Well, I figured I'd let ya'll know I finally have new wheels and tires coming for my Mini. I was hoping for some later in the year, but it was pushed up due to my right front tire getting 3 chunks of metal pushed into it...and it just didn't make sense to replace the one tire.
So, I ordered the very excellent Palo Uber Signature series rims from the guys at
http://www.paloubermini.com. I dealt with Bryce and Sean there, both great guys that will talk your ear off. I got some interesting background on the company, namely that Palo Uber is apparently one of the top 3 living impressionist artists, whose paintings sell deep into the 30k range and above. Apparently he's always been quite the Mini enthusiast as well, and connected with an engineer "Sir Patrick". Sean is Sir Patricks son. Anyhow, apparently Palo Uber fully designed the colors on the wheels, as well as the shape. I had to have a good laugh, because the color I ordered "Uber Grey" was described as a very dark grey. "Winter Black" was described as a very light black. :lol: Alrighty then!!
I did major homework when choosing my next wheel. I went to
http://www.wheelweights.net/ to try and find the lightest wheel that I could both afford and love looking at. Man there are some sweet wheels if you're on an unlimited budget! I'm not however... so there you go. Palo Uber assures me the 17" wheel I ordered will weigh in at 14.3 lbs. (We'll see...the Fed-ex packing weight listed it at 18 lbs... 4 lbs of packing material? Again, we'll see!)
NEXT UP... the new tires. I'm anxious to see how these feel. I read freakin thousands of reviews on Tire Rack on different models. I wanted a tire that had a good treadwear rating, the best handling and grip, while being quiet and perhaps a little more comfy that the Pirelli's I'm replacing. After all of this, I'm going to try a very non-popular tire in Mini circles... The General Exclaim UHP. I already picked them up here in town for about $89 per tire. My price was only a few bucks more than Tire Racks shipped price. I'm going to try 225/45/ZR17's. They look sweet!! One exciting part is they only weigh 19 lbs. per tire... about 5 lbs. less than my next choice, the BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW-2. I think if you take the time to read the reviews on Tire Rack, you'll see why I chose this very inexpensive tire.
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