Finding good non-Volvo wheels for front-wheel-drive Volvos can be tough. It’s not necessarily the offsets, as Volvo’s front-wheel-drive platforms employ high positive offset like many modern cars. It’s not the hub bore either, as a relatively small hub bore of 65.1 millimeters on P1 and P2 cars means flexibility in that department thanks to hub-centric rings. No, it’s the bolt pattern, because it’s frustratingly uncommon.
Since the 1960s, Volvo has used five-lug hubs with 4.25-inch spacing, or a 5x108mm bolt pattern in modern speak. Since most five-lug Japanese performance cars use a 5×114.3 mm bolt pattern, many five-lug German cars use a 5×112 mm bolt pattern, and even BMWs used a 5×120 mm bolt pattern before switching to 5×112 mm on the latest models, factory wheels from other cars wide enough for wider rubber are relatively uncommon outside of China. Sure, Ford has used 5×108 mm on various models from the original Taurus all the way down to the Focus ST, and Jaguar has used 5×108 mm, but not all of these options work. However, there is one place to look for wider, offset-friendly 5×108 mm wheels for front-wheel-drive Volvos, and that’s Maranello.
By some strange coincidence, most Ferrari models from the 348 tb to the F430 also ran 5×108 mm hubs, with wheel hub bores compatible with front-wheel-drive Volvos. This means that so long as a di Montezemolo-era Ferrari’s wheels are the right offset for the new application, there’s a chance they fit with a caveat—check the stagger. Indeed, the owners of some Volvos have put it to the test.
Take a look at this Volvo V70 on Ferrari 348 wheels, posted in the public Facebook group “OEM Wheels on Other Makes & Models.” Those front wheels fit great, although it wouldn’t be surprising if some massaging was required to fit the nine-inch-wide Ferrari rear wheels under the back arches of the Volvo. At the same time, wider rear tires at the back of a car than at the front generally promote understeer, so this sort of setup likely hinders the ultimate performance of a front-wheel-drive Volvo.
A better solution might be to source four Ferrari front wheels, all the same width. Indeed, the Volvo V70R above sold on Bring A Trailer back in 2023 sporting a particularly distinctive set of alloys. Yes, those are four identically-sized wheels from a Ferrari 360 Modena, and while I’m not the biggest fan of this set’s anthracite finish, the overall style looks great on a red V70R.
A full set of Ferrari fronts is also what this XC90 owner went with, notably those from a 550 Maranello. As detailed in the “OEM Wheels on Other Makes & Models” Facebook group, “No special process required. Bolt pattern, center bore, and lug nut thread are an exact match, offset very similar to factory Volvo.” Boom. Bolt-up, look sweet, job done.
So how much will a used set of Ferrari wheels cost you? It varies depending on the model, and while you aren’t exactly looking at chump change, certain secondhand sets of Ferrari wheels might not be as expensive as you’d think. The full set of 360 Modena wheels above is listed on eBay right now for $1,989, which isn’t bad considering most Ferrari merch is pricier.
Likewise, the full set of Ferrari 456 GT wheels above is listed on eBay right now for $1,800. Sure, they might only be 17-inch wheels, but they’re cool and different. Plus, even though they’re used, it’s nice knowing that OEM wheels have to go through all sorts of research and development. While cheap aftermarket cast wheels have improved greatly over the past two decades, they can still sometimes be a bit of a gamble.
So now you know, Ferrari wheels might fit your Volvo, but your Volvo wheels probably won’t fit a Ferrari without some milling, unless you’re driving an XC90 or something. Actually, who’s going to see if XC90 R Design wheels fit on a 550 Maranello?
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
An easy hack, figuring out your bolt pattern and swapping out for something else:
I’ve run 15″ Alfa Romeo 5×98 wheels on my Citroën CX GTi, as the original 14″ looked a bit small for such a big car. The lower tyre profile also felt more GTi’ish 😉
Currently using 16″ Mercedes-Benz 5×112 black steelies, paired with some tall Toyota Landcruiser tyres, on my old VW T4 Eurovan, to make it look a little more adventurous: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8SYDi6iYtK/?img_index=1
Those are SN95 Cobra wheels with a prancing horse center, right? Not actual 456 GT wheels? Maybe it’s the displaying of them not being on a car, but those five points are just ugly, way to thick and bog standard design. There’s no real aesthetic merit to them. The 5th Gen Prelude Type SH look more svelte and athletic, and they are only 16s! Ferrari in the 90s was their worst decade.
I enjoy that Maranello shoes fit on Swedish feet, but caution to the thought that design really matters and just by carrying around a luxury item doesn’t make you appear successful.
I think the Volvo R’s stock flat 5-spokes are some of my favorite wheels and I think wheels are another area where Ferrari is aesthetically weak. I like the 348’s, but those are decades old and aren’t that far removed from the Rs. The funny thing with this article is that I would have loved to use the Volvo Rs on my old Legacy, but they wouldn’t fit.
I did know this and have seen it before and yes it looks bad ass. Those 348 wheels are so choice.
Considering there’s only a few common bolt patterns in use in modern times, it’s pretty inevitable your wheels will bolt up to something out there.
No Ferrari owners are showing off their Volvo wheels on social media?
Adrian, need a set of winter tires/ wheels?
I really, REALLY want this person to exist.
If you have a spare set of wheels for your winter tyres, could there be anything more appropriate than Volvo wheels?
My son just bought a “cheap” C6 Corvette. Why did Chevy use 5×120.65? I realize they were measuring in Murican and it’s 5×4.75. We don’t want to dare try wobble bolt lug nuts to fit BMW wheels, and don’t want to drill out the hubs to 5×114.3 like most drift spec Vettes do. Then there is the issue of 2 different wheel diameters and also widths AND offsets! Yikes. I think drilling out the hubs and rotors might be the move since corvette spec wheels for track days would be silly expensive when you can get 5×114.3 wheels used online all day for cheap money.
They used 5×120.65 basically because they always had, going back to at least the early C4. The original run of Camaro always used them as well.
I haven’t looked at Corvette wheels in several years, but if you weren’t worried about appearance eBay used to be flooded with takeoff C5 wagon wheels and clones of the actual nice wheel designs. I ran fake rear fitment C4 Grand Sport wheels in a square setup on my Corvette for a few years and they were (granted in 2017 prices) only like $650 before I switched to authentic Speedline C5 Z06 rear wheels all around (which, uh, weren’t $650) after COVID.
Good to know. Please excuse my Corvette ignorance. Going from Miata to Corvette was quite the jump. I’ve looked at a few sets of C5 wheels. Trying to find 4 in 18’’ is tricky without buying 2 sets. Looks don’t matter as much since they are track day wheels, and will get thrashed.
We offer our condolences.
It’s the wheel pattern used by GM since the 60s, 5×4.75″. Ford went with 5×4.5″, also known as 5×114.3.
5×120.65 is also used by Lamborghini and Aston Martin for some of their models.
If Volvos can get Ferrari wheels then your Corvette can get Lamborghini wheels, lol.
The really nice looking BBS wheels Jaguar put on the later model year X100 XK as well.
Lamborghini made some great wheels with circles in circles. Hmmm. Wheels that cost as much as the purchase price of the used car. Check!
Didn’t realize that. That sucks as some of the Corvette wheels were ugly, especially with GM’s love for chrome/polished spokes.
I know! It has the grandpa-spec chromies on it right now ((Z06 replicas). I’m not a fan.
Speedway has a kit for testing custom fit wheels for clearance.
Not exactly cheap, but cheaper than buying the wrong wheels.
There is at least one company doing custom wheels to order in your style and sizing.
Cheaper than you’d think.
Seems to be a cad cam approach.
I use http://www.willtheyfit.com to check if things will fit or rub. Also to get the fitment of the wheels looking nice if possible.
Impressive site.
May not cover everything though.
Mechanical testing might still be worth doing.
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Search?query=wheel%20fitting
I use it as a guideline, but depending on your suspension travel, it may not work at all. https://tiresize.com/calculator/ is also fun for visualizing how a few changes will alter the shape of the tire in different dimensions.
The drawback for me with that tool is that you need to have the tire unmounted and on hand. I usually change wheels and tire size at the same time. I do a lot of head scratching and number crunching before spending the funds.
Good point about the tire.
You could always use a failed or worn out tire, if you can find the right size.
I was amused to see a lot of tire shops using apparently new tires for outside display, but all with fatal damage somewhere critical.
Fine. If you want to turn your classy Volvo into a poser-mobile.
Just replace the center caps with the prancing moose logo and it’s fine
This reminds me I know someone that is a Volvo and Ferrari enthusiast.
He was on his way to a Ferrari track day with his V8 Volvo for the first time, last time we talked.
Ford infected this bolt pattern across the Jaguar range in the 2000s (the later Focus models also have it), so now I know if I get tired of the wheels I put on a few months ago I can grab some 575 Marenello wheels.
I have different Ford bolt patterns front and rear, early and late patterns.
You can’t complain when all four match.
As a Volvo guy, I can attest to this struggle. Thankfully Volvo has a decent back catalogue of classy OEM wheels, all with fantastic astronomy-themed names. (Which makes it weirdly easy to remember them all, if you’re a weirdo like myself…)
For FWD, ‘Tethys’ are great, as are any of the R wheels like ‘Pegasus’. The BBS-made ‘Propus’ (17″) and ‘Triton’ (18″) are some of my favourites.
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https://www.scribd.com/doc/90465143/Volvo-Wheel-Brochure
As far as RWD goes, there is the go-to ‘Virgo’. The optional accessory wheels ‘Gemini’, ‘Galaxy’ and ‘Polaris’ are some of their best and most sought after.
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Personally, I found some original 16″ BBS RS (code 111) in rare AF factory Volvo fitment.
It’s probably cheaper and easier to find a set of Ferrari wheels than some of the more desirable models above.
Not sure if Volvo is still doing the celestial-themed wheel names, but it was a fun bit of automotive nomenclature.
So the converse must also be true. Where is the picture of the Ferrari 348 on Volvo steelies?
Articles like this make me wish I still had that 850R. That and, like, it was a great car and I miss driving it.
The 348 wheels on the P80 V70 are fun for novelty value, but stylistically they don’t look that different from Volvo’s own alloy wheel used on T5 models at the time. Not sure I see the point in paying whatever premium they did for those wheels.
Some Ferraris apparently used the 5×114.3 bolt pattern.
The Murano CrossCabriolet also uses the 5×114.3 bolt pattern….
Oh, sweet, that means if I get a Volvo 140 series or 240 series (my first car was a 12-year-old 1974 144 which I had for over a decade and still miss heartily; more recently I had a project 1970 144 which ended up being beyond hope due to rust, alas) I can use Lancia Stratos coffin-spoke wheels:
http://hawkcars.co.uk/parts/stratoswheels/coffinspokes.html
I really wish Campagnolo would bring back some of their great old style wheels in more modern bolt patterns and sizes (though not too large).
Same, those coffin-spoke wheels would look good on everything. It has the potential to be one of the all-time great wheel designs, if only it came in sizes people could actually use.
Well shit, when trying to sell my Volvo V60 CC winter tires, I should have posted on the Midwest Ferrari forums!
Somewhere in Sweden a retired Volvo engineer is reading this and saying “Självklart!”
Oh god, those 348 blades on the V70 look soo good. Someone in my neighborhood has a gorgeous modded V70 with the yellow “Prancing Moose” badges on it.
He needs to do this.. surely there are some less precious aftermarket knockoffs out there??
Both of my 1970s Volvos have wheels with a 3×125 bolt pattern so I have few options beyond swapping them back and forth between each other which, I have found, usually doesn’t accomplish much.
Ha, yeah, that’s an uncommon bolt pattern, to say the least.
Guessing those wheels of yours would also work on some DAFs since presumably your Volvos are 66s?
We had a lot more uncommon ones from the 1950s to the 1980s, perhaps even beyond.
Yeah, though there’s uncommon and then there’s uncommon. Some admittedly cursory online research (with AI disabled, of course, for better accuracy) shows pretty much just *one* model ever used 3×125. Namely, the Volvo 66 which was based on the DAF 66 (not sure if DAF used that bolt pattern; I daresay that’s something the OP, Mike Harrell, might know.)
I’ve got a ’75 66 GL wagon and a ’76 66 GL sedan which means quite a few DAF parts are the same, particularly DAF 66 parts. This opens up some other possible wheel options which, however, still turn out to be not all that abundant in the Seattle area.
I mean it’s cool that they bolt on.
But there will never be a cooler wheel for these volvos than the factory R wheels, so it really doesn’t seem worth it.
Agreed. One of my all-time fav OEM wheels.
I had a 2004 non-R V70 and bought replica Pegasus wheels from IPD. They transformed the look of the car. The OEM Volvo Saurus wheels were mounted with dedicated winter tires. I had that car 15 years and loved it.
This has been a fun volvo “thing” for a bit, and im glad it’s catching on! Im sure it also makes the maranello marinator’s seethe a bit, but folks need to lighten up and have fun with it, its just a car and it’ll all succumb to the red giant sun expansion in a few billion years.
Ive had a few Pegasus sets, and they are hands down my favorite OEM wheels of all cars. I even throw them on my T5 for the summer and they just look the business.
That being said, they are a slightly heavy and can break/crack easy in nasty successive potholes, those 45 ratio sidewalls can be touchy in the rough stuff. But as mentioned elsewhere, vo-vo has always had killer wheels with killer celestial names, Volvo>Ferrari in the wheel dept for sure. Seems odd, all other things considered, yes?
Good thing the pegasus came in two different sizes from the factory.
(17″ and 18″ I think?)
I had the 1 inch smaller diameter on my S60R and was happy about it with how shitty the road conditions can be where I live.
They need prancing moose center caps. And to be smaller. I hate wagon wheels on cars – anything bigger than needed to clear the brakes is pointless. MOAR SIDEWALL!
Word!
I will probably be giving up features I would otherwise get on my next vehicle (and giving less money to the manufacturer) because I do not want the upsized wheels on higher trim levels. Sick of damaged sidewalls and bent rims. Or the other choice is to go for the trail-butch trim whether I need it or not.
I really REALLY wish the manufacturers would stop rolling packages into trim levels, after they’ve already rolled nearly optional feature into a package.
Yeah, the biggest wheels I’ve ever had were 17″, and that was the small option. We’ve become so accustomed to huge wheels that the 15″ wheels on my Fiat look tiny. Then again everything about the Fiat 500 is tiny
That’s a tiny car, 13s would be wholly appropriate, no? My ‘77 Firebird had 15s if I remember correctly.
I think the 15″ wheels are partly to clear the brakes and partly changing fashion. My 78 Scirocco also had 13″ wheels which looked normal at the time.
Quick Google search says the 77 Firebirds had 14″ wheels, which was the common size back then from what I can remember.
Hmm. Both my memory and Google can be wrong.
Memory says 15” Goodyear Eagles, and “low profile” 65s.
Yeah I don’t trust anything that old in MY brain anymore. 🙂
And now I have visions of a Ferrari on steels with cheap plastic wheel covers
Let’s go full Altima and put 4 spares on it.
Top gear post clarkson did just that to a AMG Merc. Made it more fun.
I’ve always been fond of those 348 wheels, and they look awesome on that V70.
Someone should make “prancing moose” center caps for these swaps.
I’ve got a 3D printer! But no Volvo
If you have a versatile enough printer, you can build a Volvo!
My sister was bit by a moose…
I hear møøse bites Kan be pretti nast
Møøse Trained by YUTTE HERMSGERVØRDENBRØTBØRDA
Meh. I’d rather see the stock wheels with center caps of a prancing moose.
That red one looks fantastic.