considered even taking the risk of buying replicas on Alibaba but that was around the time all the trump China tariffs kicked off. There are a few manufacturers that sell similar looking designs so I decided I would go that route to keep an OEMish look.
I had VMRs that I bought used on my BMW for the last 10 years and didn’t have any issues so I decided I would be a “repeat” customer if they had something that worked.
I was on the fence between the look of the flow formed V802s and the Forged V902s. Although I was leaning toward the fully forged option I thought they looked a little thin/light for the robust look of the 4BW. What ultimately made the decision for me was that the 902s did not come in the sizes I needed to stick with the OEM 18” tires.
There wasn’t much information available on sizing when I was looking to purchase wheels to use with the 18” OEM tires but Brandon from VMR (Velocity Motoring) was incredibly helpful in the process.
VMR didn’t offer the exact size wheel to match the unique 4BW OEM tire sizes. What I ended up going with was a square wheel setup with the staggered width OEM tires. All four wheels are 18x9.5 et 35. The fronts are 1/2” wider than stock which still let me use the OEM tires with a minor amount of stretch. Once these tires need to be replaced I may try to find wider ones for the fronts.
The offset ends up with a more aggressive stance which I like but caused some issues that needed to be worked through. Again Brendan from VMR was very helpful with this as was my local tire shop. My local shop was also patient which was very helpful!
The rear wheels are offset 11mm less than stock and sit slightly wider which I like. These installed nice and easy with no rubbing or fitment issues.
Originally I agreed with Brendan to try a 10mm hubcentric spacer along with some deeper milling for the lugs on the fronts to get the slightly wider stance I was looking for, but with that large of a spacer, the new lug nuts that came with the spacers did not have enough thread exposed to safely install the the fronts.
12mm C8 Corvette Camaro Hub Centric Wheel Spacers 1/2 Inch 5x120 66.9
Going with some trial and error I ordered 8MM spacers.
Amazon.com
With the 8MM I was able to get the wheels put on at the shop and had just enough thread for the lug nuts to secure the wheels.
After accounting for the change in wheel diameter and difference in offset. Those sit nicely as well a little wider than OEM. They just clear on the inside and have no issues fully turning the wheels even with everyday driving.
I know the changes I made probably aren’t improving the driving experience, but for me how it looks is more important on a daily basis. I trust the Cadillac Engineers knew what they were doing, so If I were to ever track the car I would get a third setup that better matches OEM spec specifically for that purpose.
Although I’ve been driving in the limited thread engagement with no issue for the last few weeks, I’m still not comfortable with how little thread is engaged so I ordered a new set of bolts that I still need to have swapped out, but I don’t know if that will give me future trouble when I go to put the winter setup with the OEM wheels back on. I think the extended thread lugs that came with the 10MM spacers should make the longer bolts work with the OEM wheels.
Dorman Wheel Stud 610-428.1
The thread below was also helpful for me in this process, and was my inspiration for writing this detailed post to hopefully help others.
Winter Wheels and Tires for CT4-V Blackwing
In addition to the wheels and tires info, I couldn’t live without finding a way to get OEM Cadillac crest/shield (which is it?) center caps to work despite having a different center hub size. I saw in another thread someone tried to make an adapter by cutting out Cadillac sized (66.72mm) holes in BMW sized (68mm OD/66.5 ID/clips) center caps. After scouring the internet for aftermarket caps in the size I needed that matched the OEM look with no success, I opted to go the custom adapter route as well.
Cadillac Center Wheel Caps Set ATS Ct6 CTS SRX Xt5 XTS OEM 9597375 for sale online | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Cadillac Center Wheel Caps Set ATS Ct6 CTS SRX Xt5 XTS OEM 9597375 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
I used a 2-1/4” hole saw to cut out the center of the friendly priced bmw center caps to receive the Cadillac center caps. Because the clips are meant for a deeper engagement, like the other thread I saw I needed to glue the Cadillac caps into the homemade adapters. The user who wrote the other thread used Hot glue but I opted to go with gel style crazy glue which worked well and a few weeks later now are still on the car with no issue.
A few bonus pics with my previous car that I refuse to sell.
2011 BMW 328i E90 m-sport 6MT Lemans Blue
I bought it new in 2010 and haven’t found a car suitable to replace it until I found this wave blue 4BW. The BMW has 19” VMR V703 CSL replicas in Hyoer Black.
Seeing them side by side makes me wish I went with 19s on the BW but after reading up on why Cadillac stuck with the 18s I was convinced to stay with the 18s. The cost difference of buying more expensive wheels and then needing four new expensive tires made it an easier decision at the time, but let’s see how long that lasts! If I make any changes to the setup I’ll follow up!
I’m eager to hear feedback on the look and what anyone knowledgeable about minor wheel/tire size changes can expect to have on the driving dynamics should be. I can’t say I’ve noticed much, but maybe I’m not looking for the right thing.
I’ll follow up with some more info and pics soon to go along with all of the above.
