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What wheel size do you use for the track?

12K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  mosc 
#1 ·
Hi All,

I've owned my 03 WRX Wagon since late 2002, but only recently took it to a track day. What a blast! I read through the whole "Handling Tech" forum, but couldn't really find the answer. What do you guys use and recommend for wheel size and offset for track use for my 03 WRX stock wagon? I'd like to have a dedicated set of track wheels and tires. Well, my car is almost stock, I did upgrade the brakes.

Should I stay with the 16", go bigger to 17" or 18"? For track use, is it still recommended to stay as close to stock offset (53mm) as possible?

Thanks!!!
 
#2 ·
You should use the widest and lightest wheel that you can fit on your car and afford. Lighter weight will make you faster. More width will allow you to safely run wider tires so you'll have more grip. People who focus on performance typically increase the diameter of their wheels if (1) they want to increase clearance in order to use bigger brakes or (2) if the desired wheel specs (offset/width) simply don't exist in the smaller diameter and they don't want to have a custom wheel made.

Your suspension was designed to work optimally at the stock offset, so it is best to stay reasonably close to that. Significantly changing that will make your handling worse.

A pretty common and reasonably priced track wheel to consider is the Enkei RPF-1. They come in a variety of sizes.
 
#5 ·
The fenders on the 02-07 WRX wagons are pathetically small. You can barely fit a 225 wide tire at stock offset. Be very careful on pushing it. Even the equivalent year sedans can handle much more tire. Your stock offset is +53. In my experience, 17x8" +48 225/45R17 on an 02-07 wagon is the absolute borderline. Stock suspension it works, lowering springs it doesn't. +53 offset 225 wide, you should be fine on any suspension. You can actually get 225/50R16 tires that are cheap and work with 16x6.5" +53 stock WRX wheels (02-05) that are cheap and light. Just throwing that out there...
 
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