Yokohama Wheels / Advan Rg1

There was a time when rims only costed approximately $400 - $500. I recollect that memory on my first set of wheels. Of course, the wheels weren’t authentic because I didn’t have that kind of budget at the time. It was my sophomore college year and as a full time student and working part time as an elementary reading tutor, I could only afford replicas.

What did I purchase!? You may have guessed it! It was a set of brand new Rota (Track R’s) for only $400 dollars! Can you believe that!? I owned a Honda Civic Si (99-00 EM1) at that time; and if you couldn’t afford authentic wheels, the Rota were the go-to wheels. They were inexpensive and easily accessible! Plus, everyone who owned a Civic or Integra at that time were rolling on Rota’s, including most of my high school friends. So it was nice to be in the cliché and trend of things.

The Rota designs were so identical to the real ones. If you didn’t know how to spot the minor differences between the two, you may just mistaken a Rota designed wheel to an expensive name brand wheel. I’m not throwing shade on Rota; they’re a company that curates to the car community well and actually, I thank them for allowing some of us to make our cars feel equally as valued or important as those with authentic wheels at a certain point and time, I guess. I’ll just say, in the early 2000’s (2007-2010), if you had Rota, you had money, and…some respect.

My perspective changed quickly about wanting to transition from the Rota designs to something different when I first set my eyes on the iconic Advan RG1 wheel. I’ll always remember that memory in my head. I was at the University and I had a few hours for lunch break in-between classes so I drove the EM1 out to a park to eat lunch. I always ate inside my car, typically at a corner of a 4-way stop intersection. As I was eating, I recall seeing a blue Honda Civic Si (EM1) coming towards me at a distance. It rode low to the ground and as soon as I was able to spot the gold spinning wheels on the car, my eyes were just glued to the car. The car halted at the intersection and I was able to identify the wheels immediately. That EM1 looked amazing and made mine looked like garbage! LOL, you live and you learn, you know!

If you were to ask me what my all time favorite wheel is, I will confidently announce the Desmond Regamaster EVO. Although, they were actually the second set of expensive name brand wheels I saw. Anyway, the Advan RG1 had a place in my heart, that day forward. I vowed to myself, one day, I’ll own a set, also in the iconic gold and blue color combo that I saw on the blue EM1. Fast forward, and after multiple sets, I finally acquired my own very set of ADVAN RG1’s.

What was your first set of wheels? Perhaps like me, you also let Rota paved the way at a certain point of your build timeline. Well…here is a long and overdue blog about the wheel that set the gateway to my collection. The ADVAN RG1’s!

Here’s a little history about ADVAN, did you know that Yokohama Tires originate ADVAN. I was always curious to see ADVAN wheels displayed at a Yokohama Tire booth, but never thought much about it. After a little digging and research, Yokohama Tires did not only specialize in tire manufacturing services, however, they began manufacturing wheels as well. How cool is that!? A tire company with its own line and design of wheels (ADVAN). It’s safe to say that when you open up a brand new box of Advan wheels, the wheel cover, has the Yokohama Wheel logo on it. Indicating Advan is umbrellaed by Yokohama Tires/Wheels.

Now I am not quite sure when the RG1’s were introduced into the commercial markets, but if I have to take a guess, anywhere in the early 2000’s. Just look at how timeless it looks. The iconic two tone doesn’t get old. The gold and blue just works! The spokes, depth, and overall design simply shouts how conveniently good the wheel will look on any Japanese automotive chassis.

The six spokes contours well to meet the wheel barrel. You can see concavity from the spokes poking downward toward the edge. The lip is a perfect amount of length. Giving you that functional track appearance! For an early 2000’s cast wheel, it gets the job done. By job, I mean, you can trust it’s durability & and that the design still flows well with many old and new automotive chassis in today’s generation.

Upon further analysis, you’re probably wondering if the wheel still has it’s original finish. Apparently, it does not. I purchased the wheels out of the country. When they were shipped to me, as the seller described, the wheel has history. Curb rashes were prominent around the lip and one of the wheels actually had a major dent on the lip. It did not affect the wheel’s balance in anyway, but it did make the wheel look quite hideous.

After consulting with Kong (Kongo_NSX), he found a shop locally that was able to fix the dent and make it look somewhat unnoticeable. Thereafter, we color matched it, sanded the wheel down and then reshot it with a new base coat. Then, we applied a few layers of clear coat on it to bring its shine back to life. A few days work turned into a few months just because I didn’t keep up with the project consistently, but I am glad I completed it! The finish turned out amazing.

Here is another glimpse. I love how I kept the blue lip and the “ADVAN Racing” logo in its original form and color. I lightly sanded down the rust in those areas and diligently worked my way around the logo. You can see blemishes on the logo as some of the blue was rubbed off and got stuck onto the letters. If anything, the wheel looked contemporaneously old and new. I guess I cannot find a good term to describe how it looks either than the term: “urban.” There are minor color inconsistencies around the wheel, but it truly demonstrates to you that this wheel has aged. Aged well actually, like fine wine.

I was never too meticulous about my choice of tires. I remembered running Nexen tires a few years ago (which I thought were very good wheels), but after that, I just jumped around to any tires that were readily available locally accommodating the right size and specs for my wheels. I became more conscientious about that finer detail after having a conversation with Kong about my tire needs on my RAYS Ce28SL a few years ago.

It was my second set of wheels for the S2000, besides the Desmond Regamaster MP’s. He informed me to run Falken tires and pretty much from that day forward, every tire I have purchased for my wheel collection were Falken tires. The only times when I went outside of that realm is when when Falken does not carry a size I ideally want to wrap around a wheel.

Being a returning customer to the Falken (RT615k+) tires, when I learned that Falken came out with the RT660’s, I swapped on over. It is an extreme summer performance tire! The tread on the tires looks aggressive, the side wall is thicker and beefier than the RT615k+’s and still maintain that street comfort.

You can easily identify the Falken logo around the side wall. The RT660’s are Falken’s latest Azenis tire design at the moment. It’s an affordable tire. It shouldn’t hurt your bank too much. Depending on what size you’re getting, I have seen them ranging from $170 to $240 per tire. It’s a good looking tire and looks real aggressive when paired up with some timeless JDM wheels, like the ADVAN RG1’s.

You can see a side by side comparison of the RT660’s and RT615k+’s. Both tires are new, by the way. I believe less than 500 miles on both tires. Thank you, Falken Tires!

Here is a side view of the ADVAN RG1 on the S2000. As you can see, I like riding the roadster pretty low. It’s about three fingers off the ground on the front. The Downforce fenders tucks right on top of the RT660’s. The Spoon Sport Monoblock calipers sits like a king right behind it.

The specs of the ADVAN RG1 are 17x8.5 +37. The tires are 235/40’s. No stretch or whatsoever, as seen. The tires experiences no rubbing or contact with the fenders upon turning or when I drive over a speed bump, dip; and when driving up a driveway or exiting off a drive way.

With the Hard Race extended lower ball joints, I as able to camber my front joints more excessively and freely. The front is riding on a -4.0 camber.

Another glimpse of how iconic the gold and blue flawlessly flows with the Laguna Blue Pearl on the S2000. Bringing back the early 2000’s with a bang!

This is a staggered set up. The specs of the rear RG1’s are 17x9.5 +35. Not just that, I ran wider tires on the rear as well. Also on Falken RT660’s, the size jumped to a 245/40; giving no stretch. The S2000 has a minor gap from the quarter panel to the top of the tire. My rear camber specs are -4.5 and also with Hard Race lower extended ball joints.

(Side note: I did not shave the tire wall in the rear tire. Actually, the quarter panel had come into contact without my knowledge as I drove it like that from Merced to Los Banos to the Gridlife Concours show in WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway a few months ago.)

The rear setup pokes out a few millimeters. Both my fenders and panels have been rolled. I highly advise that if you want to run this set-up low to the ground like me, please properly roll your panels and fenders. It’ll save you from so much headaches in the long run when you want to run bigger tires while maintaining a lower and aggressive stance.

That concludes this week’s Xplicit blog. I hope I was able to inform you of the tire specs and wheel sizing I have on the S2000. Just because I have it this way for the S2000, it does not mean you can run it like this on yours. Be advised, do some research and ask around which specs will work best for your needs and then start playing with tire sizes to see how tight or stretched you’ll want the tires to look like against your chassis. I’m aim to be a perfectionist, so I try my best to source out the best wheel size and tire specs that will definitively work on the S2000 whilst simultaneously maintaining some comfort and aggressiveness.