Ever wondered what your car looks like from another drivers perspective?
The saying ‘you cant judge a book by its cover’ is always true, yet nevertheless, there are certain subcultures or trends within the car scene that you should be able to recognize. Car enthusiasts are a vast and varied bunch, and likewise so are the wheels we choose to run.
We’ll break down two sections here, the first being wheel styles, and the second being wheel fitment.
A set of aftermarket wheels can make or break your car. We all know that right? Its easy to see how important choosing the right aftermarket wheels can be. There is certainly a fair bit more to choosing wheels than their appearance… Things like size, weight and rigidity are all very important considerations, and can impact the handling, braking and even acceleration of your car more than you think. If you’d like to take a closer look at wheel weights you can check out our list here!
Once you’re done, Let’s look at some different styles with the S15 Silvia.
If you specifically choose to run a a factory set of wheels to keep the car looking original, and the rest of your car is original and in clean condition, you’re most likely interested in collecting or preserving vehicles, and less likely to be interested in driving and enjoying the car.
This is the term given to any off-the-shelf home brand aftermarket wheels you’ll find at your local tire shop. Bob Jane T-Mart’s are a well known tire shop in Australia, hence the name. The wheels usually look like a bland factory fitted alloy wheel with a home brand logo, or a blatant copy of a popular Japanese wheel. The only reason you’d buy a wheel from your local tire shop is if you don’t know anything about wheels!
These were the wheels that came with all vehicles prior to alloy wheels. However some economy package cars are still sold with steel wheels and plastic hub caps. Some enthusiasts will deliberately fit aftermarket steel wheels with crazy offsets in order to have their car looking aggressive for relatively cheap. Steel wheels are stronger and heavier than alloy wheels.
旧車, or kyuusha, means vintage car. As such this refers to vintage Japanese wheels! These wheels have a very unique aesthetic to them. They are supreme cool and usually are available only in small diameter sizes. Not much needs to be said, take a look and you’ll understand the appeal. To get an idea of some of the most popular vintage wheels check out this article by Speedhunters. These wheels do not accommodate big brake calipers, and you may need to run spacers to have them fit on larger cars!
Many people do not know this but most aftermarket wheels in Japan are actually marketed as ‘dress-up’ wheels. Think Work Wheels… They are most probably the leading performer in dress-up wheels, and have been for a long time. These wheels have a focus on looking cool, and building them 3-piece allows the possibility for custom offset wheels to be made, at the cost of additional weight.
These are essentially dress-up wheels to the Nth degree. They can come in very extreme custom sizes and are outrageously stylish. Be warned however these wheels definitely don’t emphasize light weight. These are typically the heaviest wheels you can buy, and as such would make for a downgrade to your cars performance. Take a look through our wheel weight list to find out what wheels make it to the Super Hardpark tier. I’d say anything over 13kg in 18inch!
These are wheels that have been specifically designed for strength and lightweight in order to improve your cars performance around the track. A good sports wheel will be a single piece aluminium, and sometimes magnesium wheel. The lighter and more rigid the wheel, the better suited it would be for this category. A long term contender is the Rays TE37, which has been improved and redesigned over the years in order to achieve a lighter and more durable wheel. If you care about your driving performance you want a sports wheel. The beginner enthusiast might not understand the appeal behind a sports wheel, usually thinking deep dish and pierce bolts are way cooler.
As expected drag wheels are typically used on drag cars. Good drag wheels are lightweight forged aluminum, and can accommodate large drag radial or slick tires. Noticing these wheels on a street car will give the impression it has some serious power.
This basically refers to any wheel released during the same era as the car its fitted to. If you see a JZA80 Supra with some VS-KFs fitted, it would be termed ‘period correct’. A lot of older, out of print, wheels have skyrocketed because people want to keep their cars looking period correct.
Undoubtedly you’ll be familiar with the wheel styles I’ve mentioned here (unless you own some bob jane specials). But maybe you didn’t know that wheel weight made such a difference. Here at Neon we handle plenty of wheels every day, and have put together a list of wheel weights that is worth taking a looking at if you’re thinking about buying a new set! Check it out Right Here.
Its worthwhile to know that there are many fake wheels on the market. These wheels are cheaper copies of well known designs that are typically cast aluminum with cheap finishes, heavier weights, and prone to cracking and breaking. Please Avoid.
Its pretty easy to predict that when we talk about a wheels fitment we are talking about the way it fits your car and the resulting look it will give. Much like the different styles of wheel design, there is also different styles of fitment you can aim for, but getting it right is a huge part of the wheel selection process as it can either improve the look of your car or just make it look plain goofy. Let’s suss out these examples on the X100 Chaser.
For this next part I’m purposely going to stop using the word ‘wheel’, and replace it with ‘rim’ to get you used to the idea they mean the exact same thing! (please start saying wheel however, we don’t live in need for speed underground)
This is poor wheel fitment. Generally all cars from factory will have rims far too sunken into the guards. Its baseline, and its one of the main reasons we opt for aftermarket rims. Car manufacturers just don’t care about your wheel fitment, they are only concerned that the rims fits within the guards, there are no clearance issues, and can utilize an adequately sized tire for factory performance levels. If you buy aftermarket rims you need to make sure you don’t buy a set that will still end up with sunken fitment.
Probably the most important term to remember. Flush rimswill make anything look good. It really is the perfect midway point for looks, practicality and posture. Flush means the lips of your rims will sit inline with your guards. No sunken rims, no poke. This is a timeless look that will never go out of style, because it looks correct, and not like a fad that will fade.
So you want to lower your car? You want big rims? But you don’t want maneuverability-crippling camber? You’ll need to tuck your rims. For a VIP look you’ll want to start with flush rims at normal ride height and camber settings, and then drop the car and increase the negative camber just enough to sit the rims behind the guards. Or, for a 90’s rap video kind of vibe, you’ll want to have no camber whatsoever, and make sure that your rims are sunken enough to fit behind your guards.
This is extremely marvelous fitment to behold, and requires meticulous planning to pull of correctly. The benefits of running this kind of fitment is.. well, it looks wild really. A static hellaflush setup will use a set of extremely stiff coilovers to reduce suspension travel as much as possible. As you can imagine driving a car like this over the slightest bump will cause your rims to hit your guards. So get ready for a rough ride, lots of scraping sounds, and extremely limited maneuverability. The sensible option would be to use an air suspension system, so that you can raise and lower your car on the fly, from the comfort of your drivers seat. This will allow you to raise the car to a comfortable level while driving to avoid the scrapes and bangs. Keep in mind however air suspension setups are both expensive and heavy! If you like driving your car, don’t opt for a hellaflush setup.
This is the term given to fitment with rims sticking too far out past the guards, essentially the opposite of the sunken look. Its very easy to be overly enthusiastic when buying a set of rims and go for a size to big, or with too aggressive of an offset. If you have some thick rubber mounted a slight amount of poke will make the car look a bit more aggressive, like you’re serious about grip. But too much poke can really look ridiculous and plain unplanned.
The type of wheel you choose to run will show people your style. The rims really do represent the car, and the car will represent the driver. This will attract different types of people to your car, and maybe even influence which clubs or groups you’re likely to become a part of. Drag cars aren’t always going to show up to your local car meets, stance lads with hellaflush fitment will. Those same stance lads aren’t going to be racing up the mountain with the Honda boys on Saturday night.
Do you plan to build your car for the track? If you’re serious about lap times you’ll want a set of lightweight forged rims like the TE37, CE28 or the Advan Racing GT.
Do you want your car to be a heart stopper at the next meetup or show? Maybe some outrageously wide 3-piece rims from 326Power will help give your car that extra edge.
Most of us enthusiasts want to use our cars on the streets and still look good for the show. We want to get a flush look, don’t care too much about the performance impacts of the wheel, and don’t want to sacrifice comfort or functionality so a midweight dress-up wheel like found in the Work Emotion range, or the Rays Gramlight range are extremely popular. Thats it for wheel styles and fitment!
If you have found a set of wheels in Japan you’d like to get your hands on don’t hesitate to contact us for a quote on getting them delivered straight to your door. We have experience handling brand new wheels and are confident our prices are low as they go. We also have plenty of experience sending pre-loved wheels purchased through yahoo auctions or other trading posts here in Japan.
If you don’t know where to look for car parts you could subscribe to our mailing list at the bottom of the page! Also check out our search terms resources to find words you can use to search for parts in Japanese!
Thank you for reading! I can’t take credit for the cool pictures in this article, they were all found on the internet.
I hope you enjoyed <3
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