I got me some new wheels. Smaller, lighter, faster, sexier, better gas mileage ... etc. I had a thread on SpyderChat during the process. So I'll condense most of the important bits into this one post for you guys.
The Story:
I really liked my TSW Revo's that were on the car when I got it. the are 17x7, white, looked great. They were just too heavy for my liking. So I went on a mission to get much lighter wheels. And since I'm cheap, I wanted great wheels that didn't cost too much. The obvious choice then is Enkei RPF1 15x7. I got a staggered offset so they fit my car and give a slightly wider track in the rear (+41 front, +35 rear). There was just one problem though. They don't really come in white. So, I put off buying anything for a while until I had my plan all sorted out. And even though the wheels are pretty affordable compared to other wheels of the same specs, I ended up becoming a reseller of Enkei wheels so I could get them at a bigger discount. I now sell the wheels for cheaper than you can get them from Tirerack (If anybody is interested in other Enkei wheels ;) ).
Now, these posts are no good without pictures. So, without further delay, here are some of the pics that I took along the way.
Here's how the wheels started out:
As you can see, they're F1 Silver. And I like my white on white look. So, I had them powder coated. The powder coating only added < 0.1lb to the wheels. Here's what they looked like after they were coated in white:
Suuuuper sexxxxxy.
And here's a sexy valve stem pic (The wheels come with these valve stems):
And here's the finished product on my car:
As you can see from the pics, I still have the Enkei logos on the wheels. That's because I printed up my own vinyl replacement decals. I also did up some center caps to match the lugnuts that I bought, but they don't fit with the hub rings and everything.
... Oh speaking of lug nuts. I decided that since my wheels were now so much lighter (9.5lbs front and 9.9 lbs rear. 13.5 lbs lighter per wheel/tire combo in rear), I should compliment that with some nice and light lugnuts. So I got some buddy club racing lugs that weigh 0.9oz each. So that's less than 1lb for all 16 lugs combined! ANd as you read earlier. I shaved off 27 lbs of unsprung, rotating mass off of the driven wheels. That is a huge improvement! You can really feel it when breaking and accellerating. I've gained about 1mpg gas mileage too.Oh. And if anybody is interested in my old wheels, I have them for sale with nearly brand new tires (NITTO NT555 Extreme). The wheels are 4x100 bolt pattern. So they may not fit any of the 2nd gen's. But they will definitely fit a 3rd gen with no rubbing (even if lowered). And they might fit a 1st gen too. since the bolt pattern is really common for small cars, they should fit a bunch of cars too (civics, *some* corollas, integras, ...etc). I might do a for-sale thread for those wheels sometime soon. I don't have pics handy right now though. They are listed on craigslist for $750 for everything (wheels, tires, accessories). But I would sell them to anyone on this forum for $700 OBO. Shoot me a PM if I never get around to posting a for sale thread.
Thanks for looking.
