Back to Gold

The Subaru Impreza WRX STI, a magnificent creation, a car that I've dreamt of owning for nearly a decade. The tales of this torque monster have been told many times over, all around the world. The beast tackles some of Mother Nature's harshest terrains and weather conditions. Whether it's on dirt, gravel, snow, or tarmac, you can be sure that there are stories to tell.

The STI has proved itself to me during the time I've owned it. It has not let me down once. It saved PuYang and I when we had our near car accident a few months back. During a midnight snow storm, I'd successfully drove my friend home, and got back home safely while some other cars began to slip and slide. On the dry days, it had an opportunity to make every single passenger I drove yell in excitement as the boost kicked in. When it's not moving, I smile as I leave the car, and smile again as I approach it. It's not a Ferrari, but that's why I love it so much more. It draws attention, and at the same time, it doesn't.

Well the time had come that I reverted the STI back to its heritage, unleashing the beast to its full potential with those 10 spoke Gold BBS Wheels with the extremely sticky Bridgestone Potenza RE070s.

I'm sure some of you can't wait to see some more driving videos huh? I know, I've been itching to spend time under some sunlight with this bad boy. More to come later.

Finally got some Gold

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted gold wheels on a black car. My veteran readers might recall my Camaro V6 concept illustrations. I ended up making three concepts, all of which had gold wheels on them. I was about to pull the trigger on a set of TSW Nurburgrings and powdercoat them gold too, but I sold the Camaro soon after. The truth is, gold wheels on black cars just look awesome in my opinion.

Around a month ago I also made concepts for my 2006 STI. I came up with seven different color variations if I remember correctly. Everyone was nice about it and pitched in their opinions and ideas. Someone even suggested white wheels! In my honest opinion, every one of those colors I conceptualized would look really good. However, at the end of the day, I could only end up with one choice.

Before and After.

I've made a conscious decision about sticking to the OEM BBS wheels from the day I bought the car. The BBS wheels are extremely light and very strong for OEMs. The only thing I wished the car had from the get-go were these gold wheels. Well, thank goodness for online forums and private vendors, because I picked up these gold wheels used for only $400! That's right! $100 per BBS wheel! There is absolutely no wheel rash, only some minor paint chips, obviously whoever owned these wheels knew how to park properly.

I have never seen a set of these BBS wheels so cheap before, especially gold ones. The running price is around $200 per gold wheel, and the condition isn't even as good. If you plan on buying, take your time and hunt down a good deal.

These wheels are 17"x8" +53mm offset. Weighing 19.5 lbs on my scale.

When I got the STI, I made a post comparing each part to my previous Camaro. At the time, I actually wrote that the BBS wheels weigh only 15 lbs each, that was a mistake, I found out I was wrong the following day. The wheels are documented online at 19.2 lbs each, and tried it on my scale, 19.5 lbs. Not sure how accurate my scale is, but this is extremely close to the online documentation, so I'll go with that.

Now I have a spare set of silver BBS wheels and I'm debating what to do with them. I might sell them, or I might keep them for winter tires and possibly paint the silver wheels black. It would be a nice DIY since all of the tires and wheel weights are removed from the unmounting. We'll see what happens. I'll probably be making a video montage of these gold wheels, updates on that later.