Project Cars: 1990 Mercedes-Benz W201 190E 2.0 Sportline – Update 10

It has taken some time, but I’ve finally fitted the proper 7.0-inch wheels to my 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E Sportline.

As noted in Update 7, through the rather epic W201 community, I was able to source a set of the Sportline specific 15×7 ‘Gullideckel’ alloy wheels for the car.

While they look similar to the ‘regular’ wheels already on the car, the face is larger, the holes more ovoid, and the extra inch in width gives them a slightly different offset and a small ‘lip’ on the edge.

Matt and the team at Wheel Solutions in Richmond were able to completely restore the wheels to as-new condition by acid-dipping them to remove grease, grime and 30-year-old paint, refinishing the edges and repainting them in the factory silver-gloss finish.

The Sportline wheels came with some Bridgestone tyres, which I’ll replace as they are about 10 years old, but due to the profile difference, the car’s rolling diameter will change.

To do the maths, I used the super-handy Tiresize.com comparison tool to show that the trusty 195/65R15 Membats were about an inch taller than the new 205/55R15 Bridgestones.

Basically, the 65-profile of the 195mm Membat means a sidewall that is about 127mm tall, whereas the thinner 55-profile, but wider 205mm Bridgestones have about 112mm of sidewall. For home calculations, the profile height is noted as a percentage of the tyre width, so a 55-profile on a 205mm tyre is 55 per cent of 205, or 112mm.

The 15mm difference in profile (or about 3cm in overall height) delivers a wheel that is about 4.5 per cent smaller in diameter. It’s not much, but still worth noting.

Note in the images below the new wheels are on the back, the old on the front.

Visually, they look a bit more aggressive, with the slight change in offset pushing them a little closer to the outside of the wheel arch, and the little lip giving just that extra point of ‘if you know, you know’ difference.

I can’t find any 215mm tyres in a 15-inch, so will go for new Bridgestone Potenza RE003 (205/55/15) for a far more resolved and tidy look, for the wheels at least. I’ll replace the ‘Dark Horse’ spare too.

Once the new rubber is on, we’ll get some better photos of the car in its correctly-wheeled glory.

The 15×6 wheels have since been donated back to the W201 community, going again to a good home.

I’m still squirelling away the pennies to commit to a respray, as that is where the car needs the most amount of work.

But in the interim, I’ve now owned the 190E for two years and it’s overdue for a service. So next update we’ll pop the bonnet and get to some actual work!

Current Status – Rolling right
Odometer – 220,000km
Next up – Under-bonnet attention