The FK8 is a great car out of the box but one thing we hate is the OEM wheel and tire package.

To us it was like riding on some rocks and we did not love the feedback that it gave or the fact that there was no real good amount of sidewall on our tires. Having only had the car for about a month now we decided that our Type R needed an altitude adjustment.

This was going to come in the form of a new wheel and tire package and again with some help from our friend Joel at Whiteline North America.

We wanted to start off with a simple lowering spring upgrade. We wanted to gain some stiffness and change the look of the car but did not need to make the jump to coil-overs yet as the car is still pretty stock. We actually like the OEM dampers. We opted for a set of lowering springs from Whiteline that were a direct fitment for our CTR.

PART BREAKDOWN

Manufacture: Whiteline

Part #: WSK-HONO17

Components: set of 4x lowering performance springs

Specs:

• 4.5kg/mm (253 lb/in) front springs

• 5.1kg/mm (286 lb/in) rear springs

• 20mm ride height drop

• 12% rear bias

This spring set-up was just what we were looking for. The OEM front spring is 4.7kg/mm (263 lb/in) and is 4.2kg/mm (235 lb/in) in the rear. This new set up gave us a more rear bias car which is what we where after. We wanted to get this car to rotate some more in the corners and this set up helps do that while still being comfortable on the daily. Install of the front lowering springs on the Type-R are different than that of all the other trim levels of Civic because of the R’s unique suspension design. We will include a how-to video on our YouTube Channel for spring installation in the future. See the “Pro-Tip” below for a jump start.

Now that we got the ride height where we wanted it was time for some new shoes. We looked for a true performance wheel that would shave weight, fit great and look awesome. We got that in spades from WedsSport and then wrapped them in some Toyo Tires. The selection of the Weds wheels for us was a rather easy one. Weds is one of the few wheel brands that uses the rigor of Motorsports for actual R&D testing. They also continually create new development methods for their wheels. Their AMF technology is some of the most advance wheel manufacturing technology that exists.

PART BREAKDOWN

Manufacture: WedsSport Wheels

Type: RN-05M 18x9.5+36 in Gloss Black

Tire: 275/35/18 Toyo Proxes Sport

Our wheel and tire combo fit perfect under our now lowered FK8 with zero rubbing up front and just a touch of rub in the rear. We are going to pick up some toe arms from Whiteline to dial in a bit more negative camber in the rear and we should be riding perfect. We dialed in about -1deg of camber for now.

So far the Toyo Proxes have proven to be a great ultra high performance all-season tire and we can’t wait to get back to the track and see how they handle.

27WON PROTIP:

As mentioned, the install of the front lowering springs on the 2017+ Type R is a bit different than that of your regular Civic. We found that unbolting the lower front control arm from the chassis was the best way to allow our suspension enough travel to swing down so that we could get our front strut out.