RS Watanabe Eight Spoke's for Oldies?

A pair of RS Watanabe Eightspoke beauties
(courtesy of Club4AG)

      You might wonder what is a Watanabe? What is an Eight spoke? You may see them on some notable Japanese oldschool cars (especially drift cars) like the AE86 or the Datsun 240Z. I started loving these rims when I started watching Initial D a few months ago. At first, I  wondered what those dark wheels are called?

 

They look like spider legs. I thought they were called spiderims. Something Spiderman will choose for this own 'Spidermobile'. Batman has a batmobile, why can't spiderman? He deserves to rest his arm-spitting spiderwebs for a change.

 

One of Racing Lagoon's CGI showing BLR Team
(courtesy of Square)

Often times I see them on some videogames especially an old Playstation game from my childhood, Racing Lagoon. They were called RS-Spider in-game and came in various colors too just like in real life. Red, Yellow, Gold, Blue even. Crazy game it was and you can put them into almost any vehicles. (Imagine putting those on a bus with some crazy tuned engine and some Aero parts from the game). Racing Lagoon deserved a sequel. Alright, enough about videogames.

    

Rims of an AE86 Initial D replica
(courtesy of Club4AG)

Often times I think if these rims look good on newer cars of today. Well? Oldschool cars looked cool with these rims. The only time I saw an actual Eightspoke wheels is when I was going to work. It was a 90's Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 with  gold Watanabe eight spokes.

 

I wished to look at them at close and touching them. That Galant looked nice having those Watanabe rims. They especially look great if you have a Toyota AE86 Trueno or Levin perhaps. If Bunta Fujiwara is alive in real life, I might ask him if I can do an in-depth review of his AE86 with Takumi.

Now comes for the hard part. Will these rims look good on newer cars such as the new Toyota 86? Maybe some of you might think they look ridiculous. Or you might think they look out of place or outta time. Think again...

 

A 2012 Toyota 86 with Eightspokes
(Courtesy of FT86Club)



In my eyes, the eightspokes fit like a glove and it looks good especially the magnesium F8's with the right size and the right weight. These rims will make you drift like the Drift King in style retrotastically cool.

 


A 2012 Toyota 86 racer with Eightspokes
(Courtesy of FT86club)

Now what do you think? Let's talk about it.


As Takumi said in Initial D 3rd Stage. What a boring Christmas. It's fine for me. I'm used to it. And I got this blog to keep me company.

Special thanks to Club4AG and FT86club for featuring these nice 86's with watanabe eightspoke rims.

*Be sure to stay tuned for more car reviews and other tips. Follow the Lonely Driver at Twitter: @LonelyDriverTWT