New wheel(s) arrived!

FINALLY new wheels! Well wheels, wheel. It's a long story - what's new.. I wanted other wheels with a lower offset for several reasons, but mainly to loose the spacer up front and still clear the huge AP Racing calipers, as well as fill out the rear arches. Of course they had to be JDM and I still think on a 185 monoblocks with not too much spokes look the best. I knew what I wanted for a long time now, so it had to be Volk Racing TE37s! In the RAYS catalog I noticed they offer some models 'for european cars (VW/Audi)' also, which means the 8J TE37 is available in +35 compared to the normal +38. Because I really want to give the car a mean stance this time, ithad to be the +35. So.. Order, pay, done.

.. Not. After I paid for the lot I was told RAYS couldn't guarantee the +35 (euro) wheels would fit on my Jap car. Why? They said the euro wheels use bigger stud holes (14 mm) compared to the jap wheels (12 mm). The taper added to those holes 'might' also be different, they said. "For safe RAYS say normal off set is better. You want change order?"

14 mm holes are no problem since the nuts would only sink into the wheel a bit more which is ok. OZ Racing and other brands use 14 too.. However, if the taper has a different angle I would have to source other nuts with that same angle. I asked what the difference was - smaller or bigger angle? Or rounded like some VW's have as standard? I want to use JDM lug nuts (yeah I know.. but beauty is in details). "They're not too sure about it". WTF, they MAKE the wheels so they should know and tell me?! I decided to do some research.

RAYS USA: No, the TE37 doesn't even exist in +35!
Me: Please explain why you have listed them on your website then?
RAYS USA: Ehh, ok but we don't know.

RAYS NZ: Correct, they use another taper indeed.
Me: Ok, do you have genuine RAYS nuts which suit both those specific wheels as well as my Celica?
RAYS NZ: Yes. But you can only buy them if you order the wheels from us too (more expensive plus I already ordered from Japan).
Me: Yeah but I only need the nuts, can't I order them from you?
RAYS NZ: .. [no reply]

RAYS Japan - couldn't find direct contact info.

Several dealers: How should we know? Just get the +38 then.

Aarghhh!! No! My current wheels were sent in a too high offset, so now I'm spending a lot of money again I want them to be as close to perfect as possible! After thinking long and hard about it, I decided to bite the bullet and just have one euro model sent to me. I wasn't able to return the wheels so I decided to get just one since I'd lose a lot of money trying to sell 4 of them over here in that size. If it won't fit I'll make a coffee table out of it with a glass plate or something 8)

But no need to make a table out of it! It turns out the taper is exactly the same, dunno why those Jap mofo's couldn't tell me that in the first place.. I borrowed some Play-doh from the daughter of my neighbours to make an inverted copy of the stud holes and I roughly measured 60 degrees of taper. So that's the same as the RAYS lug nuts I use on my current Gram Lights. I also checked with the paper AP Racing template to see if I got enough caliper space and that's also fine.

Anyway, pics!









AP Racing brakes should fit:



7.0 kg each, nice..



The real test was fitting them to the car of course:





Yes, they fit indeed :





Fat ass!



Arches will need to be rolled inwards a bit..



The remaining 3 wheels will be sent to me soon too and I hope to have them on before the first big meet of this year in a few months. I hope to have the STACK installed too then. I'll take some pics of it though

Those are very nice congrats.

wow i am so envious. i wanted those wheels for a long long time in that exact color............................................................................ :shoots:

superb choice of wheels. i take my hat off to you René >>> you know what you want and how to get it!


now to order the other 3 and sell the other 4 :twisted: 8)

Meurz":2avvci5s said:

(...) In the RAYS catalog I noticed they offer some models 'for european cars (VW/Audi)' also, which means the 8J TE37 is available in +35 compared to the normal +38. Because I really want to give the car a mean stance this time, ithad to be the +35 (...)

Click to expand...

so what's the CB? it's not a 54.1 mm?

nice wheels!
but I have a tradinional question: where's the center cap? :shrug:

Thanks for the nice comments guys!

The Gram Lights will be sold if the TE37s are on Gary, makes driving abit easier.

Eddie; CB is 65 mm, just like the +38 'jap' model. But I've ordered RAYS adapter rings with them, OD 65.0 ID 54.1 mm.

Traditional answer: I don't like center caps.

Whoow, nice wheels. I love the mat look of the inside, and the polished lip.
Expensive bet though.
Good for you it came out in your favor.

Is there a spacer on the rear one?

If so, maybe we could do a GB on rolling our fenders. :lol:

very nice, I wanted to go with the TE37 but got way to sick of a deal on my Works to pass it up. My Dream is to (somehow) get real TE37 Time attacks on my car, its allready red with black trim

I have the same color size and 32MM offset, they will look amazing! who needs center caps anyways

do you have spacers in the rear in the pictures?

You will need to roll you're fenders, mine rub.

I still need the rear spacers indeed.

Very nice.

I'd be curious to see how they'd look in black with those brakes of yours.

my wheels are the same size and offset, and with the 1" H&R spacer in the rear, i had to roll the quarter panels quite a bit....and they still rub on large bumps....let me know how it goes.

NICE! But those wheels are almost 2 years old! Bet they saw some track time on a black TT :evil:
They look much more serious than your current 7-spokers :wink:

sims":1xtprzdq said:

very nice, I wanted to go with the TE37 but got way to sick of a deal on my Works to pass it up. My Dream is to (somehow) get real TE37 Time attacks on my car, its allready red with black trim

Click to expand...

Time attacks were never available in a 5x100 pattern.

well the TE37's weren't........ yet :evil:

They are avaiable in the Gram light 57

Only in Scooby offsets.

Got the other 3 too:



8)

SO when do these end up on the car? I can't wait to see. What tires are you going with?


I just saw a new concave te37 that had me interested.




I have been thinking about getting the concave LMGT4 wheels in 17" when I do my bolt pattern conversion.

Please no Nismo wheels on an alltrac

the concave-ness(?) of the TE37 is determined by the offset I belive, just like my wheels.

In the offset we require they will not look like that.

That would look bad-ass indeed but like sims said we don't have that option. I'd be interested in a rear 114.3 conversion. Front is ok, rear could use dished TE37's for an ultimate bad mutha stance. 8)

Tires will be Toyo Proxes T1-R in 225/45/17 probably.
I'll have the rear arches rolled before they'll go on, dunno exactly when but don't worry - I'll post pics when they are :wink:

concave is all about the offset....less offset the better