Hey guys. I really haven't done anything constructive with my FD for years. Some "life things" got in the way and I had to put the car on the back burner. But recently Ive gotten things straightened out and have began getting serious again with getting the car back together. Hopefully you will all see some serious 3-rotor progress from me very, very soon But in the meantime, picked these babies up. AME TM02s, 18x9.5 +22 all around, running 255/35r18 Direzza star specs. Im really happy with how they look, and hopefully will be even happier with how they perform. They are really gorgeous wheels. Rears look like will work with just a roll, obviously the fronts will require some significant pulling, but should be ok. Just got them in today, took a few pics to share. Id like to say thanks again to Rishie with AutoRnd, couldn't be happier working with him as always.
Rear Fitment:
Vs stock wheel with 225/50r16

 

Front Fitment, as I knew it would require a bit of work. Car will see plenty of track time, so I want full use of it, if stock fenders end up not being able to be modified enough, I will get the oversize OEM look fenders than shine offers. I have a spare set of CYM fenders that Ill be experimenting with the fender rolling with..




I have most of the front suspension half loose for a bushing job, so camber is really whacked out right now



Lots of this in my future ..



Stock brakes look whimpy now.. good thing I have a set of racingbrakes ready to go on

 

Looks like you've got spacers in place.

 

^ No spacers, just a low offset wheel.

 

This looks great Lenny. Can't wait to see it finished. Your brakes should be there within a week.

I'm so excited. As soon as you find some time to take some good pics I will get them on the www.ame-na.com gallery and sent to Japan for their blog as well.

Thanks,
Rishie
President
AME North America/AutoRnD

 

Do you know the weights of these wheels?

They look heavy.

Looks awesome. Im sure they would look even better when the car is dropped good.

 

Theyre fairly light, about a pound and a half heavier than an RPF1 in relation to size, but supposedly stiffer tosionally. If I recall correctly these in 18x9.5 are around 19.5 lbs. I will be posting weights with tires as soon as I can. They definitely arent a heavy wheel though.

 

Going by their website they show list price approximately $5000 for 18" sizes. Just curious, is there a significant discount off full retail? They look sharp, by the way, much better than the overdone black wheels which I personally can't stand (on 99% of cars).

 

TM02's on an FD look super insane.

 

good combo!

 

Nice setup! I recently received a similar order. But I'm running a 275/35/18 on a 10in +25 offset wide wheel all the way around. I'm not even gonna kid myself with rolling/ pulling the fronts though lol. My shine fenders should be here any day now. Can't wait to see more pics.

 

Theres no way these wheels are over 1k a piece. That should'nt even be list price.

 

Haha yea, the wheels are nowhere near that price. Im not sure if Rishie would want me to advertise the pricing he gave me, but Ill say it was less than half of that for wheels alone.

 

Man I thought i was crazy trying to fit a 18x9 with a 30 offset up front, so you must be insane! Looks real good though, please keep us updated weather or not they fit with the stock fenders!

 

Nice. And another wheel that goes in my options of what to get next lol

+22 with a 255 tire looks like a perfect rear setup.

I was gonna do a +15 with a 255 rear tire on a RPF1.

 

I'm running the same tires on my S2000, they're going on the FD next. I also have Q2s on the ZX-10. Dunlop makes a great performance tire for the money

 

Love the tm-02's!

 

lol When I didn't move the decimal point one more to the left like I should have, I figured the 5 Gs was MSRP for a set of four (though I was using 100 yen:dollar for quick math, even though I know the actual $ is weaker). Turns out the full list is <$600 a piece for the 18 x 9.5 size. I take it then that there's not a big discount off that price.

 

Hi Lenny,

I don't understand why you went with that size in the front..... was there no more appropriate offset available? Not breaking ***** or anything, but if youre going to track the car, 255s at each corner can be done a helluva lot easier. Why not some wider rubber? I'm all for flush fitment, but those things stick out WAY past the fender based on the pics you posted.

 

How is it way past the fender? The car doesn't look aligned and the fitment is only done when it has the alignment done. I think it looks great.

 

Hey Rich,
Completely valid point, and something I struggled with asking myself before finally making the purchase. To answer Ill just give my own reasoning. The 18x9.5 is only offered in this offset. They do offer a 18x9 in a +35, or a 18x8.5 in a +45. Obviously either of these wouldve been a easier/better choice reguarding front fitment. I wanted to stick with the same size/offset all the way around, which gave me the option to at least rotate front-rear. I decided on 255 all the way around for a few reasons. One, most track FDs in Japan run that size and seem to do well with that setup. Secondly, with a good tire I shouldnt have have a need,traction wise, for anything wider in the rear. With a goal weight of sun 2600 for my car, I will be running manual steering and I didnt want to create too much steering effort. Ive run much wider sizes in the past, and based off my experience as well as these factors, chose my sizes accordingly. I wish the fronts were a bit less aggressive, but Ill make it work as I need to. So right or wrong, those were my reasons

 

auto-x, road coarse, what's the intended use of the car? I know the auto-x guys get away with 275+ up front with some camber, seems like you could've ran combos similar to them.

 

great choice in tires! i love my z1's!

 

Road course. As I said, Ive ran larger in the past. My last setup was the 18x10 +50 CCWs with 285/30r18 all around. I didn't want to try that with manual steering this time. Im not doing anything competitive, so it was a slight tradeoff between performance and aesthetics, and what I thought would feel better from behind the wheel.

 

Just a quick picture of what the UPS guy brought me today Again, thanks to Rishie and AutoRnd for the great service and price. 4-corner Racingbrake big brake kit.




On a slightly related note, let me start off by saying I love my FD, and always will. But everytime I drop a bunch of money on a big dollar item, I sort of have a "wtf am I doing" moment. Haha. Im confident in the end it will all pay off.. but just looking at the parts I have on a shelf in my basement, theres enough money sitting there for a sizable down payment on a C6Z. Sometimes its hard to justify the cost when that option is in the back of my head.