Hi there,

I changed my suspension a bit.. it feels soooo much better a lot less rolling in the corners...

But i wonder about how to choose good wheels, my little Protege 1991 still has her stock wheels with Roadhandlers T Plus tires on her.

I have trouble with the size of the wheels to choose against the size of the tires, i think i have to keep the closest possible to the same total diameter of the original tires (wich i think is 185), i'll look tomorrow, but does it mean that i would have to put 15" wheels with 195X50X15 tires?

aaaaaaaahhh, I'm so confused and feeling so much like a newbie.. well i am a newbie to this.. anyway

thx

Al

 

Which rims should I get:

163-6703 16X7 5 1/2 +40 4-100 & 4-4.5
163-6718 16X7 5 1/2 +40 5-100 & 5-4.5

I don't know what the offset and bolt pattern are (in red). Also, what tires would fit those rims? Thanks.

 

You just have 14" stock rims on your car right? You could go with a 195x60x14. Thats what i had on mine before. The Toyo Spectrums were damn good.

 

how would a rim with +40mm offset look on a 1st gen? i dont really understand the concept of offset yet. someone explained to me but u know, an illustration is always better. thanks

 

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/offset.htm

 

Ok so here are the true mesures...

I'm stuck with 13" Iron rims, with 175X70 R13 tires.

they are 4 bolts (is there any difference in 4 bolts paterns?)

i look either to get 14 or 15" rims the largest possible 195 sounds good...

any ideas?

(damn my handbreak cable just broke... and on of the rear ones was stuck... another 300 Can $ down the drain...)

Al

 

I found this pic on a web site its nice!



helps a bit to understand... hmm.. 15" would be nice indeed.. with 7" width

but if i see well could 16" still look good?

dream dream dream...

 

Yes, 16" would look very nice. In fact, I have the same size tires as you do, and I am planning to eventually get 16" rims with 205/45/16 are very close to stock diameter, the error is only about 2% or something. I have 14s right now sitting around, 15s or 16s would be the way to go I think.

 

i went from a 13" rim and tire combo (stock) to a set of 17" rims and 215/45/17 tires. the spedometer is only off by 4 mph...

 

Do you have any pictures of this setup? I'm curious to see what it looks like. How badly did your acceleration suffer due to the heavier rims?

 

yeah i'd like to see that too! sounds really interresting...

could u post the specs about your wheels and tires brand and their price?

 

Well, here's what I did...

My car came stock with 185/65/14 tires on 14" steel wheels. I upgraded to 17" alloy wheels and 205/40/17 tires. If you use the Miata.net Tire size calculator, the overall width was barely changed. It's only off by .1%.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Here's a breakdown of what those numbers mean on the size of you tire

205/40/17
/\ /\ /\
| | |
| | |
| | ------ Size of tire in inches from inner sidewalls
| | -------- Profile of tire...higher the number more sidewall you have
| ------Width of tire from side to side in millimeters