'16 STI Rally Armor & BBS Wheels

There are some cars that are "garage queens".  There are others that leap into adventure, regardless of the mess.  Well... being the rally enthusiast that I am, I've had a bit of an internal struggle with this car.  One of 700 built, my 2016 Subaru WRX STI Series.HyperBlue is a bit of a collectors item.  With such a status, you'd think it'd be a garage queen it's whole life.  For the first few weeks, that's kind of how I felt about it. But after driving it through the break-in period and getting after it a bit, I realized it would be quite the miracle to keep this car locked up the entire winter.

After leaving it safe and sound in my garage for a whopping 16 days, I decided to do some work.  The stock BBS wheels wrapped in Summer Tires were my main concern for doing any sort of cold-weather driving.  Those were swiftly stowed in my shed and replaced with 17" BBS Wheels from a 2005 WRX STI with Continental Extreme Contact DWS tires mounted to them.  These wheels have been refinished and powdercoated black and look fantastic on the car.  Along with these new shoes, I fitted the car with Rally Armor UE Mudflaps sporting a white logo (to match the white logos on the brake calipers).  It was easier to install these mudflaps while the tires were off, so I went around to each wheel completing both installations.  No problems with either!

The tires that we fitted to the refinished BBS wheels are 245/45R17, as that size offered the most accurate speedometer readings.  Fittingly enough, today's weather calls for cold rain, so their first trek  on the roads put them to the test immediately.  While it doesn't seem fair pitting this grip up against summer performance tires, the difference was astounding and instantly noticeable.

While I'll still be a bit paranoid in parking lots and still choose to take my Impreza RS Coupe out when the weather is especially nasty outside, I am so happy to be able to drive it this winter without as much fear of messing something up or losing grip on cold roads.