Why did Audi have to curse us with a gigantic wheel gap

[A6xEnthusiast]

So I'm contemplating building my Audi out. I don't want it to be too flashy or extreme, just something to give it a little spin and make it my own... And completely get rid of that massive wheel gap I've been blessed with haha. I don't really know where to start, I'm thinking of 18" on the wheels and no bigger than 19", the roads up here in northern Indiana are god awful, so I'm going to keep my current stock fat fives because I know I will need them in the winter and when the roads begin to crack and fall apart. I will deal with the spacing later. For the fitment, all I'm looking for is flush, not slammed. Slammed looks cool and all but does not look great on the health of my back and the chassis of the car. What I'm thinking is that adjustable coilovers will be too stiff for the roads up here.. would I be better just getting some lowering springs and then some Koni shocks? I had a friend suggest air ride to me which would be perfect for handling all of the bumps and glitches in the road but I can't currently fork out the money for a full air ride system.

Any suggestions would be helpful. I'm looking for clean and flush, nothing crazy. When I graduate from college and begin making enough money to afford two cars.. Then I will do crazy, but this is my daily driver and I still want to be able to attend car meets and events without looking like a total loser and still be able to drive my car on a daily basis

(P.S. This will turn into a build thread of my progress, the pictures won't start coming up until the summer though as that is when I will begin working again)

Thank you!

[A6xEnthusiast]

A little side note, by the end of the summer I will have owned this car for three years. I have experienced and enjoyed it stock but now I just really want to make it my own

[Arsenal2012]

Im in northwest Indiana and have some 8.5x18 et 35 Miro 111s for sale with tires in good condition. If interested PM me, i had them on my avant and they looked good.

Sorry can't help with the lowering question.

[alien_brain]

which car do you have exactly?

[rollerton]

An 18" wheel is a good compromise and you can still run them with no suspension mods with a little satisfaction. I've tried about every routine tire combination on an 18" wheel and I'd say you'll want something like 245/40 or 235/45 if you end up with an 8" wide wheel. 8.5" go for the 245/xx tire. Any tire in the /35 or /30 aspect is a low-rider tire. You don't want to bother with them on stock suspension or on a car you need to drive every day. And a /45 series works okay; but a 245/45/18 is a pretty beefy tire. Great ride, good cushion but it ends up being a lot of tire.

As far as I know there are no lowering 'springs' that can give anything like OEM ride even with good shock/strut combo. But what choice do you have..it's that or sink $1k into coilovers.
Personally I like Bilstein struts, put some H&R springs on them and you're as good as you'll get on a budget.

[A6xEnthusiast]

Okay thank you rollerton, this helps a ton! sounds like you know exactly what im going for. I will check out Blistein struts for sure. I know I can get a set of ST coilovers but I have heard that those are hit or miss with ride quality and how well they can take a bump. Thank you again!

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which car do you have exactly?

I have a 2002 A6 4.2

[vlangs]

I'm a bit of a masochist, but I run 215/35/18 on my D2 Avus wheels daily 45 miles each way to work

I have coilovers to install on my car and I'm just too lazy, when it's not being photographed, that drops the car a bit and looks rather fresh. Over the summer I will swap them out.

But mind you, hitting bumps kind of suck in my car but otherwise the ride is very smooth even with the rubber bands. I drive between chicago and ny more than i'd like to and I never have much of an issue.
Also because of the rubber band I can use a 17inch spare (the specific tire size is now escaping me) without worrying about mucking everything up for a drive home because the equivalent heights are exactly hte same

[A6xEnthusiast]

I'm a bit of a masochist, but I run 215/35/18 on my D2 Avus wheels daily 45 miles each way to work

I have coilovers to install on my car and I'm just too lazy, when it's not being photographed, that drops the car a bit and looks rather fresh. Over the summer I will swap them out.

But mind you, hitting bumps kind of suck in my car but otherwise the ride is very smooth even with the rubber bands. I drive between chicago and ny more than i'd like to and I never have much of an issue.
Also because of the rubber band I can use a 17inch spare (the specific tire size is now escaping me) without worrying about mucking everything up for a drive home because the equivalent heights are exactly hte same

oh wow! that is quite a thin tire lol. but you dont have an issue with the thin tire?

[vlangs]

No not really, I mean sure they get damaged a lot easier than bigger tires, but that's obvious.

I have a replacement spare in my trunk and i have a spare tire so I can get it replaced the next day (or same) if need be. But (knock on wood) I've been doing really great lately.

When I first started running them in chicago I cracked two rims, but VERY minor so no one noticed and I kept ending up with flat tires. but once I got those fixed everything was fine. Now I'm just very mindful of huge bumps

[A6xEnthusiast]

Alright sweet! Thank you, I love the way 35 profile looks on wheels. I'm just worried since it will be my daily, but from reading this I think i will be fun. And it will keep me from driving like an asshole and save me some money on gas lol

[vlangs]

And it will keep me from driving like an asshole and save me some money on gas lol

yeah...that's exactly my experience with them....sure....

[A6xEnthusiast]

yeah...that's exactly my experience with them....sure....

Okay you're right... Nothing is going to stop me from driving like an asshole with this car😅

[vlangs]

lol just for reference this is 35 series on stock

[Nogaro Nitwit]

My S4 had horrible wheel gap the first day I bought it

[vlangs]

yeah late 90s early 00s amazing designs RIGHT before manufacturers realized wheel gap is the enemy