MB Motorsports "Weapon" rims (aka A-Tech Erasors)

[sperry]

I'm not sure if anyone's tried these rims on an SVX yet. They're quickly getting popular w/ the Impreza crowd since the prices on Rotas have gone up so much.







They're the MB Motorsports "Weapons" (aka A-Tech "Erasors") from Discount Tire Direct (www.discounttiredirect.com) in Bronze and a 17x8+42 5x114.3 fitment. I was a little worried that the offset would be a touch too low, but when I was putting them on the car, they seem just right.

The tires are Falken Azenis ST-115 in 255/40ZR17. Usually the minimum width for a 255 tire is 8.5", but these run pretty narrow, so they seem to fit just fine on the 8" wide rims. Plus, they're like $10/tire *cheaper* than the 245's. Total price for the rims, tires, valve stems, lugs, wheel locks, mounting, balancing, tax, and shipping: $1026. Not bad... reminds me of the good old days when you could get rotas with tires for under $1200.

So far the wheels/tires seem like a really good match for the car. There's no balance issues, and they seem to have plenty of clearance, so no rubbing. Because the suspension and bushings on my SVX are so worn out, there are some wierd issues with the tires following the road... the car will sort of move left and right w/o any feedback in the steering. But that's something I noticed when I had EVO rims on the car for a weekend. Also, I think the lower profile tires are bouncing the rims around a bit on rough road since the suspension isn't stiff enough... also something I've noticed before, but that was when I had 18's on my WRX's stock suspension. But both issues are really minor compared to the much better looks and handling of the car, and will be fixed once I get some new struts (or perhaps some coilovers) on the car... which will also get rid of that awful front wheel gap.

More pics here.