My New Wheels

[mikeb]

Had my wheels refurbished, and I'm quite impressed with the result. Paint stripped, then blasted, then powder coated in a dark gun metal kind of colour. 4 new tyres as well, Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 - found a place locally that was cheaper than the tyre offer in the gold discounts!

The photo's don't really do them justice. And I'm not totally convinced about the centre caps still in silver, but not sure what to do with them.

[daktari]

Looks pretty spot on to me. Nice job.

[Carrera_C]

Very nice indeed

[Calisto]

The wheels are nice but get her lowered there is way to much of a gap and then get low profile tyres on her.

Do as you are told.

[Jones~32]

looking good

[mikeb]

The wheels are nice but get her lowered there is way to much of a gap and then get low profile tyres on her.

Do as you are told.

←

They are low(ish) profile tyres. If they were any lower profile the speedo would be out and the ride would be harsh. I'm not convinced about lowering either, lots of passengers have commented on how smooth the ride is and I don't think it's worth messing it up. The gap between the arches and the wheels looks worse in the picture than it is in reality. Also lowering screws up the roll centres.

I put my original 14" wheels on for a couple of weeks, whilst I had the 16"s refinished, and the difference is huge. The 14"s had bridgstone RE71 tyres and they were really noisy. Surprisingly, the ride feels smoother with the 16" wheels on than the 14"s. I can't explain why (unless it's due to the increased unsprung weight).

I haven't really pushed the tyres yet as they are still bedding in, so I can't comment on dry grip although it seems good so far. In the wet though, the Eagle F1s are pretty awsome, they just seem to keep on gripping as though the road is dry. Tyre noise is almost non existant too. My only concern is what the wear rate is going to be like, although one of my friends got 50k miles from a set of them.

I can strongly recommend this tyre, they make the car feel like a different machine! :)

[sotal]

I agree with you on the lowering mike, Mine looks a bit high but I love it like that as it is really smooth and it makes it easy for going over speed bumps etc.

I've got 16's on aswell and they are probably the smoothest (in terms of ride comfort) out of any wheels I've had - although the tyres do seem expensive for 16's

[IanGT]

Nice 1 mike look really good