help with major investment for wheels and tire package

[Omnislashx82]

ok so i am currently sitting here glaring at my tire rack wish list and it is hurting my soul to not hit the check out now button and i figure i would ask advice of the all knowing before committing.

car is an 04 speed miata previous owner said it was at 205hp the last time he had it on a dyno. it has raceland coilovers (i know, i know) that actually the handful of people who have driven it and probably know how it should feel didnt have any complaints about the suspension (matt autox'd it and andy took it for a drive around lorens house). its set up pretty close to normal ride height for that car maybe a bit lower.

i am not sure where the alignment is but i dont get any weird tire wear or anything so far but vivek did say by looking at it that it was a little off, that will be my next thing i want to learn and get adjusted. im currently on some stock twisted spoke miata star wheels with 205/50/16 star specs on them. they are kinda old but they hook up way better than the nexens i had before. these are going to be my street wheels and the car is a daily driver i put roughly 30 miles or so on it a day.

in my cart is a set of advanti S1 storm 15x8's with 225/45/zr15 BFG G-FORCE RIVALS on them. i looked at the options and for maybe a couple hundred less i could go with some heavier 15lbs TRMOTORSPORT C1 options and the ventus rs-3's or change up to the TRMOTORSPORTS C3M which is a 15x9 and i didnt look at tires for those because im worried about hitting my suspension stuff and if i want to switch back to the bilstiens not fitting them together.

i really like the advanti/bfg option and for the money i want something thats top of the line obviously not really cutting any corners if its only going to save like 200 bux. $120 in wheels saving vs 4lbs a wheel and i like the way they look way better at the same width is not worth it to me. the tires are like ten dollars a piece difference so that doesnt matter much either.

my plan is to make these my autocross set with probably some street wear since i can be lazy about taking them off after a race and i dont want to switch wheels at the event and carry others in my baby toy car. eventually i want to pick up an older miata and maybe stop doing the daily on my speed so much and have another fun toy to play with that my wife can learn to drive and whatever. i figure i will at least have nice wheels that i can use on it also.

so i guess the real question is, is this money well spent or is it just overkill? also is the 15x9 option something to look into before i set my mind to 15x8 and are there fitment issues with it? now that you have all the "dirty details" i apologize for the novel and thanks in advance for reading this far if you did lol!

[jev61]

[Omnislashx82]

the spring is such a baby little spring, i think my mountain bike has a larger shock set on it lol. i may want to go back to the stock setup eventually though

[jev61]

[Omnislashx82]

thats what i figured would be safe and the whole offset thing is actually more clearance than the oem 17x7 et40 i think on that set and its supposed to be the same on the 15x9's but like you said i have also read here and there that they rub somewhere or whatever. thanks for the advice. im not sure i got the "golden" set of racelands that magically are better so i want to keep my cheap option of going back to stock ones the guy still had in a box when i got it from him open

[jev61]

[twistedwankel]

All I see is a bunch of from Joe. Missed any answers.

You do know that you can call Tirerack and talk to them? I found their tech's to be very knowledgable in fitment for modern cars. If you can fit 15x9's by all means do it. Offset is very important on the inside so see what won't rub and you can always roll the fenders on the cheap for the outside.

I agree the MazdaSpeed is the way the Miata should have been offered or with a Rotary with 238HP would work too.

[Omnislashx82]

i talked to tire rack and they were great but he didnt really give me pros and cons of the 9 vs the 8 and had a general knowledge of the car and said there might be fitment issues with the brake banjo hitting the wheel and the suspension blah blah blah. hear that there are issues with the 9 inch wheels but only with certain offsets obviously. if the 225 is fine on the 8 ill probably do that for ease of mind and all that crap. my fenders are rolled already though i thin kthe suspension is what people bitch about hitting the oem springs and perches or soemthing thats why its fine with coilovers or something. idk ill prob stick with the 15x8et25 advanti's

[Omnislashx82]

joe what happened to all your comments lol. im not worried about the "bickering" or whatever you wanna call it i appreciate all the info, i get what lorens saying 100% though. he wasnt trying to be rude or argumentative. im probably going to err on the safe side and get the 8's thanks for the info though

[Loren]

The "bickering" was on another forum. The perils of cross-posting.

Here's one thing you might not have done that is easy to do. You know the dimensions of the wheels that are on your car now. Measure your clearances with what you have on the car. Then do a little math to figure what the resulting clearances will be when you change the width (half the width on each side) and shift the offset to that of your new wheels. There will be some variance due to specific tire fitment, but that will give you an idea of how close things will be.

[nathanwilliams617]

The "bickering" was on another forum. The perils of cross-posting.

Here's one thing you might not have done that is easy to do. You know the dimensions of the wheels that are on your car now. Measure your clearances with what you have on the car. Then do a little math to figure what the resulting clearances will be when you change the width (half the width on each side) and shift the offset to that of your new wheels. There will be some variance due to specific tire fitment, but that will give you an idea of how close things will be.

This is exactly what I did recently to determine max width tire and wheels I could fit on my car. Tire rack can help with the variances Loren mentions, their spec sheets tell what the actual tread width will be depending on what rim size its mounted on, and the recommended rim sizes per tire size etc. They also have sections that explains offset, backspacing etc, read up then do the math. Measure measure then measure again.
More tire is typically always better(note: typically, look up cons; rotational mass increase and turn in responsiveness). I would try to avoid much weight increase while increasing tire. So once you determine what would fit try to find the lightest applicable wheel and tire combination within your budget.
After about 3 months of searching/researching/measuring I ended up moving from 245/45/18s to 275/35/19s, shaved 2lbs per wheel and escaped rolling fenders or any rubbing so far by running a suitable offset

[Jeremy]

Call up CCW and say, I want these sizes please.

[Omnislashx82]

i wasnt bitching about you giving joe the what for. haha just dont dont want to turn away even marginally good advice. loren you know i try to ask all the questions i can before jumping into something....well sometimes lol, like i said though i appreciate all the info i can gather, the tire rack guys were unsure of fitment issues but figured there could be some. i ran the math over in my head and figured from the oem 7 inch 40 offset i should be able to pull a 8 inch at 25 with better clearance and a 9 at 35 would work out to be roughly the same since the 10 mm difference is like .39 of an inch i think so subtracting that from the half inch closer i would get to the suspension its so close its almost the same. almost