BRZ/FRS/86 owners assemble... wheel sizes that work?

So I'm looking at Tire Rack at the moment.  I understand wheel sizing and aspect ratio, but deciding on offset and how wide I can go is not my experience.

This seems like the Easy Button.  But I'm curious about trying a wider wheel, I've usually just stuck with OEM dimensions, or with the Crosstrek I went w/ 16" vs 17" for snow tires.

What works with an OEM suspension?  I've already added Eibach Sport Line springs to my "Save for later" area, seems like another Easy Button for something I don't plan to get too crazy with.  They worked well on the rallycross MR2 and Abarth.

(I should mention 8 and 9" widths have 3 and 1 in stock, at least 7.5" has all 4)

I have the 8" version of the exact wheel you're pointing at, right down to the color. Fits fine running 225/45s at stock ride height. 

Any plans to make more power? If not 7.5 or 8" is the width to get.

I have some 17x7 Motegis that I bought off of Jeff Schwartz (yes, that Jeff Schwartz) They are in the exact size/offset as stock, 17x7 +48. I wish they were a +42, but they were cheap enough to overlook that.

Jerry, I have some charcoal 17x8 slipstreams in +42 that might be perfect for it

Sparco Terra in gold or bronze?

18x9.5 ET38 with 255/35/18s will fit if you have coilovers (this is the exact setup I ran on my BRZ with Dunlop Direzza II's). If you're on coilovers and willing to trim the inside of the rear bumper you can stuff 18x10s with 265/35s under the car. 

Enkei made an RPF1 in that exact fitment specifically for the BRZ/FR-S. Check out a Subie specific aftermarket shop and they will have that size in stock. Tire Rack isn't a great place to go for wide fitments. 

I had 17x9 ET 42 on mine with stock suspension.

I didn't realize that we had so many guys here that own one of these.

I think a whole bunch of us bought one recently. 

captainawesome said:

Any plans to make more power? If not 7.5 or 8" is the width to get.

It has a turbo, so it has "more" but not sure how much "more".  I don't plan to add any more "more" though.

eastsideTim said:

Sparco Terra in gold or bronze?

I do like the Terra's.  Have black on the Crosstrek and had grey for the WRX street tires.

In reply to Jerry :

I would think that anything with a turbo WILL get the boost turned up at some point 

Ran Konig Dekagram in 17x8+40 with 225/45r17 tires on stock suspension with camber adjustment bolts in the struts. Plenty of clearance and filled out the fenders well.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to Jerry :

I would think that anything with a turbo WILL get the boost turned up at some point 

The stock fuel system will support nearly 300whp.

I ran have ran two different sets of 18x9.5 on my FRS with coilovers and under full lock you will get rubbing. Especially on a tight autocross course. That was also with 245 tires. Love the look, but would stick with 9" if you have the juice to roll them over.

captainawesome said:

I ran have ran two different sets of 18x9.5 on my FRS with coilovers and under full lock you will get rubbing. Especially on a tight autocross course. That was also with 245 tires. Love the look, but would stick with 9" if you have the juice to roll them over.

Saying the size without the offset isn't particularly useful.

When you're talking about extreme fitments, a few mm offset one way or the other can make a big difference.

Over-tiring is the biggest thing I see people doing with the FR-S... simply not needed and will make it less responsive. Stock wheels are also heavy for a 17x7... over 20 lbs, decent aftermarket wheels will drop that down to 15-17lbs . Never changed from stock suspension on my FR-S for the 8 years & ~65k miles I had it from new - partially due to the fact I really like how the intial FR-S suspension setup was on them before they watered it down some from 2015 on... most tail-happy and fun stock setup. Suspension after 65k was still in pretty good shape, but could tell it wasn't like it was when new - if I kept it would have been time to think about what suspension to replace it with.

Really liked the 17x7.5 +40mm offset Enkei Fujin wheels (shame they were discontinued) I ran combined with 205/45-17 Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 tires... slightly smaller OD than stock but much more nimble and quicker responding along with feeling more stable due to the resulting free CG drop and slightly wider track.  I also ran 17x8 +36mm offset Kosei K4R wheels with stock 215/45-17 size Kumho Ecsta XS tires, bought for track. Much prefered how the Fujin/ Indy 500 setup felt on street compared to the K4R/XS setup...was much more responsive, balanced, and nimble feeling. The Firehawk Indy 500s is also one of the best daily driver tires I've ever experienced...equally excellent in dry or wet and a bit more forgiving/settled than the Continental DW at the limit. If have aftermarket exhaust which gets rid of the stock muffler which doubles as under body flow device, then cutting the fake diffuser area from rear bumper out helps with getting high speed stability back as well - you'll think its a tire issue at first @ 90 mph+ until you figure out its actually a rear end aero issue

My former not overtired FR-S on stock suspension with 205/45-17 Firehawk Indy 500s on 17x7.5 +40 Fujins...

This is also a great, massive resource for fitment, from actual users.

Club FT86 Wheel Fitment Guide

In reply to Vracer111 :

False. If you're looking to be competitive, a certain well-known vendor has proven time and time again more tire is faster. 

I never had a problem getting the car to move around with 255 200TW tires. And never felt it "wasn't nimble." It does definitely raise the performance envelope. 

I'm no help since mine is on 15x6 wheels with 185 series tires, but I'm interested in the answers here.  Personally I'd probably be aiming for as much tire width as I could reasonably fit on a 17" wheel of some sort to keep a decent sidewall and not have to fear potholes.

Good point about the 17s - one thing that the guys from CSG repeatedly pointed out is that the faster Time Attack etc Frisbies all run 17" wheels instead of 18s. Looks like they got the OEM wheel diameter right on that car.

In reply to BoxheadTim :

And you can still fit 255/40s on 17x9s under stock fenders. 

In reply to z31maniac :

I was thinking of it from normal driving side and running stock suspension as long as possible without drastically accelerated wear, not really on competition with the stock suspension. Know the wider wheel/tire setup is what works for competition... but that will also aggressively use up the suspension life and upset the chassis more on rough surfaces (which really requires a better suspension to handle the noticeably increased unsprung mass). Ride quality noticeably decreases on the stock suspension with increased unsprung weight. FR-S is one of those cars where you noticeably feel something off in the handling with a tire that's only dropped 1-2 PSI from a slow leak.

Maximizing tire while not increasing weight any from stock (reducing as much as possible would be more ideal) would be best on a stock suspension if you are not looking to really accelerate its wear and keep it for a good while. If you can keep wheel & tire size smaller and lighter and just change to softer, grippier tire compound that would be more ideal. I was surprised how well the stock suspension held up on it: even though you could tell it was somewhat worn from new @65k miles, it still had very good control and felt like it would have no issue going 80k miles or even more before would be noticeable enough to really feel the need to finally change it out.