After two years I felt I needed a change of look for my car. I'm not all that into bodykits, although I wouldn't mind a Nismo front bumper bar, so I decided on the next style of mod that would dramatically change the look, that being a new set of wheels.

I initially thought I could get out of it cheap by ordering a set of 17" wheels from Tempe Tyres or the like for close to $1000 including tyres. This soon fell in a hole because I had a four bolt stud pattern on my car (4 x 114.3 pcd for reference), and the only new, cheap, 4 bolt wheels available were in a front wheel drive offset. I always get confused when people start talking offsets, but essentially a FWD offset wheel will sit well inside the guards on a rear wheel drive car and look pretty lame.

So, with the cheap option unavailable I decided to up my spending limit to around $2000... This opens up the genuine Jap import wheels, well the cheaper ones at least. I have been a long time Buddy Club P1 fan and lucky for me they are in my price range. And here's where the dramas start...

I originally wanted silver 17x8" (+32 offset) wheels, but these were unavailable so a set of gold 17x8" (+22) and 17x9" (+37) were ordered. Unfortunately the size ordered was wrong for my almost standard car, so I had to wait for the correct size to come from Japan. And then to top it off, Japan was out of stock...

After a long wait the wheels finally arrived. At this stage I decided to go for the original size 8" rims all round, but in the gold colour. I don't like the stretched look that seems to be popular on import drift cars, so a 235/45 tyre size was suggested. The rear wheels fit like a dream, but the fronts decided to be a pain and rubbed on the strut tower. I could've gone the illegal route and fitted spacers to the front wheels, but this would've only solved part of the problem, because the left spring seat sat on the tyre. In the end I chose to get some more tyres at the smaller 215/45 size. They look slightly stretched, but everything clears now.

Coilovers are on my shopping list, so when I get them fitted the tyre drama will magically disappear as if it were a bad dream. I'm very happy though, as my car is getting looks that it didn't before. Perhaps that's because its clean for a change...

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