[TurboCanadian]

Ive been looking at wheels for a while since my stock RFT's are almost done and need replacing here. I was looking into getting a square setup on Apex 18" tires and replacing the stock 19" 442M staggered rims on my car. But this would be a bit of an expense.

I'm wondering if the cost of a set of flow formed 18" Apex square rims is generally worth the cost for ride quality and performance on the street over the stock staggered 19" rims?

[Desertnate]

If nothing else, the Apex setup should be considerably lighter than the OEM.

Do you have the MSport Brakes (blue)? Will those 18" Apex wheels clear the brakes?

[TurboCanadian]

Decided to go ahead with the Apex rims. I do have the Msport brakes. Should be no problem clearing them as I have a set of 18" winters for the car that worked fine. ill get some pictures up here when I can. Have to wait about 4 to 5 weeks to get the Apex rims and tires in.

[ntailor]

I have the Arc-8's in 18x8.5 on my F30 with M sport brakes. No issues, running 255/40/18 tires all around as well. Ride is definitely better versus the oem 19's and I can feel the difference in weight. Very happy with the set up!

[i128]

I'm looking to purchase a set as well!

Arc-8
18x9 +30 squared is what I'm looking at.

What did you end up getting?

[TurboCanadian]

Originally Posted by i128

I'm looking to purchase a set as well!

Arc-8
18x9 +30 squared is what I'm looking at.

What did you end up getting?

I ended up going with Arc-8 18X9 +30 squared in 255/35/18 Indy 500 tires with a 3mm spacer for the front (though this may be overkill for a 18x9 rim). Also going for a stud conversion kit. Though I'm wondering if I should switch before the order is in to 255/40/18 to make it more of a stock size.

My hope is to maybe go coilovers later on. Depending if I decide to make this more of a daily/auto cross setup. Though I might settle for lowering springs if I decide to get a more hardcore track dedicated car. Not sure how lowering springs will affect the car with EDC though. But that's for the future.

But my decision was based alot on this thread here: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1732449

[Constantinos]

I recently got the APEX Arc-8 18x9 +30 squared with 245/40/18. No spacers really needed. Personally went with 245/40/18 as it is a "meatier" setup which helps with the comfort and love the look. I had the original 19" staggered 225/40/19 & 255/35/19 and also had a set of Vossen 245/35/20 & 275/30/20. I must say I'm much happier with the APEX.The ride feels so much better. Got them from Wheelsco. in Toronto. Wheels with the Michelin P/S 3+ your looking at around $3,200 Hope this helps!

[i128]

Originally Posted by Constantinos

I recently got the APEX Arc-8 18x9 +30 squared with 245/40/18. No spacers really needed. Personally went with 245/40/18 as it is a "meatier" setup which helps with the comfort and love the look. I had the original 19" staggered 225/40/19 & 255/35/19 and also had a set of Vossen 245/35/20 & 275/30/20. I must say I'm much happier with the APEX.The ride feels so much better. Got them from Wheelsco. in Toronto. Wheels with the Michelin P/S 3+ your looking at around $3,200 Hope this helps!

Originally Posted by Constantinos

I recently got the APEX Arc-8 18x9 +30 squared with 245/40/18. No spacers really needed. Personally went with 245/40/18 as it is a "meatier" setup which helps with the comfort and love the look. I had the original 19" staggered 225/40/19 & 255/35/19 and also had a set of Vossen 245/35/20 & 275/30/20. I must say I'm much happier with the APEX.The ride feels so much better. Got them from Wheelsco. in Toronto. Wheels with the Michelin P/S 3+ your looking at around $3,200 Hope this helps!

Pics?

[Constantinos]

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

[TurboCanadian]

Finally got my Apex rims on. Went with 255/40/18 On ARC-8 18x9. Also put on 3mm spacers on the rear to get them to line up a bit better. No rubbing that I have noticed. Love the new feel and handling. Way better than before. Also amazes me how much lighter these are than the stop 442M.

Tried to upload more pictures but they came out upside down. Will add some more once I can figure that out.

[Desertnate]

Looks great and looking forward to more pictures! Also notice you're running the Firestone tires. Interested to hear your impressions of them.

[TurboCanadian]

The new tires have been a huge upgrade so far. The first thing I noticed was how much lighter the new Apex rims are even in comparison to the smaller fronts. This is just worlds different. I also decided to go with a stud conversion.

To my dismay the stud conversion delayed the tire replacement by a while as the locking lug nuts were overtorqued by the previous shop that installed them. So I ended up stripping the key out the first time I tried to remove the stud. Got a replacement and tried it again, but being much safer this time. No luck still. I tried to see with my torque wrench at 200ft/lbs to see if it would loosen. I even tried it with an impact and WD-40 to try and loosen it up to no avail. Eventually took it back to the tire shop and had them remove the locking lugs for me. Needless to say never going back there.

So I finally after spending another $400 on new tools and parts got my studs in. I will say these make things 10x easier for installs and I love the look of them. The 3mm spacers I put on the rears were originally intended for the fronts to ensure clearance. But after reading a few more threads I found even with 255 I should be fine. So I put them on the rear as I noticed the stock tires sit in the fender a bit and I wanted to flush them closer to the fronts look. I haven't noticed any rubbing at all and the extra rubber on the fronts have really helped with turn in.

I also decided to go with the Firestone Indy 500 tires as I don't really track the car and the price was great. Also the aggressive look was a plus . My Brother in law is running them on his Scion FRS and he said hes has good luck so far. I haven't had a chance to run them in the rain, which is the only concern I have. But running the new rims and tires I feel like understeer has been taken out a fair bit. I have alot more confidence throwing the car into corners. It feels like the suspension is much more compliant and is able to respond to bumps better. The smoothness of the ride has been improved greatly and feels like I am riding on a cloud compared to the stock tires. The only issue I have noticed thus far was a slight vibration over some bridge surfaces that have some grooving in them. But it only shows up when over say 80kmph and on those situations.

I hope to get a chance to find a nice quiet road to push it and see how much better as day to day traffic just hold me up. Overall, it was well worth the cost thus far and other some installation woes things have gone perfect. I love the looks of the whole package and it really makes the car look more aggressive. I hope next to put some lowering springs on it, but well see what the future holds.

I could not get the pictures to upload without being sideways upside down, so I gave up and uploaded them to imgur.

View post on imgur.com