Those WHEELS

I'm pretty proud of my little Impreza.  I often get questions about things I've done to it, so I try to make sure I've got more than enough info out there to satisfy fellow enthusiast's sweet tooth for these cars.  I've neglected to mention anything on this blog about my wheels that are on it, so today seemed like a good time to fix all that.


My car started off as a base model 2.0i, so it came with 15 x 6 inch steel wheels with hubcaps running on 195/65 R15 89H All-Season tires.  I had these on my car until September and they were good for what they were.  But for the kind of driving I was doing, which was a tad more spirited than economy tires with only 6 inches of grip, I wanted something a little sportier.  It took me awhile to actually nail down what I wanted.

At first, a friend had given me a set of Gold '98 Impreza RS wheels.  I wasn't thrilled with the idea a gold wheel on a silver car, so these wheels never actually made it onto the car, despite the hard-to-find nature of these wheels.  I did manage to keep the tires off of these to go on a set of '05 WRX wheels that I purchased from someone in the NSOC.  They were 16 x 6, so they looked a little more aggressive on my car.  I thought this was going to be what I'd stick with, though the color seemed a bit off.  There was a blue-ish tint to the Ice Silver Metallic on my car and a gold-ish tint to the '05 WRX wheels that just seemed a bit off.  I decided I'd have those wheels powdercoated the same dark gray that the Impreza Sport has on it's stock wheels.  In order to do this, I had to obviously take the wheels off my car again to send them out to get painted.  A good friend of mine in the NSOC let me borrow a set of '11 WRX wheels to ride on until my wheels were back from the powdercoating... and this would prove fatal.  In a good way, of course.

I absolutely loved how the '11 WRX wheels looked and felt on my car.  The lower profile tires, the 5-Tri-Spoke design, the same dark gray that I wanted on my car to begin with... on top of a 8 inch wide tread that gave me improved grip that was instantly noticeable.  As such, while the '05 wheels were off getting powdercoated, I was searching high and low to find a set of '11-'13 WRX wheels until I found a set on NASIOC.  Had 'em shipped over and wrapped in 225/45 R17 Goodyear Eagle GTs.  When the old wheels came back from the powdercoating, I gave them to my good friend to use on his Legacy.

I've been stuck on my current wheels since November with no complaints.  They grip, they look great, and folks often think my car is either the new WRX or a sport-package Impreza.  Nope!  She's a meager base model with an obsessive owner, that's all!