What was the goal?
The goal of adding the new wheels was to make the car look better and to improve the handling versus the steel wheels that it had on before. Having wider wheels adds more grip which is important for a Front-Wheel-Drive (FWD) car as it improves traction under acceleration and braking. Also, going from 15 inch to 17 inch wheels allows us to run a lower tyre wall which means there is less flex in the tyre when taking corners, which in turn makes the car feel more stable during higher speeds and corners (but having a thinner tyre wall is not so good for our Great British potholes!).
Buying the wheels
I had the idea in my mind to get some cheap replica wheels from China through AliExpress, but my mind was taken off it when I realised I would have to calculate the offsets of the wheels to get them custom made.
To make things easier I thought to myself “why don’t we just get the wheels from the ST150”. If you don’t know, the Fiesta ST150 is the performance version of this car and comes with a 2L engine instead of the 1.4L we have in this one. However, it is the same chassis and a lot of the stuff is the same between the two. This led me down the rabbit hole of looking for some ST150 wheels for sale in my local area.
I happened to find a set of ST150 wheels in a small village outside of Peterborough with an asking price of £100. I went in with a cheeky offer of £75 which was accepted. So, I hopped in my daily and headed over to pick them up. I was greeted by David and Lisa who were the loveliest of people, really into their cars and had a couple of fast Fords themselves. We had a good chat and then the cash was handed over and the wheels were loaded into the back of my car.
After loading the wheels, something wonderful happened: the battery died on my car… So there I was, stranded in a random village near Peterborough with a car that didn’t start. Luckily, the perks of buying some wheels off car people is that they usually have something to jump start your car! So I had to do the walk of shame back to the front door and ask for a jumper pack to get me started so I could get home.
I just wanted to say a massive thanks to David and Lisa as they were very kind and great people to speak with!
Here are the wheels after picking them up:
Getting the wheels refurbished
The wheels were overall in good condition, but they needed a bit of a tidy up to make them look 10/10. I was quoted over £450 from a company local to me which seemed a bit pricy. So, I had them taken to Northampton Wheel Refurbishment which cost £45 per wheel (without the tyre fitted) for a refurbishment and powder coating in silver to get them back to the factory finish. In total this cost me £180 (yes that is indeed more than I paid for the car), but it was totally worth it. They came out looking incredible.
Choosing Tyres
In my opinion, tyres are one of the most important things on your car. Because of this, I always like to get really good quality tyres to keep me on the road.
As this was supposed to be a track and street car, I was initially looking at semi-slick road legal tyres. This led me to look at the Nankang NS-2R 180’s. They looked like good value and performance which is what I wanted. Then I had the thought, what if I am driving this and get caught in the rain? After having this thought I went back to the drawing board and started looking at regular summer performance tyres.
The two options that I had in mind initially were:
The Michelins I have run before on a 2018 VW Golf GTI MK7.5. They were an incredible set of tyres and gripped up under the 230 BHP that that car had. They gave me loads of confidence and I never doubted them.
The Continentals I have heard of from forums online. People said they were 95% as good as the Pilot Sport 5’s, but they were a fraction of the cost (which was something I was more open to). The car is 80 BHP so it doesn’t need the grippiest tyres to keep me on the road.
Then I did a bit more research and came across the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6’s. They offer great performance on par with the Pilot Sport 5’s (in other people’s opinions) and they were in between the price of SportContact 7’s and Pilot Sport 5’s. So, I thought I would give them a shot.
I had them fitted at Formula One Autocentres for £110.26 a tyre totalling £441.04. I had an £8 discount code which brought the total down to £433.04 supplied, fitted and balanced.
The tyre size I went for was 205/40 R17.
Wheel bolts
I ran into an issue with the wheel bolts for these wheels. When moving from steel wheels to alloys, you also need to change the wheel bolts. The ones that you need for these particular wheels have floating taper washers on them. I ordered some from eBay for an ST150 but when I fitted them the Ford centre caps on the wheels didn’t fit. It turns out the bolts were too long. The ones I ordered initially were 35mm thread length which were just touching the centre cap. I then had to go and order some shorter ones from Amazon: 30mm Wheel Nuts.
I paired the wheel nuts with some locking wheel nuts from Halfords: McGard Locking Wheel Nuts 24212SU
Does it make a difference?
These made a massive difference to the stability of the car. Before, when it was on the steel wheels it felt unstable going above 60 as it was very floaty. Once I had these wheels installed it felt stable at 60+ mph which was a game changer for going on longer drives.
The grip on these tyres has also been great for spirited drives on country lanes. When people describe a car as handling like a go-kart I think they are referring to how this car handles. I haven’t gone too crazy with this car, but I haven’t managed to get the tyres to lose traction or break into understeer; it just goes where you point it.
Overall, I am happy with how it handles and how it looks. See a before and after below:
