[Focus] New street wheels and tires

[note: this post, like an air-cooled 911, is back-dated to when these events occurred] 

Mountune UK was alarmed to hear about my experience, and they've asked me to send the dead pads back for their engineers to review and share with the supplier. They have offered to send me a new set of pads, unfortunately I can't feel comfortable with their track compound again so they're going to send me street pads. I will update this post once they share their findings.

The road to recovery started Wednesday night when I reinstalled the stock brake pads, and continued yesterday when I ordered new caliper boots and brake discs. I took the next step today, bringing my car in to install new wheels and tires.

I went through my wheel selection process in post 29 above, and at that time I was deciding between the Fifteen52 Podiums and the Holeshot flow-formed option they were teasing. In the end while I liked the look of the Holeshot, the size (19x9, et45) was just a little bit too aggressive for me and I went instead with the Podiums. To go with them I picked Michelin's Super Sport replacement, the Pilot Sport 4S.

I swapped out the stock lug nuts for a set of McGard's SplineDrive lug nuts. I've used these lugs on my Miata and my GT-R with excellent results. They don't rust or wear down, the seat of the nut spins independently to avoid chiseling paint off the wheels, and the black finish on my Miata hasn't faded whatsoever after 8 years of California sun. I expect to pull my wheels off frequently and the posts about people twisting up the stock lugs convinced me to make the change.

First look on its wheels, center portion and faux centerlock nut not yet installed.

I was really relieved to see how well these fit, as I agonized a great deal over offset and wheel and tire size.

On the ground with center caps installed. The only thing I forgot was hubcentric rings - these wheels are 73.1 versus the car's 63.4mm hub. Ordered some and they'll arrive tomorrow.

So here are the final facts and figures:

Wheels: Fifteen52 Podium, 19x8.5 et45, frosted graphite

Tires: Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, 245/35R19

Nuts: McGard SplineDrive

Suspension: stock

Aggressive driving is on hold until I get the brake discs replaced, so driving impressions for these tires will have to wait. But I love how the wheels look!