legacycentral bbs

I would appreciate some suggestions for wheel/tyre upgrade for this old Legacy that I have decided to give a facelift to. I dont want to compromise the safety or get into low clearance matters inside wheel-arches..moderate wheel size upgrade will do me fine.

Cheers

Paul

usually stepping up one rim size provides better handling/looks, and doesn't compromise the ride quality.

If you have 15" rims, go with 16" rims and a slighlty smaller sidewall profile tire.

Check out tire calculators to try and match your original tire with a new one to keep your speedo accurate.

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=27637

First of all, WELCOME to the Legacy Central!

My '98 bk came with 14" wheels. It now has '02-'04 wrx wheels with 205/55 16 Bridgestone Potenza re92's on them right now and there are absolutely no clearance issues. The "snowflake" wheels (second generation GT or third generation Legacy wheels), the '05 wrx wheels, the '06 Impreza wheels, and some other Subaru 16" wheels also work as they are the same size and offset. (These are US-spec wheels and I don't know if they are the same as the ones in Ireland.) So far my favorite wheels are the snowflake wheels on the bk but I have them in storage since the tires are not safe to drive on.

Other brand tires can be about 1/2" wider than the re92's but they still should have no clearance issues. I'm running KYB GR-2s struts and Whiteline flatout springs on all four corners.

Compared to the new 14" Pirelli tires that came with the car, the 16" re92's noticeably improved my bk's handling (I compared both sets of rims/tires after installing the GR-2s and Whiteline springs).

I don't know the availability of 16" rims in Ireland but in the US, an entire set of used wrx 16" rims with decent tires can be obtained used for about $250 USD if one is patient and keeps looking for them.

You could possibly fit the Subaru 17" wheels with 215/45 17 tires but some have had fitment issues while others haven't.

So, if you want a good upgrade, I would recommend the 16" wheels.

I put a set of 15"x 7" Wide wheels having a 52mm offset on my 91 Legacy, there was a TINY bit of clearance issue found about a month later.

*My tires raised lettering actually rubbed on the inner-most rear fender lip when near-fully compressed during jumps on tarmac.*

(I'm having the body shop remove 1/4" of the lip when they respray it, rather than roll it, to keep it from being a shelf to hold road salt/grime.)

Other than the slight scuff, the 52mm offset fits well. Hopefully that opens up more options for ya on wheels.