Bmw G42 2 Series Track Fitment: 19x9.5 Et25 Square Vs-5rs

BMW G42 2 Series Track Fitment: 19x9.5 ET25 Square VS-5RS

Article | 04/10/2025 by Tom Maloney

Updated on 04/10/2025

BMW’s G42 2 Series is a bold platform and a few of our intrepid G42 customers have opted to accentuate this with our 19x9.5” ET25 square fitment, which is an aggressive, rotatable fitment. Stradale Design documented their test-fit of this setup on their G42 on Bimmerpost shortly after these wheels launched. Their forum thread can be found here.

While this test-fit gave a fantastic initial impression of what this fitment looked like on the 2 series, it was always our intention to test this setup in-house as well. While we produce a wide variety of fitment options for these platforms, which you can see in our G42 vehicle configurator here and can further explore with our comprehensive G42 fitment guide here, this aggressive square fitment was always on our list. An opportunity to do a test-fit arose when we needed to create scans of the larger ZTK brake calipers for another project, which gave a chance to test-fit the 19x9.5” ET 25 square fitment while collecting that brake data. Luckily, our volunteer was able to stop by our office with his ZTK-equipped G42 to help. His otherwise stock G42 was the perfect platform to test these wider wheels and validate/compare how this fitment works with Stradale’s lowered example.

The car used in all of the final photography and video seen featured the following specs:

G42 Specifications:

Suspension & Alignment: Stock

Wheels: VS-5RS in Satin Bronze

Front and Rear: 19x9.5 ET25

Tires: Falken RT660 + MIchelin Pilot Sport 4S

Front and Rear: 265/35-19

Front Fitment:

Overall, the front fitment looks great – even at the stock ride height and with the stock alignment. We’ll touch on the tire model later, but the tire seen here is one of the wider 265/35-19 options on the market. This fitment is aggressive and might poke beyond the stock fenders of a non-ZTK car, especially with wider tire models. It is an extremely flush fitment which can be especially important if you need to run spacers. Also, bonus points for those who spot the F87 M2 CS Racing lurking in the background waiting for its time to shine.

Front Suspension: Strut Clearance

The photo above shows the strut clearances between the wheel and tire and the front strut assembly. The wide RT660 sits extremely close to the strut body. No tire witness marks or audible rubbing were noted with this fitment during the photoshoot, but if driven aggressively on the track or street, a 3mm spacer would be a great addition to prevent the tire from contacting the strut when the sidewall flexes and deforms. There is room between the tire and the OE spring perch above the tire. If you want to run aftermarket coilovers or HAS (height adjustable spring) kits, you will need a wider front spacer (between 5-12mm) because inner clearance is limited with the lower spring perches that sit further down than the OE configuration. You will also need additional negative camber to run this setup.

Front Brake Clearances: ZTK and More

Clearances were tight between the front ZTK calipers and the VS-5RS spokes, but they did clear without issue. There is plenty of clearance between the barrel of the wheel and the calipers, which is where road debris and gravel are more likely to get caught between the components. Overall, the brake clearances for the 374mm ZTK brakes are acceptable with the VS-5RS, but a 3mm front spacer would help build back a spoke-side margin if you’re concerned about road debris. We tested the VS-5RS and SM-10 19x9.5” ET25 wheel designs against these ZTK brakes, the 348mm front “MSport” brakes, and the base 230i brakes, and these (as well as all applicable rear brakes) all cleared the wheels.

Rear Fitment:

The rear fitment is substantially less complex. The rear had easy brake clearance and a ton of inner clearance for these wheels, so we moved our focus to the fender clearance around the upper portion of the tire. Overall, the fitment is once again quite flush – especially with the wide RT660 tires. No rubbing was noted during our test-fit, but the car was not driven hard. Extreme suspension compression and tire flex on-track might lead to fender rubbing with wider tires, though that rubbing could be dialed-out via alignment adjustment. The ZTK flares help with visual poke, but aren’t a significant benefit to an otherwise unmodified car.

Tire Notes:

Falken RT660s are an excellent extreme-performance tire option that performs well on-track. They also run quite wide. Per Tire Rack, the RT660s in the 265/35-19 size showcased here run 10.9” wide for their section width which is generally the widest point of the tire sidewall. A Michelin Pilot Sport 4s in the same size has a 10.6” section width. When moving further down to the contact patch, the RT660 has a massive 9.8” tread width, while the PS4S has a 9.3” tread width. This is the portion of the tire that contacts the road, but it's also the part of the tire that makes the biggest difference to suspension and fender clearances, as it's this portion of the tire that is closest to these pain points. Both of these tires were measured on a 9.5” wide wheel.

The RT660s are wider at every point, but are especially big where it matters most for us. The Michelins are a fairly wide tire, but they don’t come close to the RT660. I often get asked by customers what size of tire I recommend. It's a hard question to answer because variances like this exist between different manufacturers within the same listed tire size. This is often a byproduct of those manufacturers trying to squeeze more performance or chase various characteristics out of a listed size. So while a 265/35s make sense here for a track performance setup, the width and fitment will vary depending on the brand and model of tire you select.

Alternate Sizes:

While 265/30-19s could be used front and rear for a slightly easier fit, the tire model availability is far better in 265/35-19. A solid selection of track tires are available in this size, making it the obvious choice for someone that tracks their 2 Series. Additionally, a 255/35-19 has even better availability than 265, although most of the tires in this size are street-oriented. You can run a 255/35-19 for street tires on these wheels, but for an easy bolt-on fitment, the 255/35-19 could also be run on our 19x9” ET25 square fitment. As always, additional fitment options can be found in our guide here.

Going Lower and Track Alignment: Featuring Stradale Design

As mentioned before, Stradale Design is running the same 19x9.5” ET25 square setup on their G42 build, and they documented it in their own thread. If you haven’t seen that thread already, we’ve included some shots of their car with these wheels. They’re wrapped in Falken RT660s and the car is lowered with MSS springs:

Once some camber was dialed-in, these wheels tucked in a bit more than showcased here. In-depth photos can be found in their thread, but we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to compare and contrast a stock car with a lowered car by showing their example. You can see that, despite the distance from the fender to the tire decreasing, some additional static camber was gained just by lowering the car. This helps to tuck the upper edge of the tire in.

Aftermarket camber plates are going to be the best option to dial-in additional negative camber up front as they will pull the top of the strut inward and improve fender clearance at the upper edge. Availability for plates like this is likely pretty low right now, but as these cars get older, more options should come to market.

Final Thoughts:

These wheels work surprisingly well, even on a stock car. Narrower street-oriented summer tires or all seasons would make essentially all aspects of the fitment slightly easier for customers looking for a rotatable square fitment on their street car, but this setup truly shines with aggressive track tires. We’ve been working on and building wheels for the 1 and 2 Series chassis for years with the E82 and F2X 1 and 2 Series, so it's great to see aggressive G42 fitments take shape. Owners may not be as interested in fitments that require some modifications now as these cars are still quite new, and you can take a look at different options in our G42 gallery here while you think that through, but we hope this thread helps to give anyone interested in a rotatable square fitment for the track a great new option. This fitment also boasts the most concavity in any wheel available for the G42 2 Series in our current line up, with an unmistakably deep face profile that really shines on these cars.

While this blog showcases our forged VS-5RS, SM-10RS, and ML-10RT, all the same notes apply to our flow-formed SM-10, which gives you multiple fitment options at different price points. I’m a big fan of our flow-formed wheels, and while the forged wheels are great, if you need multiple sets to support a track program or want to save for suspension or HPDE fees, the SM-10s are a great option for any budget.

Even if you aren’t considering Apex wheels, we hope this showcase helps with notes about the offset and fitment on the G42. If you are considering our wheels, we’ve added this fitment to our guides and both of these wheels will be going on our G42 shop-by-vehicle page shortly.

A huge thanks goes out to our volunteer for giving up your time and lending us your car for a few hours. We hope to see you on Apex wheels soon. Another thanks goes out to Stradale Design for picking up a set and letting us use your photos.