Luke Kay

Hey all, sorry if this is a bit of a ramble but I have a wide track 2006 STi Spec D, and I'm just curious as I have seen countless other Impreza's with different wheels and fitments. I can barely find anyone running wheels with the specs I want, and the ones I have found say nothing about offsets or widths or generally have unreliable info (I.E same exact wheel specs with completely different fitments). With it being an STi, I have to worry about front Brembo clearance. I also don't want to go hacking the arches apart or having them pulled because I wanna preserve the bodywork as much as possible. I'm thinking of going with a roughly a 1 inch drop up front, from standard 2006 STi ride height, so I wont be crazy low either, and I should have enough clearance in that department. my only issue is the brake clearance and the 'poke' of the wheels. I'm looking for a close to flush fitment, if possible.

I have found 2 wheels I like the look of, Enkei RPF1s are awesome looking, and Rota Grids. I'm most likely gonna go for the Enkei's, mainly because there is 3 WRX's near me that all have grids on them, and the RPF1's look way cooler in my opinion than the grids. Unfortunately, the concaved and flat versions of these wheels are anything 9.5 inches wide or more, and I simply cannot run this width without having to have serious arch work done so I'll have to settle for now with the slightly convex faces, which still look good enough! according to T3h Clap (https://t3hclap.com/archives/1782) he lists all RPF1 sizes and what clears Brembos and he's all I really have at the moment who I've found to be reliable.

I am thinking of the following wheel specs; 18x8.5 et30 (or et40 if they aren't feasible) and I'm just wondering if anyone else on here is running these wheel specs? IGNORE the wheel make and model unless it really really matters, I just want to see how 18x8.5 et30 and 18x8.5 et40 wheels look on a wide track STi? I want to see where they relate in terms of fitment regarding bringing them further out to make them more flush with the arches. Plus I'd hate to spend 1500 quid on some new RPF1s and quality tyres to have them catch on anything so any help would be much, MUCH appreciated. Thank you!

Don Clark

In the first inst., why not use the Tire/rim calculator attached to this website/forum.

OEM Wheel size for the Hawk STI is 17 x 8JJ ET(offset)53 with 114.3PCD
OEM Tyres 225/40 R17
It will give you an idea of wheel setup due to rim width and ET differences.

Luke Kay

Ooooh awesome I had no clue they had a calculator on here! thanks, that'll be a massive help