White wheels on my white 500? What do you reckon?

[boiltheocean]

Epic.
If I have to choose from your initial wheels I would say the black ones.

 

[Speedster502]

I gave up on that idea since the insurance was too high on the Panda 100hp. It's only 2 insurance groups higher than the 500 but it went up by quite a bit, probably because of my location.

That's a shame to hear, must be pretty difficult being able to afford the 500 as it is anyway surely?

Rims wise for the 500, I can't say I'm keen at all of the rims being replaced on it. I think the stock ones suit the car pretty well as it is, although those Minilite ones don't look too bad. Just whatever you do don't make it look like it's been attacked by Halfords....You've got a great car just try and keep it that way. 👍

 

[Jondot]

Alternatively, buy some official Fiat alloys.

The 16" version of the ones you've already got:

The 16" 'sport' ones (Felipe Massa not included):

Take a look at Fiat's accessory shop:
http://www.fiat.co.uk/Showroom/#showroom/new_500/accessories

 

[Moglet]

The 16" 'sport' ones (Felipe Massa not included):

Those are the ones I was going to order originally, but decided against them. I might get some of the top ones though, there's another white 500 round here with them on and it looks very nice. Neither of them would have red rings round the center on my car though, you only get them when you order the red brake calipers.

 

[-ultraflow-]

The Abarth 500 ESSESSE wheels are very cool!

click: http://www.pistonheads.com/roadtests/doc.asp?c=26&i=18708

You have some options on the link, but I prefer:

:tup:

 

[Delphic Reason]

Unless you're getting them powder coated in the exact same shade of white as is your 500, white rims are not an option. It's impossible to match the shades otherwise, and will look horrible if not done.

I'm with most people in this thread. The initial rim choices scream "cheap" to me. Some slightly older style rims (similar to the BBS rims posted), or something more contemporary, like some factory sport rims would look a treat.

 

[sn00pie]

epic.
If i have to choose from your initial wheels i would say the black ones.

We have a winner! Those wheels are beautiful!

 

[Moglet]

Unless you're getting them powder coated in the exact same shade of white as is your 500, white rims are not an option. It's impossible to match the shades otherwise, and will look horrible if not done.

Yeah I've been thinking about that all day at work! I could get them powdercoated the same colour but if I went for something like those OZ wheels above, would they be able to work around the lettering?? I'm not sure if a fully white wheel would look good powdercoated the same colour as my car, the centers on the BBS wheels would be awesome powder coated the same but not full colour. I'd be willing to have white wheels that were a different colour though, I don't think it would look bad!

Agh, the hunt continues. I may just abandon the white route and go for an anthracite finish, or failing that some black with a polished lip but similar in style to the BBS ones and not so cheap!

EDIT: Lenso do some cheaper rims in the style of BBS wheels, they're not as good build quality but they're within my price range;

Also available in black

There is always, of course, a set of Borbet As, if I'm feeling fairly adventurous;

EDIT 2: BK are doing a new wheel with a deep dish and Iridium lip so it cycles through a rainbow effect as the wheels turn

 

[homeforsummer]

BBS ones: Don't think they'd suit it, though someone feel free to mock it up and prove me wrong...
OZ Superturismos: Certainly wouldn't suit it, especially in clean white.
ESSESSE ones: Look good, but wouldn't really suit a standard car like Mog's.
BK ones above: Might look okay. Might. (Not with the iridium lip though. Really wouldn't work with the colour of your 500) But...

...Go retro, I'm telling you!

Oh, and wouldn't the money you'd spend on new rims be enough to fund the insurance increase from getting the Panda 100HP?

EDIT: Mockup with Barchetta wheels. Only pic I could find of a Barchetta was a little angled, hence the wheels look a little off-centre:

 

[McLaren]

Have you thought about re-creating Novitec's, minus the lip?

They also have the optional chrome.

 

[Moglet]

Oh, and wouldn't the money you'd spend on new rims be enough to fund the insurance increase from getting the Panda 100HP?

It would, just about. But the insurance excess would have to be ridiculous (about £700) and I don't want to risk it.

I want to go retro, but in alloy wheels, I don't want anything that looks like a wheel trim since you can get those on the Pop model anyway. It would just make it look poverty spec!

 

[homeforsummer]

Re insurance, "oh" basically I see your problem.

Re wheels, I reckon you could avoid the poverty spec look pretty easily. For starters, just picking an example out of the hat, the Barchetta's steelies look a damn site better than many alloys I've seen, let alone wheel trims.

Secondly, I know you're into the whole detailing thing, so with something like those steelies, or other retro alloys, you could dress them up a bit - have them professionally painted, maybe. Or, I have a sneaking suspicion that those Barchetta wheels would look amazing on your car if they were polished. I reckon you could find some quite cheaply (people are bound to swap those wheels for some awful alloys, just like they do with Peugeot Rallye models...), though given that the Barc is quite rare, you might have to do some hunting. Or just go to a breakers or something to source some.

 

[hemisport15]

These are a little bit over the top, and probably too big.

or these

or these

I'm a big fan of the Type As too. The OZ wheels are available in white, black, and silver aswell.

 

[homeforsummer]

The red ones look awful IMO, but I like the black ones.

 

[hemisport15]

The red ones look awful IMO, but I like the black ones.

They are a little bit over the top, but somebody said something about red wheels so I found a few that I knew of off the top of my head.

 

[EA11R]

Wiiiiiin ahoy!

In some type of yellow, of course. I guaruntee you'll never see another set like them. And yes, @ rainbow.

 

[Keef]

As a Honda guy, I'd suggest looking for something from Fiat's racing heritage that's classy and cool. Classic race wheels are huge in the Honda community. And in general, white wheels with red lips look great on white cars--but like Delphic Reason said earlier, the colors should be matched otherwise they'll look like hell. One of few color combos that actually look "good"--most bronze/gold/black/whatever combos you see on all these tuner cars are usually because it's weird, different, crazy, you've never seen it before, or because that's just the way it's supposed to be. Not necessarily because a group of art aficionados would call them beautiful.

I wouldn't suggest anything bigger than 16 for that little car. Sixteen inchers look pretty good on there and you can still find nice, light examples that will help out that little engine a bit.

EDIT: The BBS posted earlier is absolutely stunning. Also, the Lenso and Borbet wheels are nice designs--are those companies "legit" or are they copies of other brands?

EDIT 2: Scratch Lenso off the list. Might as well get Rotas.

 

[boiltheocean]

We have a winner! Those wheels are beautiful!

WRC Replica wheels so there quite expensive too!

 

[homeforsummer]

WRC Replica wheels so there quite expensive too!

...aaaaand they just wouldn't really suit it. The 500 is about as far removed from a WRC car... or indeed a racing car in general... as you can get. And Moglet's is adorned with chrome etc, and FIAT's white isn't the same white of the wheels, and the wheels have red lettering and fake carbon fibre on them... it would look tacky.

They're quality wheels and it's a timeless design, but unless Moglet decided to de-chrome his 500, fit a subtle bodykit, and go for the whole street race look, they wouldn't work.

Best idea so far are the BBS ones. Though I still think some polished Barchetta steelies would look best

EDIT: In the interests of seeing how the others looked:

BBS RS (gold, then black)

Borbet Type A (These seem to look pretty good, nice and chunky so they aren't overpowered by the lines of the car)

 

[Jim Prower]

Well?

 

[Keef]

Those are nice, but there's way more turbo-style wheels out there than you can count on all three hands. Not many people know what any of them are, and they're pretty much all expensive racing wheels sitting in Toyomatt's garage.

Those fat five-spoked Borbets are pretty cool looking, actually. They're old school. Old school is cool.

 

[homeforsummer]

Or for the full Ronal Turbo effect...

...slammed like a biatch [/berk]

In seriousness, Turbos would look quite nice. Perhaps. My current opinion:

1) Polished Barchetta steelies
2) Ronal Turbos
3) Polished Borbet Type As

Alas, I don't have the photoshop skillz to edit the reflections of the original wheels on the ground, that I've just noticed

 

[Moglet]

Borbet Type A (These seem to look pretty good, nice and chunky so they aren't overpowered by the lines of the car)

My god, I would love those! Unfortunately I've only just found out that most of the retro style wheels I've been looking at won't fit my car, they're all too wide

 

[homeforsummer]

My god, I would love those! Unfortunately I've only just found out that most of the retro style wheels I've been looking at won't fit my car, they're all too wide

The retro wheels mentioned are too wide, or other ones are? Which other wheels have you been looking at?

 

[Moglet]

The retro wheels mentioned are too wide, or other ones are? Which other wheels have you been looking at?

All of the Borbet range is, and most of the others I've been looking at too. I might be able to get away with 7.0x15", but 7.5 is far too wide apparently. Some say the limit for the 500 is 6.5, which doesn't leave me with a lot to play with.

Unless I modify the arches and suspension, but that would void my warranty.

 

[homeforsummer]

Yeah, not wise doing that. That's a pity though, but there must be some wheels with the right sizes that should fit, in the sort of style you want.

 

[Roo]

Revolutions?

It doesn't look like they do the normal 4 spokes any larger than 13s, but they do the 5 spokes - in white, no less - in 6x15:

Or 4 spoke modular (difference?) in 6 and 6.5x15:

 

[homeforsummer]

Those Revos are a nice idea. I was trying to think what they were called, as they're another that are popular on the Mini.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Now there's a sweet combo 👍

 

[Leonidae]

Watanabe RS would be nice, being minilite ripoffs and all..