The VMR V703 (Previously called: VB3) wheels were well-packaged and came in this beautiful gunmetal finish. I’ve always liked gunmetal finishes because unlike chrome, polished, or even black wheels; they still look good even when dirty with brake dust which is a big issue on BMWs.
The “CSL”-style V703 tips the hat to what is arguably the best M3 of all time; the 2004 M3 CSL which rode on 19” wheels of similar spoke design. This design was also seen in the E46 “CS” Competition Package cars with 19” spin-cast (flow formed) BBS wheels and continued in the V8 Powered E92 M3 “CZP” Competition Package, GTS, and 4-door CRT models. Needless to say this is a quintessential design for performance BMWs.We ordered our V703s in factory diameters and widths (19×8.5 and 19×9.5) since they fill out the fenders nicely and are already pushing the limits of the available room in the wheel wells. While we considered running a 19×9.5 or 19×10 square setup, the factory 265/35-19 rear tire has a 26.30” diameter and would rub the wheel wells when used on the front, compared to the 25.75” diameter of the factory 245/35-19 front tire. The factory tire sizing is tight, with only 1/4” of room to spare radially!
It’s common for people to run 265/30-19 (which has a much smaller 25.3” OD) or a 275/30-19 front tires (with a 25.5” OD) staggered with the standard 35-profile rear tire, but that would defeat the purpose of being able to rotate the tires. This car is a daily driver and we didn’t want to experiment with affecting the ABS, TCS, ride quality, or having potential rubbing issues in our daily driver so we decided to stick with the factory sizes and modify the track width to reduce some understeer.
The cast V703 wheel features a concave face, a clearcoat for maximum shine and protection against brake dust and elements, are made to JWL, VIA, and ISO-9001:2000 standards, and come with a 1-year limited warranty against manufacturer defects.
Our 19×8.5 +40 front VMR V703 weighed in at 26lbs, which equals the weight of the cast E46 CSL and E92 ZCP front wheels which cost over twice as much.
The 19×9.5 +22 rear VMR V703 weighed in at 28.6lbs, which is only 1.8lbs heavier than the cast CSL and ZCP rear wheels.
