The other day I was browsing my Instagram when I came across a post from the wheel company fifteen52 showing off a cast key chain of their popular Turbomac wheel made famous by driver Ken Block. My gears started to turn and I shot over a quick inquiry to their sales department. Sure enough they measured about 1 1/8" which is equivalent to a 19" wheel in 1:18 scale. Now these were a bit on the pricey side so I worked out a deal with a really cool sales rep named Paul for a set of four. They showed up two days later.
The next challenge was to see how tires would fit on these. First I had to remove the chain tab which was as simple as a quick tweek with a pair of pliers. The nice thing about this casting was the rim has inner and outer lips so a narrow tire looks stretched or a wide tire can be tucked in for a taller sidewall. I should mention that only late model cars will work here, anything that came with 19 or 20 inch wheels in real life, 18s will work but you’ll have a bit of a fight mounting the tires. So with tire testing done I had to decide what model was going to get a new set of shoes.
Ultimately, I ended up revisiting the New Beetle Cup car that I featured last year. These rims seem to look really out of place on anything but a compact vehicle I found. The nice thing about this older Bburago casting was the wheels come off with ease and leaves you with a great hub to work with. I just sized a drill bit and drilled the back hub of each new rim and they snapped right into place (added a dab of glue for good measure). I also decided to spiff up the tires with some matching sponsor decals as well. Overall it gave this RSi a nice rally look. Enjoy!
