First world problems is a phrase that gets used a lot these days, and I found myself with a ‘problem’ that could be described as such. Last winter, I wasn’t very happy with how the Focus looked on the OEM 16″ wheels. I had been okay with them in the previous years but with the car progressing and becoming more modified they looked out-of-place. Especially once the ST nose was installed, the 16s looked rather tiny and they were way too sunk anyway. There was nothing wrong with them aside from aesthetics, but something had to be done.
The solution was made possible when the Rays came into the picture. While they would be the new summer wheels, I had no plans of saying goodbye to the Tarmacs. The sizing was perfect for the car and I really liked the look of the white against the yellow paint, so I decided that I’d use them as the new winter wheels to replace the stock shoes.
But why use such nice wheels for winter, you ask? Many have asked and as I reasoned, since we spend about half of the year in what we can call ‘winter’, and thus our cars spend about half of their lives in Winter Mode, why not have some nice wheels for those times? Using the Tarmacs instead of the Rays makes more sense too as the Rays are in better condition and being lighter are better for performance, so the Tarmacs were set aside to wait for some new winter tires.
After some searching on Kijiji I grabbed a set of Dunlops in the 235/40 sizing I was after. Not long before I picked them up I happened to hear an ad on the radio and the one sentence I remember from it was along the lines of “there’s nothing exciting about buying tires”, but I disagree. After missing out on a couple of sets of tires, I was extremely happy with the deal I found and couldn’t wait to get them mounted.
Yesterday I brought the Tarmacs back to Zero Limit along with the Dunlops, and before long they were ready to go. Thanks again guys!
As soon as I got back home I set about switching out the 57DRs for the Tarmacs. While I like the Rays obviously, I was very happy to see these back on the car.
This also puts me back in the white wheel crew, which is another benefit to using the Tarmacs as winters. What can I say, I like white wheels! Both of the Grand Prix’s sets are white in fact.
As additional winter prep, along with getting the new tires I had the cup spoilers wrapped in 3M recently to keep them safe. After some consideration I decided I’d keep the ST nose on the car for now – I’ll see how far through winter I can get with the ground clearance, but the car stays parked on the really bad days anyway. If this proves to be too low I can swap the original bumper back on, or help my neighbours by trying to clear the streets with this one.
Fortunately we haven’t really had snow yet (aside from the major storm last month) but at least the car is ready now. With the new winters sorted however, I’m left with another first world problem – now I wish the 57DRs were white. Haha.
-Bill