| For the first time in many years I was in need of some new street tires. The dual purpose Yokohama A032R's I had been using on the street for the past decade (at least that's what it feels like) were at the end of their life. Although some tread remained they had been quite heat cycled and no longer had much grip left at all. Time for new tires. After doing some shopping I was faced with a price tag of $800-$1000 for a set of *good* street tires in the 255/40-17 size for my SSR's. YEOW! And then I spotted a "For-Sale" posting. A set of Kinesis rims with decent tires. The wheel I had lusted after since spotting these mounted to an FD in a pic of a car at the Winter Wankel Wonderland a few years ago. Quick..do the math - need to spend $800-$1000 on new tires anyway, can sell SSR's for some pennies, how much more would the Kinesis rims set me back. The answer... only about $500. SOLD! A few emails later and they were mine. Of course I had to wait almost 5 weeks to get them but beggars can't be choosers. |
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The million dollar question many are dying to ask is do they fit? Well yes they do. This particular package came of another quite "famous" 3rd gen RX-7 so I knew they would fit. To the question, do they rub? My answer would be what is your ride height? I run a fairly conservative ride height, to deal with the Hoosiers on my track wheels, so I get no significant rubbing except on VERY hard road dips. And even then it is minimal and only on the front. I can turn wheels lock to lock and hit nothing when the car is static. This is on a car fitted with coilovers and rear trailing arms and toe links. I also have rolled the fenders. There are no rubbing issues to speak of in the rear. With all good things though there is a drawback. 18x10 wheels are heavy no matter how you look at it. No getting away from it and hence why these will remain my street wheels. I weighed the Kinesis/Bridgestone combination on a bathroom scale and compared to my CCW/Hoosier track wheel combination. The Kinesis combo was 9 pounds heavier PER CORNER at 51lbs vs the CCWs at 42 lbs per corner. The 17" SSR's with the 255/40-17 A032Rs tires weighed in at about 42lbs also. On the flip side this IMO is close to the best street combination one can find. Wide contact patch and they look...well IMO... spectacular.
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