It’s been awhile since I updated this blog with new developments, but that’s because I’ve been really busy doing nothing this winter in order to save up for some new parts. Here is the first set of parts, and I’ll be following this up with another blog post in a few weeks probably when I get around to installing the rest of the parts. Stay tuned!
New Shoes (HRE FF15)
So the most obvious change is the new wheels. It took me a while to finally reach a decision as to what wheels I wanted to put on the car. I tossed around a bunch of possibilities in both 17″ and 18″ sizes. I’m generally not a fan of 18″ wheels on this car unless they are a dark color. Light-colored 18″ wheels (for the most part) tend to look a bit oversized and cartoonish depending on the wheel, whereas darker colors blend in with the tire more, so they don’t look quite as big. There are other penalties with 18″ wheels. Weight, tire cost, and ride harshness being the biggest ones. Benefits to 18″ wheels are looks (subjectively) and slightly better steering response due to the shorter sidewall (though the steering does get a bit heavier due to the aforementioned weight increase.)
The wheels I wound up going with are HRE FF15s. They are 18×9 with a +40 offset. For comparison’s sake, the stock wheels on this car were 17×7 with a +48 offset. This pushes the wheel out towards the edge of the body by almost 1.5 inches. That’s good because one of the complaints I (and just about everyone else with a BRZ) had with the stock setup was that the wheels were sunk into the body a bit more than we’d like. The added width gives the car a slightly wider stance, which looks more aggressive, and makes the car appear a bit lower too. Yes, they are similar in style to the STi wheels, but they are MUCH more refined looking. Next to these, the STi wheels look chunky, and the matte finish on these looks way better because it matches the matte lip/skirts/flaps/etc…
These wheels are pretty much exactly 20 lb each, which is actually slightly lighter than the stock 17″ wheels that come with most BRZs, but about 1.5 lb heavier than the STi wheels that came on my Series.Blue. Still, they’re not incredibly heavy, which is good.
New Rubber (Michelin Pilot Super Sport)
New wheels necessitated new rubber. This was another “weak spot” for the BRZ, though I should be fair in stating that the Michelin Primacy HPs that come from the factory are not “accidental crap” tires, but “intentional crap” tires that allow the car to slide around all over the place at hilariously low speeds. It’s definitely a lot of fun, but they’re also terrible tires in the wet, and that fact of the matter is I like my car to stick, not slide… most of the time.
I wound up settling on Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires. These seem to be the go-to tires for just about everyone who wants a well-rounded, very sticky tire for the street that also does very well in the wet, and won’t wear out immediately. There are stickier options, but you start trading off wet performance at that point, and I don’t want to have to think twice about my tires when it rains. The new size is 255/35ZR18. For comparison’s sake, the stock tires on this car were 215/45R17. This means I’m gaining 4 cm in tread width per tire, and losing 1 cm of sidewall. There are a lot of factors that affect this, so you can’t do straight math, but basically I’m increasing the amount of rubber on the road by ~20%, and that rubber is now SIGNIFICANTLY stickier than it was, so overall this will be a MASSIVE increase in available grip for the car. This is still, at the end of the day, a very light car, so I fully expect it to be able to really stick through the corners now.
New Lugs (McGuard Spline Drive)
Seems silly to talk about these, but they’re worth mentioning because I bought some McGuard Spline Drive lugs. Aside from being black, and looking decent, these have another interesting feature: the base of the lug spins independently from the rest of it. This is supposedly to minimize damage to the wheels when you screw them on. Who REALLY cares, but it’s still an interesting feature, and I’m curious to see if it really works, and seems to make a difference. Annoyingly, the 4 locking lugs do NOT have this feature, which seems like an oversight, but whatever. If anything, it makes for a good opportunity to compare. I’ll try to keep track of which lug hole the locking lugs go in, and re-install them in the same one. If the spinning base really makes a difference, I should end up with one scraped mating surface in the bottom of one of the 5 holes on each wheel.
New Tire Pressure Sensors (OEM Subaru)
I dislike having my TPMS light on during the winter, so I bought a second set of TPMS sensors for these wheels so that the car will receive tire pressure readings year-round. These are also OEM Subaru TPMS Sensors, but they’re different from the ones that came on the BRZ. At least the valve stems are. These are black rubber, as opposed to grey metal. I actually prefer this, though, because the matte black rubber matches my matte black wheels!
EDIT: So it turns out that, this platform being a joint venture between Subaru and Toyota, there are some parts that are NOT compatible across platforms. Found out when I finally got around to trying to get these programmed, that I should have bought Toyota sensors, and that the standard Subaru sensors will NOT work with this car.
New Rock Guards (Gorilla)
I showed these in a previous post, but I wanted to revisit them here because the point of these guards was NOT for looks. These guards are there because I wanted to protect the body from the new wheels and tires, which come out a lot further. Sticky tires like these Michelin PSSs have a tendency to pick up debris (mostly gravel on the road) and fling it, so these flaps are there to keep them from flinging stuff into the lower body on the side of the car. I considered the RallyArmor flaps as another option, but I wanted stiff guards for this car that wouldn’t flap around at speed. Also the matte finish matches the matte finish of the wheels and body kit, so it fits the theme of the car. Also these Gorilla guards are SIGNIFICANTLY wider than RallyArmor flaps so they match the full width of the wheels and tires. (The RallyArmor flaps don’t extend across the full width of the wheel on the inside of the vehicle.)
Overall I’m really pleased with these. They’re nice and thick, and the installation hardware was pretty solid. Install was easy, and most importantly, these are the PERFECT width. They come out pretty much exactly as far as the wheels do, which is exactly what I was hoping for. And the matte black works well. They add a bit of “toughness” to the look of the car, without being too obnoxious.
I will post Part II of my upgrades soon, and then I will follow that up with a Part III, where I will summarize my impressions of how these modifications have affected the car. Stay tuned!
