Scored a set of barely-used Dinan 8.5"x17" three-piece wheel (made by Fikse) and mated them to fresh Pirelli P-Zero Asymetrico rubber, 245/40/17 all around.   Weighed the wheels without rubber, and the fronts were 17.2 lbs, the rears 16.8 lbs.  The fronts come with a countersunk set of aluminum 8mm spacers, which is why they weigh a little more. Still, damned light wheels that look great, and I got one hell of a deal on them.

 

Noticed right away that there's less push (understeer) with this setup, compared to my old staggered 225/45/17 front and 245/40/17 rear, and the 8mm wider track up front (thanks to the spacers) can't hurt either. Not so sure I like the rubber yet, coming from Pilot Sports, the Pirellis will take some getting used to, and they suck in the wet compared to the Michelins.  Luckily, it doesn't rain much here in San Diego County.

 

Also found a set of rare ///M striped rear-seat headrests while scouring the for sale ads, along with a set of ebay knock-off chrome grills that are supposed to be E46 style.  Not sure if I’m feeling the grills, but the headrests are a nice touch inside. 

 

 

Little history on the headrests, sometime in 1998, BMW ran out of "Napa" leather for the "Luxury Package" sedans, so they substituted "Buffalo" leather for the seats (from a regular E36), and unfortunately the seats didn't come with the trademark ///M stripe, so they made a very small production run (less than 75) of striped headrests.  On my car, see the stripes on the seats?  Those were the ones that were missing on the Buffalo cars. Might be overkill on the stripes, but I like 'em, and you can't really tell the Buffalo from the Napa, at least not 6 years later.