Im looking at a few sets of wheels of ebay. More specifically TD pro race 3's. But alot of them that come in 5x120 studs nd 15inch diameter are et20, where as the original BMW for the E46 front hubs im using is about et35, what effect would this have on the handling etc of the car?

The 16inch rims seem more common in et35, but id rather have 15's

Also whats a good price for a set of 4 pro race 3's?

And how much should i expect to be paying for a good set of road tyres, nothing too expensive as it wont really be tracked etc to start with.

Cheers

The larger the offset the further in the wheel will be so if you had ET35 and go to ET38 the wheel will be 3mm further in.
Do a google search for calculating wheel offset to find how to measure and calculate what offset a wheel is.

i understand wht offset is and how to work it out,

My question is what effect would it have on the car and its handling etc if using et20 on uprights designed for et35 (apart from the wheels being moved 15mm)

Googly Offset

ah so failiure of the wheels bearings etc... not really what i want!

Anyone know anything about my other questions? like average prices of wheels and tyres?

You might find this a good informative read - obviously scrub radius changes will affect many aspects of a car's handling

http://www.sae.org/automag/scrubradius/04.htm

So briefly - yes changing scrub radius will impact on general handling of the vehicle - by how much and if positively or negatively will depend on too many factors to give you an answer.

i doubt you would kill any bearings as the weight of the kit will be substantially less than the bmw they were designed for.

15mm will affect the scrub but you should be able to dial the worst out with mainly camber and bit of toe. you may find that the increased track may make the rear end less progressive and more likely to snap away on the extreme edge but it usually only becomes a problem when you are spacing out over 25-30mm

this is just what i have found through messing about with wheel offsets in the past. im sure there are other things to consider but the above is all i noticed in day to day driving.