AR

Prodrive recommend I should upgrade the 17" wheels to 18" on fitting a WRX with PPP. Trouble is at £1800 for the wheels & tyres less only £500 from the dealer for the 'old' brand new wheels and tyres, it is expensive. 2 questions:
1)I will mainly be driving the WRX in the winter and on wet roads so is the upgrade worthwhile? On a test drive I found it easy to get a WRX with PPP to squeal on the 17" wheels but with the upgrade to 18" only changing the tyres from 215/45 to 225/40 will there be much improvement? (both tyres seem narrow for a performance car);
2)If I do upgrade is it worth keeping the 17" wheels for use with winter tyres? Will these make much difference in bad weather?
Thanks

DBY

I did the same thing on my PPP WRX 03 had it for about three weeks kept looking at the car on its 17* 215/45 and they do look puny for such a large car. I went for the pff7 in silver with 15% discount and sold the wheels and tyre on here for £450 the dealer did not want the original wheels back in px as he had loads in stock already and did not know what to do with them. The grip levels on 18*225/40 Pirelli Neros is stunning in both dry and wet you will not regret it!! when they bring out the Prodrive lowered spring kit the car will also look a lot better on 18s. Your only problem is that the standard brake discs look ****e under these new wheels they are lost in all that space. Actually your problems are only just starting because as you get used to the speed of the car with PPP fitted the standard brakes are crap, why Prodrive recommend up grading wheels and tyres first when they are selling WRX with PPP 261 bhp against standard 261 bhp STI with Brembo brakes alround is amazing IMHO still you pays your money and makes your choices.

Regards

John

AR

Thanks John. Really want to go for the 18" but a bit put off by the cost! Like P Zero Nero's though as I have had them on a couple of other cars - lots of grip...

Blue_Boy

I may be selling mine - drop me a mail if your interested and I'll mail you back with spec!

Cheers

Andy

Beefy

Worth considering buying the wheels only and sticking some Toyos or equivalent on instead.

macka

AR we meet again! I think we may have debated STi wheels on a previous thread but I've just upgraded to STi wheels which are running the Bridgestone 17" 225/45's. I got them resprayed the same colour as the std WRX wheels and they look much better, they fill the wheel arches properly and handling is much improved, a slightly harder ride (due to harder tyre walls and bigger contact patch) and they tram line a bit but definately a good mod - paid £550 plus cost of spraying and should get nearly the same back for my std wheels as they fit straight on a classic scoob.

DBY's got a point about the brakes tho!

AR

Macka - I remember talking about this but where did you get the Sti wheels from for this price?

macka

AR - post a note in the wanted section - quite a few STi owners upgrade from new to 18" Pro Drive's. I hear some people got them for less but I was more than happy at £550.

Much better all round but the tramlining is a pain - I've been told different tyres will solve this?

macka