Winter in August? Well, kinda. More specifically, I received my set of winter wheels and tires the other day, so thought I’d share them with you. I’d love to say they’re amazing and the shit, but the truth is that they’re just a budget set of rims that’re better than steelies with a top-notch set of winter meats on them – Blizzak WS90s to be exact. This is not the first time for Blizzaks for me, I’ve had a set of WS80s on my prior two WRXs over the last six years and they have been absolutely fantastic the whole time I’ve had them. Excellent grip in just about every situation you’d run into, plus the tire wear was exceptional, despite the fact that they got run more than a few times on 60F-80F days when the weather here would flip-flop between hot and cold in the spring. Based on that experience, I have high expectations that the WS90s are going to be just as good on the BRZ, which will be great since I’ll be at a small disadvantage due to no AWD. I grew up with and learned on RWD cars, so winter driving isn’t anything I’m stressed about, but I want the best setup I can get, so the Blizzaks fit the bill. I highly recommend them.
As for the rims (Focal 421X), that’s a great unknown. Reviews seem to be that they’re fine and durable, but heavy (24 lbs each, per the mfg specs). For winters I don’t really care, I just want something that looks decent and better than steelies, plus is solid enough to deal with the shitty potholes we get every winter like the plague. From a quick inspection, they seem to be built reasonably well, so I’ll just have to give them a run and see how things go.
If you’re wondering what fitment I went with, I opted for 17×7.5 +48 rims which are the exact specs for the OEM 17″ rims that come with the base Premium model, and got matching 215/45 R17 tires which are also the same as the OEM spec tires. I’m not one to drift from stock specs for fitment because I don’t want to deal with rubbing and whatever other problems that can arise, plus I don’t want to change the stock suspension geometry whatsoever. That said, my car came with 18″ rims and tires, so technically I’m running a non-OEM setup, but I prefer to have the extra inch of sidewall for a winter setup due to better potential durability. My WRXs were a 17″ setup and I had no problems ever at anytime, so I’m sure these will be equally reliable.
Comments