Opinions on my new wheel/tire choice

[Silver Cervy]

Finally saved up enough to get a (budget) new set of wheels and tires. I ended up buying a set of Sport Edition A10's from TireRack.com, and I picked them because they were a good price, had good reviews, and came in the gunmetal gray that I love. The wheel measurements are 17x8 with 48mm offset and they weigh 21 pounds. The tires I got are Michelin PSS 225/45ZR17. I'm aware that this new combo will make my car slightly heavier on all four corners but since I don't track the car I don't mind much. I'm mainly doing this for looks and to upgrade from the terrible HP Primacy's.

Essentially I'm making this post just to ask for you guys' opinions. Will this setup cause any major problems for me in the long run? I didn't find any posts about the A10's in this forum so I guess I'll be providing the first known info on them, but given the statistics do you think they will be good wheels? Also given the offset and bigger tires do you think I'll need to use spacers if I want a nice flushed look?

I appreciate any answers you can give. I'm really excited to get these wheels on my BRZ and I'll be sure to make a post about them shortly after installing them.

[Shark_Bait88]

The wheels will be fine for daily driving, and none of the specs should be of any concern.

I run 17x8 +35 RS-Watanabe F8s with 225/45s. The wheels with tires are slightly heavier than stock, but I've put around 8k miles, three track days, and about 4 or 5 autocross events on them with zero issues.

As for the flush look, check out the fitment calculator on http://frsproject.com/

Do you have any suspension mods? If you're completely stock then they will definitely be sucked in a bit, and you would have to add spacers if you wanted to make them flush. If you're lowered and/or have some camber that could make a big difference. Play around with the calculator and you should be able to figure it out.

[Silver Cervy]

I'm lowered an inch on Hotchkis springs.....is that good or bad?

I'll play around on the calculator a bit. Thanks for the link.

Edit: Looks fine according to the calculator. I'll probably get spacers after a while but I didn't want to spend $200+ and end up not needing them. I also need to figure out if the wheels I bought will even allow spacers to fit properly.

[Mr.ac]

depends on what size spacer you use. Anything under 25mm that is not a bolt in spacer, you'll have to figure out how much bolt thread length you have left. With the bolt on spacers you don't have to worry about that. Since the bolt should sit flush.

I hate to say it, but you should have done your homework before buying new wheels. If I was in your shoes I'll see if I can return the wheels to get a better offset to get the look you want.

[Silver Cervy]

Originally Posted by Mr.ac

I hate to say it, but you should have done your homework before buying new wheels. If I was in your shoes I'll see if I can return the wheels to get a better offset to get the look you want.

Well, it's not like I had many options to begin with. I'll never be able to afford top quality wheels, and I wanted to buy them from TireRack since I trust them and they make things very simple (plus shipping is extremely fast). I looked at all the 17x8 wheels they had for the BRZ and everything under +45mm was either too expensive or too ugly. I honestly don't mind having to use spacers and I planned on using them from the very beginning, but I just wasn't sure how big they would need to be.

The point is, these wheels will fit my car with no rubbing issues, and that's all that matters now. If I want flush I'll just get spacers in the near future.

[Teseo]

Originally Posted by Silver Cervy

Well, it's not like I had many options to begin with. I'll never be able to afford top quality wheels, and I wanted to buy them from TireRack since I trust them and they make things very simple (plus shipping is extremely fast). I looked at all the 17x8 wheels they had for the BRZ and everything under +45mm was either too expensive or too ugly. I honestly don't mind having to use spacers and I planned on using them from the very beginning, but I just wasn't sure how big they would need to be.

The point is, these wheels will fit my car with no rubbing issues, and that's all that matters now. If I want flush I'll just get spacers in the near future.

Can you provide pics?

[Manic]

Originally Posted by Silver Cervy

Well, it's not like I had many options to begin with. I'll never be able to afford top quality wheels, and I wanted to buy them from TireRack since I trust them and they make things very simple (plus shipping is extremely fast). I looked at all the 17x8 wheels they had for the BRZ and everything under +45mm was either too expensive or too ugly. I honestly don't mind having to use spacers and I planned on using them from the very beginning, but I just wasn't sure how big they would need to be.

The point is, these wheels will fit my car with no rubbing issues, and that's all that matters now. If I want flush I'll just get spacers in the near future.

Just curious, why would you not be able to afford quality wheels? Sure, "top" quality wheels need a substantial budget, but there are plenty of affordable high quality wheels out there. TSW Nurburgrings, 949 6ULs, Enkei RPF1s (if you shop around). Sub 1k and they're fantastic wheels. There's always plenty of options out there. If you take the time you spent to save up however much you did for the wheel package you went with and double it, you'd end up with a better, lighter wheel and proper fitment. I mean, if you can wait for spacers (which I'm not a huge fan of) to make the wheels flush, you could've just waited to get wheels with proper offset.

I apologize if it feels like we're putting you on blast, but we're trying to help. Lots of new users come in here and buy cheap wheels or cheap exhausts because it was in their "budget", but then they end up wanting different stuff anyway. If you're going to be modding your car on a budget, you need to do a lot of planning and a crap ton of research so you don't have to waste money on stop-gaps or "fixes". A good set of spacers is in the ball park of $150. You probably spent around $400 on the wheels alone. So $550 to have your wheels at a nicer looking offset. Add $250 to that and you could have had these Enkei TS10 instead. Same style, significantly lighter weight, and from a reputable manufacturer.

I'm doing a relatively budget friendly build myself and I still haven't gotten wheels because I'm holding out for the exact right set. Buy nice or buy twice, good sir.

In any case, the wheels look nice at least.

[Silver Cervy]

I understand what you guys are trying to say and I appreciate the advice. The wheels are on now and they look completely fine and actually a bit more flush than stock. I'm happy with them as they are now but still might consider spacers sometime soon. I'll make a post about them later this week.

I can't afford nice parts because I'm a youngin' at 21 and I have to pay for my apartment rent and living necessities. The job I work at right now gives me just enough to save a couple hundred a month and since I'm planning to go to grad school it'll be many years before I'm in a high-paying job. I already had to wait long enough to save enough to buy these wheels so I wanted to just go ahead and do it. Call it young ignorance if you must, but I don't have any regrets about the decisions I've made with my BRZ. For the amount of money I have to spend on it I feel like I've done a pretty good job, and I still have more plans for it.

And @Teseo, I'm not sure if you meant pics of my wheels or pics of the wheels I saw on TireRack, but I did a BRZ search with criteria set at 17x8 in either silver, gunmetal, or machine face. So yea I guess I didn't look at ALL the wheels they had, just all the ones that matched my criteria.

[Teseo]

Pics after mounted on the car?

[Pat]

Sounds like a solid choice to me. I think you met your goals and have some great tires to boot.

[Silver Cervy]

These were taken on my phone so the quality isn't great, but here:

http://imgur.com/a/vKunk

[Teseo]

Not my cup of tea, i would like more concave

[Summerwolf]

Those dont look bad actually!