I’ve wondered a few times about putting fifteen on the FR-S. Not only do I think they look make the car look better (or at least different) but 15″ winter rubber comes in some pretty great sizes and is really really cheap.
However, now almost February, it feels like winter is about over, and I’ve lost all interest in using the FRS on ice. Ryan happened to have these OZ Rally Racing wheels hanging around, and by coincidence they happened to make their way over to the garage.
I took the opportunity to see if they would bolt on to the FR-S.
My expectation was that they would not.
I know a of couple guys who have thrown fifteens on their twins, and in both cases, it required serious grinding work or Subaru 4-pot brakes. Neither of these cases however, used a real competition rally wheel that was designed to accommodate biggish brakes.
These OZ’s are a real competition wheel.
For a short time, my Group A spec Speedline Acropoli were in the barn as well. Sadly, during that time, I never found enough motivation to try them on. That’s a bit of a shame because I think that compared to these OZ’s they might have had as good of a chance of fitting or even better.
These are Celica wheels rather than a Impreza wheels. The size is 15 7J +30… with a Toyota 54.1mm hub bore. To get around that on my Toybaru I used a generic 5mm spacer to push the wheel past the interference.
There was ample clearance from the caliper to the face of the wheel. Scrub radius is probably about 10mm past what I would tolerate, but i expect a +40mm Subaru wheel would still have sufficient clearance in this regard.
Radial clearance (i.e. in terms of diameter) to the inner rim section however, was where the issue was. Since I wasn’t serious at all about actually running the wheel, I didn’t poke around too much to try to figure out how much would have to be done to get the wheels workable.
However, the interference was solid enough that I couldn’t even get more than one lug nut properly seated. That suggests that serious grinding would be needed, and at this point, that is not something I’m interested in.
So nothing new. If you want fifteens badly enough, other’s have proven that it can be done. If, like me, you are looking for 15″ wheel that bolts on… this OZ is not it.