The Watanabe Family

Watanabe is widely known for their variety of sizes and race-look (probably due to a lot of AE86's having them fitted.) Above is the original RS Watanabe. A simple yet attractive design that grew famous and is now still a very popular wheel. The three-piece version was made by SSR and was called the RS8 and the centres were stamped with the Watanabe logo, just like the original one piece version. Here is a picture of the SSR RS8 showing the stamp I am talking about.

There seemed to be just the one variant of the three-piece RS8 but after a bit of searching and seeing one set priced a lot higher than the other sets of similar size I wanted to inspect to see why. At closer inspection I noticed a few words near some of the wheel bolts.

The 'EIGHT II' isn't that noticeable (for those of you who can't see it, it's at the top of the picture,) but it's possibly the only difference compared to the original RS8 other than the centre cap and the bolts.

I'm not entirely sure what the differences were between the RS8-II and the original RS8 was. Maybe a difference in weight, maybe they were available in different sizes or even just a later model and adopted a variation to the name? There are a lot of copies of this particular design but these wheels by SSR seem to be the only models that have been licensed by Watanabe. This next set is something completely unique.

This might not be part of the Watanabe family but it certainly does look like it. The same number of banana-like spokes and the text on the lugnut cover gives a great hint that it is another variant of the famous style. Though the original RS8 does come in 17" diameters and in these widths, I'd never seen a set in 17" with a reverse lip. I can't seem to translate what the inner barrel sticker says so if someone could help me there that'd be great!