Anyone with only a mild interest in cars who finds themselves reading this will surely wonder what the big deal is. It’s just an old set of wheels with a frankly love-them-or-hate-them design. To the rest of you – my fellow automotive obsessives – I’m sure this will be perfectly understandable. If I were to write down a wishlist of parts that I hoped to fit to the S15 some day, these would be at the very top. These are my Holy Grail for this car.

Maybe you’re curious as to why though. Why do I place these above literally every other wheel on the market as the one and only set I ever wanted for an S15? What drew me to these?

For that we need to rewind to the early-mid 00’s, back when I was first introduced to the S15 platform and fell head over heels for it. There were a few examples of the chassis that drew me in but there was one in particular which cemented my love for these and made me promise myself that one day, I would have an S15 of my own: the HKS Genki Hiper Silvia.

Technically this wasn’t one car, but two (the RS-1 and RS-2); however the latter was essentially an evolution following the learnings from the original. Regardless of which specific S15 it was there was no denying it looked utterly incredible, especially when fitted with the mis-matched red and yellow Super Advans. Han’s “RB-swapped” S15 may have been referred to as such, but for me this was the Mona Lisa of the drift world. Nearly 20 years later, I still hold this as the ultimate S15.

Part of what made it look so good to me was that quirky set of twin three-spokes sitting under the arches. They were unique, and the red-on-red (and red/yellow-on-red) combo looked amazing – and from that moment the Super Advan V2s forever became THE wheel for an S15 in my eyes. Some time in the late 00’s I picked up a die-cast model of this very car (complete with the yellow pair of wheels) and even have a 1/24 set of Super Advan V2s in my model car parts stash, to some day be used with one of the numerous S15 kits also sitting there. Once the real S15 came into my life then, the hunt was on for an actual set of V2s and that brings us to last summer…

While I always hoped that some day I’d have a set of my own, naturally I had no idea of when exactly that would happen since these haven’t been in production for some time now. I certainly hadn’t expected to find a set so soon (a little over a year after buying the car, for those wanting to keep track of the timeline) but these popped up and I wasted no time in getting the process started. I also didn’t expect it to then take the better part of another year before I’d see the car outside and rolling on them however, and now you’ll all find out why these had been teased and talked about for so long…

Rewinding to last summer, you may recall that I’d picked up a set of LSRs to try something a bit different on the S15 but they ended up being sold off almost immediately because these V2s presented themselves. It was almost dumb luck that I found them too; I was scrolling through Facebook one day when I saw a new post in one of the S-Chassis groups I’m in from a soon-to-be owner in Edmonton, Daniel. He had just won an S15 and shared one of the photos from the auction house, showing a rather nice-looking Spec R sitting on Super Advans. I left a comment congratulating him and expressing my amazement that he found a car with those wheels.

He then replied that he didn’t actually want them.

So, despite having already received tires and being still unused, the LSRs were promptly listed and sold while they were still brand new and pristine. Daniel and I agreed to keep in touch and the initial timeline had it looking like his S15 would be arriving around the same time that mine would be back from paint. If only we knew…

Sure enough, just a couple of days before mine came home for reassembly Daniel’s R was delivered to a shop in Edmonton to start the OOP process…and before he even saw it with his own eyes, it was sideswiped. How the other driver managed to hit a parked car so severely we have no idea, but he took out the passenger side quarter panel, rocker panel, door, and fender in one fell swoop. And one of the V2s.

And so began a long process dealing with insurance, complicated by Daniel’s car being RHD, newly imported, not yet registered of course, and so forth. A major thanks goes to Daniel for being a top-notch individual, providing regular updates as the whole mess was dealt with – but with repairs up in the air and him not being able to remove parts from the car until everything was sorted out, any plans we had in place to meet up were pushed back.

Fortunately things were eventually squared away and he then prepared to spend the winter working on redoing the car in prep for this season, but that still left the damaged V2. When I was up in October to grab the Rays I met up with Daniel briefly to say hi in person for the first time, and finally see the wheels with my own eyes. He’d already checked with some repair shops local to him and we had rough pricing for putting the lip back into round, but it was decided that I would deal with the fix myself. With the other three in great shape for their age (and the fourth as well, lip aside) we finalized everything and a few weeks later – in November – I was back in town to grab them at last (the Suburban was still at Speedy at this time and I wasn’t able to fit all 8 wheels and tires into Dijon).

And so at long last I had a set of Super Advan V2s to call my own! I should point out that I was originally planning to get the centers refinished because I didn’t think I’d like their original Silver Metallic against the Chalk, but for their age the spokes and decals are way too clean for me to mess with just yet and as soon as I rolled one in front of the car I was pleasantly surprised with how good the pairing looked. Maybe in the future?

Anyway, the S15 ended up sitting with a pair of V2s all winter long hence the wheels being covered any time they were visible in recent videos or photos in the garage. I was overjoyed seeing just two on the car, but there was still the matter of having the fourth repaired before I could then move the car out in the spring to swap the other side (the front wheel here is actually for the driver’s side, but the wheel that was meant to go there was the damaged one). After researching a few options and checking with friends who had used local shops before, I got in touch with Kwicksilver who not only had the wheel repaired faster than expected, but for less than expected as well! The tires that had come with the wheels were also still very good with tons of tread and time left in them, so at last it was just a matter of waiting for the weather to improve so that the car could receive its other two wheels and finally come out of hiding.

And boy, was it worth the wait! A couple of weeks ago I threw the camera in the trunk to go and grab what I thought would be the full set of photos with which to compile this post, but the skies opened up shortly after I hit the road so after a failed attempt at the military museum I ended up heading back down the road to Chinook to throw the car under cover in case there was more than rain coming (because Calgary).

The parkade did happen to be nearly empty so I was at least able to grab a few more photos while there, but ultimately I decided to call it a night and then take the car out for a bath and new photos the following week.

Happily, this time around the weather cooperated and I walked away with a few shots that I’m very pleased with!

To get into a bit more detail on the wheels themselves: these are 17″ versions, better suited for a fairly tame car like this if you ask me, as opposed to the (rarer) 18s. They measure in at 8″ wide up front and 8.5″ out back, with a +35 offset all around. I am running 3mm spacers up front however, to clear the coilovers. The tires are – appropriately – Yokohama Advan Flevas, in 215/45 and 235/45 sizing.

The wheels’ sizing won’t win any internet points for aggressive fitment, but that’s just fine by me. In fact, the fitment is right in line with what was run in the period I’m trying to pull inspiration from for this build. If I ever decide I do want them pushed out, I can always get some spacers (worth noting is I haven’t adjusted camber or anything else since running the more aggressive Works).

I might also look into ordering some center caps to be the icing on the cake (it looks like you can still order caps that’ll fit these, new), but that’s for another day. I have some other things to get to on this car.

For now though, I’m a little busy still staring at these new wheels. It may not be the HKS car(s), but it’s an S15 on Super Advan V2s and that’s all I ever wanted! Actually, before picking Chalk I had even entertained the idea of respraying the car red as a nod to the Genki Hiper Silvia, but that idea was quickly binned. The fact that my mother and I already both own Yellow Blaze Mk3s (both on white fifteen52s, both with SS Tuning flares) is kind of funny. If we also both owned a red S-Chassis, that’d just be stupid. However, the Silver Metallic/Chalk combo is somewhat similar of a look to the red car/red centers of the HKS S15, so I suppose that worked out?

Another thing that worked out was the weather delaying this post. It’s coincidence that it lines up with our regular posting schedule, but today is “S15 day” (5/15) as it happens. However, it’s also two years to the day that I first went to look at this very car after Dustin found the ad on Kijiji and sent it my way. Two years ago I couldn’t believe that I was looking at what could (and did) end up being an S15 of my own. Today, I can’t believe that it has not only come so far, but now sits on Super Advan V2s just as the coolest S15 ever built did way back when. Mustard has its forever wheels in the form of its 9.5″ Tarmacs. These then, are the S15’s forever wheels.

-Bill