Guys,

As most of you know I am pushing forward at a lightening pace to revitalize / freshen up and mod my aging 03 STR. I have completely changed out the intake and she has the most wonderful blower whine its like music to your ears!

I have also decided that I dont like the look of the XF Cygnus wheels on the STR. I have run these for a couple of years with NO issues but, I dont like how "solid" the face is on these wheels. That said in keeping with my NON-STAGGERED approach (I have always believed that you get and I have also experienced better tire wear when I rotate my tires regularly) I have elected to go with the 05MY XJ8 Tucana wheels. They are a 15 spoke and are in the hyper silver color which is a near match to the silver of my car.

Now that they are here and I can see them up close and personal, I am 100% convinced that this was the way to go. They look so much better in person. I do love the way bigger wheels look and I had been running a 19" Moda R6 wheel prior to the Cygnus. Unfortunately here in Ohio despite the horrendous taxes, they dont seem to like to take care of the roads and the rough / pothole strewen highways around here were a pretty miserable ride on the 19" rubber banded wheels, so... 18" are the only option here...

I will have my full set of really nice Cygnus Wheels for sale if anyone is interested. I will be asking $600 for the set plus shipping and they do come complete with center caps and TPMS sensors - PM me if interested!

Here are the new ones for the curious!

Cheers!

 

Looks good can't wait to see them on the car! I'm lucky Kentucky takes good care of their roads or 20s would really suck.

 

You know Michael, I have to agree! I actually enjoy my road trips to Lousiville, Bowling Green and Lexington... The roads really are nice and smooth and with a 70MPH speed limit is makes for a nice smooth ride through rolling hills and blue grass!

I only wish Ohio would do something about our terrible roads!! I bent 2 of my 19" rims had them repaired then bent them a 3rd time, thats when I gave up and went back to the 18"s...

 

Excited for you Chris. My stock Zeus wheels were repainted last week. Now they are like new again.

 

Okay so the car is still in "hangar queen" status waiting on the new Brembo Parking Brake Caliper, but I stopped into the shop today to visit the car (who am I kidding, I wanted to talk performance mods with my mechanic) and also drop off the newly mounted Tucana wheels and Brigestone tires!!

Here are a couple of shots of them on the car, keep in mind they are not bolted up yet and the center caps are still off but I think its really shows off those nice dimpled / slotted rotors!!

BTW - If anyone is interested, I have the take off set of 18" Cygnus also mounted with Bridgestone G019 Grid Potenza tires complete with center caps and Jaguar logo valve stem caps for sale here on the Forum. Tires are 9/32nds so basically new!

Cheers!

 

Those look painful to clean!

 

Ha! Now that is a completely true and honest conclusion my friend, thank god for the Mothers Power Ball for wheels!

I do like how much of the big Brembo brakes these showcase though. I don't like the staggered setup, always been a fan of rotating tires so when I got those Cygnus wheels it was pretty cool except they are a little too beefy and you can't really see what's behind them...

I think these will help the brakes cool better too just due to the openness.

 

Difficult to avoid getting water on the discs (rotors) when cleaning those wheels I suspect

 

well thank HEAVEN'S for small favors!

 

Those look nice, very much like the OZ Superturismos from the early 2000s which is a timeless design. Curious, in the era of directional tires can you even rotate except from fronts to rear (thus doing nothing to prevent coning)? You can still "rotate" staggered tires from side to side except they will need to be dismounted and then remounted to the other side. I'm a sucker for staggered wheels, but with a flush wheels like those you can not tell visually. Anyway, they look great!

 

Thanks under pressure!

I wanted something with a little more transparency, and I like to run the stock wheels where I can. Funny how we never like the factory wheels on our cars but those same wheels on a different model than intended and they look awesome! Human nature I suppose...

I find that the front to back helps a bunch on the inner tire wear. I think I need to dig up the revised alignment specs and go have mine re-done as I am constantly chewing up the inside edge long before the tire reaches the end of its useful life...

Adding that to list of to-do's now!

 

Chris, the revised alignment spec does wonders for lessening outer tire wear and tracking.

 

Thanks Seth!! Thats what I have been reading, dont know why I havent adopted it before now... Having one of those Duh kind of moments!

 

Lookin good!

 

Here are the final shots of my external upgrades.

Everything is now done and this is the finished product!

I think it turned out VERY NICE!!

 

Looks great man, liking those wheels A LOT more than the XF one's you were rockin' earlier,

Your new R badges are cool too, but I think the placement is a little high, no? I put mine exactly where the original R's were,

 

Thanks man I really like the look of the Tucana Wheels much cleaner and lighter looking the XFs are a little more stout / thick than I like...

Yeah I thought the badges were a little high too... Thats what I get for not doing it myself. I had an unfortuante collision with a semi truck retread at 70+ miles an hour this past summer on the interstate that got me a new front fascia and a repained bonnet. I had the body man put those on while he had it in the shop and well... Never send a body man to do an enthusiasts job... :-)

Maybe I will have to buy 2 more and do it myself...

 

Do it... They're cheap on eBay, I bought a complete set of 3 R badges, cut the old one's off with some fishing line, using the 3M Adhesive Remover and a microfibre rag, I got the rest of the black adhesive backing off, and using a reference to make it sit as straight as possible, I stuck the new R badges on.

Less than a week later, while I was parked at work, someone forcibly removes the R badge from the trunk, using a key or sharp object to pry it up, leaving a scratch behind and a missing R badge.

so I ordered another one off eBay and its been secure since,

I swear, swapping over to the newer R badges seemed to generate a lot more attention from people ...

Would your green growler centercaps from the stock STR wheels be compatible with these wheels? I would prefer the green over the red centercaps on a Liquid Silver car,

Diggin' the new wheels though, and the car looks tight now with the tint, springs and all that,

 

Lookin good cbharley10!!!

 

Beautiful car!