Audi Wheels
For decades, Audi was the underdog of the German car industry. Beaten out on the lower-end by car manufacturers such as Volkswagen and topped in performance and luxury by BMW, Mercedes Benz, and Porsche, the car manufacturer was in a tight spot. Its offerings throughout the 1990s were poor, leaving the brand with nowhere to go but upwards as it entered the 21st century of auto design.
Thankfully, Audi has recovered as a brand, and is now regarded as a leading manufacturer of both luxury cars, compact city cars, and sports vehicles. Backed by the well-known A-Series of luxury, light sports, and city cars, it's carved a new spot for itself in the motoring world, knocking back a range of advances from rival brands such as BMW, and even beating its competitors on the track.
Today, we're going to look at the wheels behind Audi's success – the basic wheels seen on many of the brand's compact cars, the large wheels used on the high-end A6, A7, and A8 models, and even a selection of racing wheels used on the S and RS series, the R8 super car, and the TT line-up. We will also take a brief look at wheels from Audi's third-party tuners, such as leading German tuner MTM.
At the heart of Audi's lineup is the A range of vehicles, a collection that covers everything from small city cars to large grand-touring luxury vehicles. Wheels are available for all of these cars, with the focus of production being the mid-range A4 and A6 vehicles. This is due to the mix of speed, performance, and overall comfort made possible in Audi's mid-range vehicle lineup.
Let's begin at the start – the A1. A super-compact vehicle designed to compete with models from Mini and Volkswagen, the A1 certainly isn't sports-focused. Despite this, a number of sports car-styled wheels are available for the A1, most of which range in size from 16 to 17 inches. There's been speculation that Audi will release a high-performance S1 model in the coming years.
Then there's the A3, a mid-sized family car designed to offer a combination of performance and comfort for families of four. The base-model A3 uses seventeen-inch alloy wheels, which can be replaced by similar offerings from a variety of manufacturers. Audi's in-house MTM auto tuning division offers a wheel package for the A3, along with others for its S3 and RS3 sports models.
Audi's newly revised A4 also has a range of wheel replacement packages available. Audi offers its own S-series upgrade for the A4, which features a larger engine, sports suspension, and wheels for the vehicle. The recently discontinued RS4 came with sports wheels as standard, due to its greater focus on speed and performance, which are available as upgrades for the standard A4 series car.
Audi's A5 executive car also has a range of wheel options available. Introduced in 2007 and almost completely unchanged since this date, the vehicle has been used as the basis for the brand's top-end RS5 model. Sports wheels are available from in-house Audi tuner MTM, and also from Audi itself – wheels imitating the RS5 are available internally, as are wheels for the S5 version of the car.
The A6, Audi's larger executive saloon car, is also backed by sports division MTM when it comes to wheels. It's worth noting that the two sports versions of the A6, the S6 and RS6 respectively, have an engine lifted from Lamborghini's Gallardo model, which outputs over 400 horsepower. As such, the wheels fitted to these cars need to be designed with rapid acceleration in mind for optimum safety.
The A7, another large luxury model, has various sets of aftermarket wheels available. Because of the A7's mixed focus on both sports and luxurious travel, the majority of its third-party wheels are dually focused on improving performance and smoothing ride comfort. In-house tuner MTM has a set of wheels for the A7, as does Audi itself, alongside a wide range of third-party tuner companies.
Finally, the range-topping A8 has a range of wheels available, although few are focused on the car's performance alone. Like the Mercedes S-Class and BMW7-Series, the A8 is simply too large for its handling to improve from low-profile 'slick' tires. As such, most wheels are 18 or 19 inches, with an assortment of larger comfort-based tires available to improve its overall ride comfort and control.
The TT, Audi's compact sports car, has a wide range of aftermarket wheels available. Built as either a front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive Quattro car, the TT uses 18 or 19 inch wheels to offer stable, agile driving conditions. In-house tuner MTM offers a wheels-and-engine package for the TT – one of several modifications to improve performance. A high-performance TTS version is also available.
Finally, the company's R8 super car has a small selection of aftermarket wheels and suspension parts available. Due to the car's performance requirements and 'twitchy' modification suitability, however, most are manufactured by Audi or MTM. These include 20-inch racing wheels, and a sports package for the higher-end V10 model, which are built around the Gallardo wheel platform.
Varied, luxurious, and strong in performance, Audi's current vehicle lineup has a wide range of stock and aftermarket wheels available. From performance wheels to comfort-based luxury rims, catering for your Audi's wheels and suspension requirements needn't be a difficult process.
