Nothing's ever easy...
Well, after many delays and much confusion, I finally got my new wheels mounted.
These are 17x8" BBS RC wheels in "brilliant silver" finish with 235/45-17 Yokohama
AVS Sport tires. I bought the wheel & tire package from the
TireRack. The wheels have a 42mm offset, and use the BBS/Moda Precision Fit System (PFS)
which basically means that the wheel is always mounted with a special hub-centering ring.
When the wheels arrived, the wrong rings were installed. I called them and they FedExed
the correct rings out, and so life was good.
(FYI, the correct BBS rings are part #09.23.414 and have an inner diameter of 2-21/32"
or about 2.65625". They are dull grey in appearance. I received #09.23.413, *twice*
before getting the right ones. The .413 part is anodized bright blue, and has only a
2.600" ID.)
The wheel & tire together weigh 43lbs, pretty much the same as the stock setup that I
replaced. The center caps alone are 8oz each, so you can save yourself 2lbs just by taking
them off. (You're required to remove them for road-races anyway, so it's just as well.)
The "brilliant silver" finish is just silver paint on the alloy wheel with clearcoat over
it. BBS also has a "ball polished" version of the RC wheel, but apparently the TireRack
doesn't carry it. It's a shame; you can see the bare metal on the backside of the wheel
and it's much shinier/prettier than the silver paint. The price difference seems to only
be around $10-20 per wheel. I would have definitely got those instead, if they were
available. But as it is, this wheel wasn't even available in the Ford bolt pattern until
very recently so I guess I was lucky to have them at all.
Some more pictures are on my other web site
here, look for the carpix link.