I moved from an OEM style 135 set up to a square 17x8.5" ARC-8 set up.
Reasons (in order of importance):
1.) Cheaper tires
2.) Performance gains
3.) I wanted to get away from the style 135s before they cracked.
I'll spare this thread the details of my terrible experience buying the two used wheels, but it's necessary to know I bought the wheels in 2 sets of 2 at different times.
COMPANY EXPERIENCE: Iffy, at this point.
My first pair of wheels I bought by actually showing up at Apex's HQ in Livermore, CA to make a purchase. I had been emailing one of their sales reps back and forth for 3 days to ensure that I could show up at their HQ and buy 2 ARC-8s in under 30 minutes. He said yea no problem at all. (I had TWO job interviews that day and squeezed the wheel purchase in between them; for those curious, I scored the job for interview #2!)
I arrived at their location the next day to buy the wheels immediate after the 3 days of communication with the sales rep. The one employee I worked with while I was there (who wasn't a sales person) seemed... "challenged" at best. It was really awkward working with him. I couldn't just buy a wheel from them there; I had to sit in their lobby and call in an order on the phone. No biggie, I guess. It took about 30 minutes because I had to wait on hold. They don't have any sales people located there.
When I finally got ahold of somebody, I was informed they only had 1 wheel in stock. What the hell!? I've been communicating w/ one of their sales reps for 3 days telling them my plans and what I want to do and he couldn't do a stock check to see if they're low on inventory? I guess that's my fault for not directly asking them to check stock, but still. However, they did made it right and shipped the 2nd wheel to me for free, but it took them six weeks to get it in stock. SIX WEEKS!
After my...used wheel experience..., I had to buy 2 more wheels new from Apex directly. This was about 2 weeks before Black Friday, which I know they have specials. I called them on the phone to see if they had released their Black Friday sale information yet, which they had not. That was fine, but the phone sales rep gave me attitude. He said "So why didn't you just buy them online? Why did you call us?" He clearly gave me a tone as if I was bothering him. Who the hell cares?! I'm trying to give you money! He then told me shipping would be about $55, but online said it was $16.99. I told him this and he made the correction manually after asking me to hold.
Overall, I'm less than impressed when working with their company. Their employees are difficult to talk to, at best. At the end of it all, they made things right but only because I had to keep on top of them and ask them to make changes.
PRODUCT EXPERIENCE: Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.
I was able to weigh all 4 of my Style 135s and 2 of my new ARC-8s. Here's the numbers:
Style 135 Fronts (18x8"): 28.2 lbs and 28.0 lbs
Style 135 Rears (18x8.5"): 28.4 lbs and 28.0 lbs
Squared ARC-8s (17x8.5"): 17.4 lbs and 17.0 lbs
Since I only had 2 ARC-8s to go on (I mounted the other 2 before weighing them), I'll average all 4 at 17.2 pounds. That's a rotational weight savings of 21.8 lbs on the front and 22.0 lbs on the rear for a total rotational weight savings of 43.8 lbs. Quite a bit.
Can it be felt? Oh yes. Oooooh yes. I don't have any real numbers, but I was using the butt-dyno. It was immediately noticeable in acceleration at all levels:
- In 5th gear (in an auto), a simple 65-70mph increase to pass a car felt easier and with less effort.
- In 1st gear from 0-60 acceleration was moderately quicker.
- In 1st gear from a 20mph roll up to 3rd gear (70ish?) was QUITE noticeably quicker. It was an improvement that made me smile.
I'm guessing my 20mph roll felt faster because my VANOS is shot and the lack of power down low made the 0-60 feel not too different (I'm hoping to get it replaced at the end of the month w/ a DrVanos).
One other tangible benefit is the ease of care. I can clean these wheels in probably 1/3 of the time the Style 135s took.
Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase of these wheels. They look great (although the Style 135s look better), perform even better than they look, and will save me money on tires (simply because I went from an 18" to a 17").
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Originally Posted by derbo
