Well I have been on a bit of a mission as of late I was unaware of the limited number of tires for the 14" wheel . I have been looking for 205/60/14 (and 205/50/14) and have not found much out there anyone have a source I have checked most of the regular people I deal with and not much to select from.
I am not in need of tires at this time I was just browsing around so at least that is a good thing .
Paul B
You can still get some decent 195/60/14's. Azenis and starspecs
Not much out there in a larger diameter 14. You can still get 225/50 in an R, but nothing better than an S rating in a 215/60, no 205/65 at all any more, I think one choice in a H rated 205/70 (other than the $$$ Coker Ferrari repop$), and last I checked, a single all season H rated 205/60... pretty sad....
I believe the Yokohama ES100 is still available in a 205/60-14 (what came on my E30), although IMHO, they are about as sticky as rocks. 195/60-14 Star Specs are less than a inch shorter than stock. You're basically looking for a tire with an overall diameter of about 24". The 205/50-15's on the GRM Project (Tommy's) E30 are a tic over 23".
(yeah... I've wasted a lot of time trying to figure out tires for my car...)
A few ES100 are still avail in 205/60/14, Falken Ziex 512 also. You may be able to find BFG Touring TA (old), but everything else is R compound Far better and more choices are available in 195/60/14.
I did check on the 195/60/14 tires but like most of us I do not want to go to an smaller tire.
Paul B
My '61 Pontiac uses 225/75-14 tires...try finding those. 
14 inch tires do seem to be going the way of the dodo bird.
Psssh. try finding 13" tires.
Why I remember back when I was a wee lad that little E36 M3box cars came with 13" wheels, mid-size cars came with 14" wheels, and big cars like Cadillacs came with 15" wheels. And that's the way it was for years and years, and we liked it!
Now it seems that every model year, the manufacturers make the wheels bigger. My wife's new midsize grocery getter has 18" wheels on it! One day soon they're going to make the damn wheels so big, the rest of the car will hang down between them and the tallest part of the car will be the wheels. You'll see. It's berkeleying crazy, I tell ya!
True... I remember when the C4 came out with its 16" wheels and everyone went: 
I remember back in the dark ages (early 90s) when the 14" wheel was the main tire and the MASSIVE 17" wheels were just staring to show up.
And like someone else said there seems to be no limit to how big they plan to make them 
Do they still make 12" tires for the OLD minis?
Paul B
Old Minis? those are 10s.
I started w/ 15s on my first car - a Volvo 164. The ensuing '80 Civic had 12s but I got a set of racy 13s. The next bunch of Civics were on 13s 'til my '89 Si which had 14s. The '91 Si got a set of 16s w/ Kumho 712s. The 2002 Civic ep3 came w/ 15s which I gave to my wife for her '98 Civic coupe when I got 17s. The M3 came with 17s in 7.5 +8.5" width. Now rather then bigger I'm just going wider.
Actually for the 12" Minis AFAIK you can only buy tires from specialty vendors who privately import them... up until recently (haven't checked lately) TireRack still carried the 10's.
13's are actually more available than 14's until you get to the larger diameters...
I've been running 205/55/14's on my Jetta, but they're technically an R Comp. (Nitto NT01's). Fairly street friendly as far as R Comps go though.
1988RedT2, go out and weigh one of your wife's wheel/tire combo. My neighbour's Ford has a set that weighs 73 lb. each ! Hope his wife never has to change a flat.
For my VW track car I tried 14" wheels for a while, but there weren't enough tires available, so I went back to 13". I tried again with 14" on my 240SX track car, again availability sent me back to 16" and hopefully 17" eventually.
There should be a law. No tires on cars bigger then 17. But really it's partly the way then design cars today. I was out driving yesterday and a new Taurus and a Crown Vic passed me at the sine time. I was in the right lane and they were going side by side of nearly so. The Taurus looked to be almost if not as wide as the Vic but seemed to be about 6 inches taller. It's this height that requires these bigger wheels. The wheels need to look in perportion to the rest of the car. And since no one wants to run 80 series tires on 15 inch wheels we get 18's & 19's, etc..
It's funny but my 1988 Ford van had 85 series 16 inch tires on it. Not the original size, I think it came with 75 series tires but that's what the previous owner put on it. Looks OK to me.
Not all old cars had tiny wheels. Here's a wheel off my Land Rover.
And yes, you can fit four Mini wheels and tires in a Miata. I've got a set of Mini 12" with two sets of tires, who wants? 4x4 bolt pattern, I understand that's popular with HF trailers...
I might be intertested in one of those 12" tire sets... my FIAT 500 has ancient 12's that could use an upgrade...
The short answer is go up to a 15" wheel of 6"-7" wide and start using 205/50/15's. Given that "Miata" is truly the answer to "Life, The Universe and Everything GRM", the Spec Miata size tire will probably be around for a LOOONNNGGGG time. Unfortunately, all the other fun sizes in the 15" are going away as well. Spec Miata FTW!
If you can't do a 15" then the real sweet spot in the market right now is the 17x7" wheel. The most wheels & tires to choose from come in this size.
When installed properly with the right style they even look like they belong on an old classic:
I don't have any good profile shots at my finger tips right now, but they look DAMN good on this little baby:
