Can anybody identify these BBS wheels?

They look like E88s.

 

Seen quote a few recently like that that are not bbs while looking for wheela.. Anyone can put bbs caps in non bbs wheels.

 

LM or E88 style wheels...everyone makes them and most likely those are just BBS caps

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Hard to say for sure, but look like 18"s to my eye. 19"s always look too big and bulky on the lithe 348/355 imho.

 

Those are not Motorsport E88s or LMs, or an LM special variant.

They are BBS GT2, and are considered a BBS street wheel (versus a BBS Motorsport wheel such as the E88). They are quite rare, produced in the mid-late 90s specifically for the 348 and F355, Porsche 964, BMW M3, and Nissan Skyline.

Construction is 2pc, 18" dia, with an aluminum outer shell and a remarkable forged magnesium center which is pretty cool and rare for a street wheel. BBS saw fit to market them with a "FORGED MAGNESIUM" decal on the outer lip of each wheel. I managed to find an original unrestored set in Europe for 348/f355 a couple of years ago, and scooped them up. They wait in the garage, as I've been running Speedline Challenge wheels the past couple seasons.

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Or rather, the decal is "MAGNESIUM FORGED" if you're looking to be technically correct. It's been a while since having the wheels out in front of me.

Looks like there may be a set available in Japan in the Ferrari fitment...

https://global.rakuten.com/en/store/taiyakaitori-kaisyo/item/ta6695/

 

Have you weighed them by chance?

 

Pulled them out. Roughly 19lbs F / 20lbs R per the bathroom scale.

18x8.5 / 18x10.5

 

That's the same weight as the challenge wheels I believe.

If so...that's a great alternative for a different look without sacrificing weight.

 

The cheaper ones will require the faces to be refinished and refinishing magnesium wheels is a bit more complex than standard wheels so the cost difference would likely be made up fairly easily with refinishing process.

If I still had my 355, I would have bought one of these sets. I love rare NLA old wheels.

 

No problem at all. I had a spreadsheet somewhere that mapped out the comparative fitments between these, Challenge wheels, LMs, OE, etc but can't seem to find it at the moment. Based off of my recollection, they'll fit any late 348 (revised suspension) or f355 without need for spacers, and should fill out the wheel opening aggressively but tastefully. Makes sense, as the wheels were intended for the chassis. I *believe* it should fit the opening similar to Challenge wheels, with the additional wheel width on the GT2s biased inboard. Some simple math an comparison will confirm.

E88s are very nice race wheels, a few friends have them, and I used to run BBS E26 (older gen 17", cast magnesium, superseded by E87) on my old BMW M. BBS will build them to whatever fitment you like. With the E88s, the face is fairly convex, so may look a bit off if built to a high-offset spec (part of why LMs etc look so great imo, is their relatively shallow hub and flat spoke profile). The Motorsport wheels, at least from my experience in the 17" dia iterations, are a bit of a different animal than their street wheels. The emphasis is on lightness and rebuildability, with the wheel components as a consumable. (as a 90's era 3pc wheel, my 17x10s weighed in at 17lbs ea) With standard wheel halves, I'd get a couple seasons before necessitating a rebuild to avoid stress cracks typical on the inner wheel halves. Heavy duty thickness wheel halves fair better.

I've seen plenty of listings for BBS LMs in F355 fitment on the used market in Japan, much more prevalent than in the US. Typically the gold commemorative special editions.

 

FYI all 348's had the same track, the rear lower pickup point moved down a few mm but as far as track and width they are all the same, the change was different wheel offsets on the later ones that pushed the wheels out, not a suspension change. 68 mm to 43 mm respectively for the OEM rear wheels.

 

Yes you are correct, thanks for the catch. Was getting my wires crossed from thinking of differences in another marque.

 

Your browser can translate. The other good Japanese site is goo net.