Alpina Alloys

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zerouali - 14 Feb 2006 19:52 GMT

I was looking at Alpina or replica alloys on ebay and noticed a pair
advertised as genuine with the Alpina part number, but with the valve
visible on the rim, not under the cap. I thought the valve had been hidden
on all alpina alloys since the mid 80's, anyone know if some have been
produced since then with a visible valve?

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Psycho - 14 Feb 2006 22:46 GMT

>I was looking at Alpina or replica alloys on ebay and noticed a pair
>advertised as genuine with the Alpina part number, but with the valve
>visible on the rim, not under the cap. I thought the valve had been hidden
>on all alpina alloys since the mid 80's, anyone know if some have been
>produced since then with a visible valve?

I've never seen a wheel with the valve anywhere other than out on
the rim. Now I'm curious as I've heard a few people with newer M3's
(late 90's - 03's) that brag about Alpina wheels and the valve has
always been out on the rim.

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Alistair J Murray - 15 Feb 2006 01:46 GMT

>> I was looking at Alpina or replica alloys on ebay and noticed a
>> pair advertised as genuine with the Alpina part number, but with
>> the valve visible on the rim, not under the cap. I thought the
>> valve had been hidden on all alpina alloys since the mid 80's,
>> anyone know if some have been produced since then with a visible
>> valve?

I've seen rim mounted valves on 16" wheels being sold as ALPINA by a BMW
dealer and on photos of early hubcapped wheels on E28/30/34(?)/36 so it
seems they made some, 16" and early 17"[1] but not AFAIK 18"+...

I've never seen 16"s with hidden valves, nor 18"+s with visible ones.

...I'm going to have a good look at the next 17"s I see though.

> I've never seen a wheel with the valve anywhere other than out on the
> rim. Now I'm curious as I've heard a few people with newer M3's (late
> 90's - 03's) that brag about Alpina wheels and the valve has always
> been out on the rim.

My B10 keeps its valves under the lockable hubcaps, air gets to the tyre
via a hollow spoke:

http://www.fluffy.force9.co.uk/alpina_b10/fd_b10-0005.jpg

...no valve on the rim.

A

[1] In "BMW ALPINA" by James Taylor there are photos of wheels of the
same pattern as mine with valves on the rims of 16" (E30 B6 3.5S) and
17" (E36 B6 3.5, E34 B10 Bi-Turbo) and 17"s with hidden valves on an E34
B10 V8.

A

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Psycho - 15 Feb 2006 15:32 GMT

And I've even seen a pair of these wheels. Guess I'm just so used to
seeing them on the rim it just didn't register..

>>> I was looking at Alpina or replica alloys on ebay and noticed a
>>> pair advertised as genuine with the Alpina part number, but with
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
>
>A

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Alistair J Murray - 15 Feb 2006 17:10 GMT

[...http://www.fluffy.force9.co.uk/alpina_b10/fd_b10-0005.jpg...]

> And I've even seen a pair of these wheels. Guess I'm just so used to
> seeing them on the rim it just didn't register..

I'd agreed to buy the car before noticing. :)

A

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Alistair J Murray - 27 Feb 2006 03:34 GMT

> And I've even seen a pair of these wheels. Guess I'm just so used to
> seeing them on the rim it just didn't register..

I took a photo of what lurks beneath the hubcap in case anyone is
interested:

http://www.wellcheap.com/gallery2/v/B10/alpina_valve.jpg.html

A

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zerouali - 27 Feb 2006 09:54 GMT

Thanks for that. It appears Alpina have a Classic and a Softline version of
the wheel. They look pretty much the same but one has the hidden valve and
one doesn't.

Cheers.

>> And I've even seen a pair of these wheels. Guess I'm just so used to
>> seeing them on the rim it just didn't register..
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> A

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