Rchive- An FL5 ownership journal

[Ultimateone]

So I am back on the "I want wheels" train.
But it's a huge problem. Here's the work flow:
1) I want to buy some cool new wheels!
2) Most all the wheels for sale are 18s.
3) The FL5 is too big for 18s at stock height.
4) I live in an area with aggressive driveways, and I don't want to scrape- lowering is not an option.
5) Go back to #1

The other issue I am finding is that boost blue is a finicky beeotch when it comes to colors. I think black looks great, very dark gunmetal or gray is ok, and silver might work in a pinch. But bronze, gold, and white are hideous to me.

Maybe the best play here is to just leave it alone. The stock wheels on this car are far from ugly, and the +60 offset was engineered to aid the lack of torque steer for the whole platform.

Thoughts?

Maybe just try out spacers at first? And can you really not lower the car at all?

Sponsored

 

[Noize]

Maybe just try out spacers at first? And can you really not lower the car at all?

Spacers, definitely not interested.
The one great thing about the stock wheel at stock height is offset is engineered that way to mitigate torque steer as mentioned above.

I do think some lowering could be in the cards, but it would have to be on Ohlins and setup professionally. Its super easy to ruin a good setup by messing with springs.

 

[Clark_Kent]

So I am back on the "I want wheels" train.
But it's a huge problem. Here's the work flow:
1) I want to buy some cool new wheels!
2) Most all the wheels for sale are 18s.
3) The FL5 is too big for 18s at stock height.
4) I live in an area with aggressive driveways, and I don't want to scrape- lowering is not an option.
5) Go back to #1

The other issue I am finding is that boost blue is a finicky beeotch when it comes to colors. I think black looks great, very dark gunmetal or gray is ok, and silver might work in a pinch. But bronze, gold, and white are hideous to me.

Maybe the best play here is to just leave it alone. The stock wheels on this car are far from ugly, and the +60 offset was engineered to aid the lack of torque steer for the whole platform.

Thoughts?

I understand your dilemma. Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone given the limited options for your use case. I agree the stock wheels are a solid option. I would say the same for the OEM accessory wheels. Good job Honda.

From your list above, #3 is right on and key for me. The FL5 lowered or stock height, is too large for 18s. 18s are an absolute non-starter. My reference is the F8x M3/M4. The FL5 is essentially the same size as an F80 M3 and the no upgrade 18" wheels that the car came equipped with looked ridiculous. The factory 19s were the Goldilocks and the 20s (ZCP and rears on the CS) were more on the aggressive end of the spectrum but still looked great.

The CE28N-Plus pictured in this thread would look killer in a 19" diameter wheel on the FL5. The triumvirate of running a larger than OEM section width, aspect ratio, and the car being dumped is sleight of hand to fill out the wheel well.

 

[Noize]

I understand your dilemma. Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone given the limited options for your use case. I agree the stock wheels are a solid option. I would say the same for the OEM accessory wheels. Good job Honda.

From your list above, #3 is right on and key for me. The FL5 lowered or stock height, is too large for 18s. 18s are an absolute non-starter. My reference is the F8x M3/M4. The FL5 is essentially the same size as an F80 M3 and the no upgrade 18" wheels that the car came equipped with looked ridiculous. The factory 19s were the Goldilocks and the 20s (ZCP and rears on the CS) were more on the aggressive end of the spectrum but still looked great.

The CE28N-Plus pictured in this thread would look killer in a 19" diameter wheel on the FL5. The triumvirate of running a larger than OEM section width, aspect ratio, and the car being dumped is sleight of hand to fill out the wheel well.

This is my stock height FK8 on 18x9.5 +45 SAGA with 255/40/18.

In my typical theme of doing opposite what I say, I ordered 18s this afternoon, haha! I got TE37 Saga S-Plus in the same size as my FK8 above, but in Diamond Dark.

There are several reasons why.
The biggest reason, though, is Austin Smith from Vivid Racing. They have a few extra sets of TE37s, and are unloading them at berserk clearance pricing, which I couldn’t say no to. Austin worked his ass off for me, was so patient with my questions and his time.

I might eventually get Ohlins, but in the interim, I’ll run these SAGAs on 200TW tires to get the lateral grip up to where I want.

And that’s another thing, aesthetics can take a backseat to performance when I want/need the grip. The main issue here is there isn’t diddly squat for options in the stock tire size. 18s are a fraction of the cost with every popular 200TW choice available for the taking.

You could get away with not lowering an FK8. And some of the reason why is the stock tire was .5” taller than the FL5 tire.

So I’m trying to find similar math height difference to my FK8. People regularly ran 245/35/20 stocks on that car.

This makes me think I can get away with 265/40/18, which is the 18” conversion of an equivalent upsize of 265/35/19.

With very dark wheels, the visual line cutoff of the wheel to tire is somewhat blurry and eye tricking as seen above.

 

[Clark_Kent]

This is my stock height FK8 on 18x9.5 +45 SAGA with 255/40/18.

In my typical theme of doing opposite what I say, I ordered 18s this afternoon, haha! I got TE37 Saga S-Plus in the same size as my FK8 above, but in Diamond Dark.

There are several reasons why.
The biggest reason, though, is Austin Smith from Vivid Racing. They have a few extra sets of TE37s, and are unloading them at berserk clearance pricing, which I couldn’t say no to. Austin worked his ass off for me, was so patient with my questions and his time.

I might eventually get Ohlins, but in the interim, I’ll run these SAGAs on 200TW tires to get the lateral grip up to where I want.

And that’s another thing, aesthetics can take a backseat to performance when I want/need the grip. The main issue here is there isn’t diddly squat for options in the stock tire size. 18s are a fraction of the cost with every popular 200TW choice available for the taking.

You could get away with not lowering an FK8. And some of the reason why is the stock tire was .5” taller than the FL5 tire.

So I’m trying to find similar math height difference to my FK8. People regularly ran 245/35/20 stocks on that car.

This makes me think I can get away with 265/40/18, which is the 18” conversion of an equivalent upsize of 265/35/19.

With very dark wheels, the visual line cutoff of the wheel to tire is somewhat blurry and eye tricking as seen above.

There's always a method to your madness! I know you'll post photos and share your thoughts. Looking forward to seeing and reading about them.

 

[s2kdriver80]

So I am back on the "I want wheels" train.
But it's a huge problem. Here's the work flow:
1) I want to buy some cool new wheels!
2) Most all the wheels for sale are 18s.
3) The FL5 is too big for 18s at stock height.
4) I live in an area with aggressive driveways, and I don't want to scrape- lowering is not an option.
5) Go back to #1

The other issue I am finding is that boost blue is a finicky beeotch when it comes to colors. I think black looks great, very dark gunmetal or gray is ok, and silver might work in a pinch. But bronze, gold, and white are hideous to me.

Maybe the best play here is to just leave it alone. The stock wheels on this car are far from ugly, and the +60 offset was engineered to aid the lack of torque steer for the whole platform.

Thoughts?

The car and wheels look good as is. Plus, those look like smaller FK8 LE wheels just without the red striping, so can't be a bad thing. Would save the funds.

 

[Noize]

Data dump stock tires imported from FL5 tab of "Evo Ratios"

Tire Diameter​	25.3​
Final Drive Ratio​	3.842​
1st Gear​	3.625​
2nd Gear​	2.115​
3rd Gear​	1.529​
4th Gear​	1.125​
5th Gear​	0.911​
6th Gear​	0.735​

Gears are columns,
RPM/MPH are rows

6700​

36.4​

​

6700​

62.4​

​

6700​

86.3​

​

6700​

117.3​

​

6700​

144.9​

​

6700​

179.6​

6800​

37.0​

​

6800​

63.3​

​

6800​

87.6​

​

6800​

119.1​

​

6800​

147.1​

​

6800​

182.3​

6900​

37.5​

​

6900​

64.3​

​

6900​

88.9​

​

6900​

120.8​

​

6900​

149.2​

​

6900​

185.0​

7000​

38.0​

​

7000​

65.2​

​

7000​

90.2​

​

7000​

122.6​

​

7000​

151.4​

​

7000​

187.6​

FL5 FDR is taller. FK8 FDR is 4.111
FK8 data for comparison:

6700​

34.7​

​

6700​

59.5​

6700​

82.3​

​

6700​

111.8​

​

6700​

138.1​

​

6700​

171.2​

6800​

35.2​

​

6800​

60.4​

6800​

83.5​

​

6800​

113.5​

​

6800​

140.2​

​

6800​

173.7​

6900​

35.7​

​

6900​

61.3​

6900​

84.7​

​

6900​

115.2​

​

6900​

142.2​

​

6900​

176.3​

7000​

36.3​

​

7000​

62.1​

7000​

86.0​

​

7000​

116.8​

​

7000​

144.3​

​

7000​

178.8​

Purpose, determine ideal gear speeds with taller tire on 18" that also visually reduces wheel gap.

Tire choices listed below...

 

[Noize]

Tire Rack pricing and data (late July 24)

265/30/19 Michelin PS4S; $1344, 24 lbs, diameter: 25.3", sec width: 10.7", tread width: 9.2"
(OEM)

265/40/18 Potenza Sport; $607, 27 lbs, diameter: 26.3", sec width: 10.7", tread width: 9"
(1" taller than stock, sits .5" higher, and reduce wheel gap by .5")

265/35/18 Kumho Ecsta V730; $860, 26 lbs, diameter: 25.3", sec width: 10.7", tread width: 9.4"
(Basically same height as stock )

265/35/18 Advan Apex v601; $852, 26 lbs, diameter: 25.3", sec width: 10.5", tread width: 9"

255/40/18 Advan Apex v601; $864, 27 lbs, diameter: 26.1", sec width: 10.1", tread width: 8.7"
(Tire is 0.7" taller vs stock, car will sit 0.35" higher, and reduce wheel gap by 0.35")

255/40/18 Potenza RE71RS; $1028, 27 lbs, diameter: 26.0", sec width: 10.2", tread width: 8.7"

255/40/18 Azenis RT660; $1196, 28 lbs, diameter: 26.1", sec width: 10.4", tread width: 9.4"

 

[Noize]

Diamond Dark TE37 Saga S-Plus
18x9.5 +45. Got these from Austin Smith at Vivid Racing. Got a great deal, he’s awesome.

Waiting on tires to arrive- Falken Azenis RT660 255/40/18. Stock height. Pics soon.

 

[Noize]

 

[Noize]

 

[Noize]

Installed.
Stock wheel/tire combo is 52 lbs even on my bathroom scale.
This combo is 47.2 lbs each on the scale. For the sake of convenience, I'm calling that a 20 lb loss in unsprung weight.

255w tires listed above are Azenis RT660, which run wide, and look as wide as the stock 265w rubber.

Visually, I am really happy with the decision to run this size and not to lower it. It's the best compromise I could come up with to not lose my linear springs feel, not induce extra impact harshness, and still keep my ground clearance.

I took it for a lengthy drive this morning, some highway, then back on super curvy backroads. I was gentle on it at first, because sometimes new tires can be scary with squirminess or sudden loss of control from the mold release compound. Fortunately, that was not the case here.

Let's get the negatives out of the way here first. Just like the FK8, going from a +60 to a +45 alters the scrub radius to some degree, and you'll feel some torque steer. It's not a huge amount, nothing like FWD cars from the 90s, but in certain scenarios, you're going to have to use a bit more muscle on the wheel. The other thing you'll notice with 18s is the amount of cushioning between the wheel and the road that gives some isolation, or I daresay a loss of sharpness and feedback. This is not a loss of control- quite the opposite with these tires- but a numbing of communication. Think a handshake with a thin glove.

Lateral grip for days and days was achieved. Good grief, the biggest part of this whole exercise is that these cars need or deserve 200TW tires. I think they were designed with them in mind. The car is a grip monster, and they match the chassis so much better. The Azenis, like any other 200TW tire, are louder than the PS4S. Not to a big degree, but they are odd at certain times. They have an interesting sound when you cross over painted road lines that normal tires do not. But my goodness, they are perfect for turn in accuracy and maintaining preposterous grip, even with a 40 series sidewall. To me, a loss of feedback for a huge gain in grip is a worthwhile tradeoff. I want my car to BE fast, not just FEEL fast.

One great thing about the extra isolation is that you can wick up the setting on the suspension. I drove a twisty road in +R, and could tolerate it without issue. On the stock rubber, it was mostly unusable.

Some people say TE37s are used excessively. I can't argue with that, why mess with a proven formula? I bought my first set in 2000 for my 2000 Honda Prelude, and have been a repeat customer ever since. But you know what is used even more excessively? Freaking Y spoke wheels. They are like 90% of wheels on the market, and such a tired design to me. TE37s are super lightweight, and easy as can be to clean.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Ultimateone]

the 40 sidewall height looks great actually, the ride must be so nice.

 

[TypeRD]

I appreciate that you included the pic of your garage buddy.

 

[Noize]

Sweetest little cat-back exhaust ever there was.

Sponsored