New shoes came in today! A fresh set of Enkei PF09s in Matte Gunmetal finish. These are going to be my new summer wheels that will be replacing the stock OEM wheels which I plan to sell off to cover some of the cost of these. As for specs, I went with the stock OEM specs which are 18X7.5 +48, 5×100. You may be wondering why considering most people usually go with a more aggressive and larger fitment, but it’s as simple as I can’t stand what most people think a good fitment is. It always ends up making the car look like a broken Hot Wheels car with mismatched wheels sticking out and just really ungainly overall. Not only that, but it f’s with the suspension geometry which means all the work the engineers put in towards making this car the stellar handler that it is gets wasted, plus you end up putting undue wear on your wheel bearings. It’s all personal preference in the end, however, so people can do what they like.
As far as why these particular rims, well, they were available in the size I wanted and I could get them now. I was originally looking at some SSR GTX04s which I think look pretty badass, but wait time until delivery was estimated to be about 3-4 months which means they wouldn’t end up on the car until next year as it’d already almost be time for winters, so that’s a no go. I also can’t stand reps and the various cheapo rims that are everywhere these days – those are fine for winter use like the Focals I bought, but I would never want them for summers because that’s when I’ll be going to shows and meet-ups. Plus, I may want to start autox’ing again, so a quality rim is definitely the only option. Enkei is a well-established brand that makes a high quality product, so no worries on that front. They also happen to be about 3-4 lbs lighter than the stock wheels, so better acceleration, braking, and steering feel. And, they weren’t ridiculously expensive either, which is never a bad thing. All in all, they’re just good solid wheels from a major manufacturer that have a simple motorsports design to them and will look and perform better than the OEM wheels. What more can I ask for? I guess a follow-up post once they’re on the car, which will be soon.
[Update] Got the wheels mounted this evening and I must say, they look good. On one hand, they’re similar to the OEM wheels, so they’re not that much of a standout. They do have more contour to them, though, which is an improvement over the OEM wheels’ extreme flatness, I think. Driving-wise they feel almost identical, though maybe a tad more peppy due to the lighter weight. Now, I just want to get some black or red lugnuts and eventually ditch the chromes it came with, but that can wait bit. Here’s some quicky phone snaps with them mounted on the car:
