The Importance Of Stance

It's uncanny how often people ask me what they should do with their car in terms of modification, especially those on a limited budget. While people tend to know where they would like to go, they often are at a loss of where to start their project. This is almost always complicated by a failure to realize a true relationship with your budget and your project goals. Simply, if you have 2 grand to spend on your project you can drop your idea of a complete motor build, wheel, tire, suspension overhaul, an award winning stereo setup, and a complete exterior refresh and respray. Any one of those of areas will in all probability consume your entire budget, so you need to be realistic. As a starting point I can not stress enough the importance of stance, a term we will define as the relationship between wheel, tire, and suspension. Sadly this seems to be the area that people never want to spend money on, being more satisfied with the aesthetic than the reality that the off brands they are buying are no where close to the quality of the wheels they imitate. Now I realize there are plenty of enthusiasts out there that don't have $2500 to spend on a set of wheels, but that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of the incredible deals on used wheels from people like memoryfab. Further, there are several extremely inexpensive and absolutely fantastic new wheels on the market. Enkei certainly comes to mind with their RPF1, as well as Kosei. The ultimate point is that buying a knockoff wheel not only compromises your safety but underwhelms your finical effort. Quality wheels are respectable, recognizable, and by the time your vehicle has hit the vintage point assuming it is somewhat new, will have established a sense of timeless value. Plus real wheels actually retain a fairly flat value which will eventually rise unlike the fakes.

Guidelines for purchasing suspension and tire selections are much the same, [as it is for almost your entire build] buy performance, used, or the few less expensive options that have truly shown their worth. Remember tires may be an unexciting purchase but they are also the only thing connecting your project to the ground, making them arguably the most important purchase you make. Even if you splurge you will never spend less money for such substantial increases in acceleration, handling, and braking. For suspension, your main guideline should be a realistic assessment of what you want to do with your car. If you just want it to be a better daily driver, you certainly don't need to drop a few grand on coilovers. Make a good spring choice, and be happy with the strengthened handling of your car without a large decrease in ride quality.

To emphasis my point on this matter, below is a gorgeously subtle STi, with the only exterior modifications being a front lip and timeless BBS RG-R wheels. A case in point of just how much better a nice wheel can make a car look with no to slight exterior modifications.