Looking for a new tire size for the miata

So I'm looking for a cheap, multi purpose winter tire for my new wheels on the Miata. The wheels are 15x7, significantly larger than the stock 14x5.5 wheels that I currently have with some 185 60 14 all seasons on them.

I want to say without modifying the body, just installing the lift kit, I have room for a 27" diameter tire.

I randomly picked 215 50 15, and looked around on tirerack and found some decent options. This is what tirecalc says about it.

I'd like to fill the wheel well a little more, but I don't know how wide I can reasonably fit on a 7" rim. I'm going recap, because I love the tread pattern offered locally, and know from years past it's great in the snow AND in the dirt, but that means I can ask for pretty much any size within reason, and get them.

Maybe you rally cross guys would have a suggested size?

205/50/15 is what I have on my Miata and very happy.
It is a very popular size choice for Miata. Street and autox driven. I can not comment on rallyx.

Second what JohnRW1621 said, 205/50-15 is THE size tire for Miatai.

I think you guys missed the part about the lift kit.

KyAllroad wrote: Second what JohnRW1621 said, 205/50-15 is THE size tire for Miatai.

225/45/15 is now. And now Maxxis has released a 245/40/15.

Remember the NB Miata's can fit 15x10s and 245s with a roll and proper alignment.

RevRico has a '93 if I'm not mistaken.

That said, yeah lift kit...... Remember that a taller tire will make your effective gear ratio worse and the car will accelerate more slowly and brakes will be less effective.

I'm actually running 195-50's for my summer/autocross sets(15x6.5 rim). When they're done, I was already thinking of trying to put a 205 on it, so it's good to know that should work.

Will a 225 shoehorn it's way onto a 7 inch wheel? I picked 215 for my tirecalc sample just because it's almost an inch wider than tires I'm running on a 6.5 wide wheel, and thought that would be cutting close.

I guess I'm kinda a guinea pig for this, which is fine and all, but I don't know about tires. Lots of options, but going by tirerack, a lot of the available options are track tires. I just don't have money to go buy 3 or 4 sets and see which works better.

I'd love to run the 31 10.5 15s Paco is on their offroadster, but I'm willing to bet it will cost another year of waiting and my first born for the mods to make that work. And I'm trying to keep the sawzall away from my car, at least for now.

These will pretty much ONLY be used for my 3 mile commute to and from work in the winter, then going on right before play time. We'll know for sure next week, the lift kit is due in on Monday, so weather and my back permitting, I should have it jacked up by the weekend and know how difficult the swap will be first hand. I'm not as concerned with the speed/braking changes so much as availability for recaps and how well they fill the wheel wells. I can always take the Jeep to work in the winter as well, so even snow performance is a little lower on the priority list.

tire calc says 225 45 said: Will fill out the wheelwell by extra 3 mm. Almost no difference

Are there maybe Ranger or S10 tires with a higher aspect ratio in that range?

If I can actually move tomorrow or Friday, I'll take a ride to the tire shop and browse their size options in person.

235 60's may fit the bill perfectly. Tirerack shows an all season, a summer, and a DOT drag radial, so I might be able to get that size in a recap, but I don't know if it will be too wide for the wheel.

205/75/15 tires come right in at 27" tall and are available in General Grabber AT2's, which are generally highly rated for onroad/offroad/snow/hoon usage. And that size is rated for 7" wide wheels

mith612 wrote: 205/75/15 tires come right in at 27" tall and are available in General Grabber AT2's, which are generally highly rated for onroad/offroad/snow/hoon usage. And that size is rated for 7" wide wheels

Miatas already have issues fitting 195/65-15 rally tires which are 25 in tall. Unless you plan to perform major fender surgery, I would look more in the 195/50-15 or 205/50-15 range. Notably, you can get 195/55-15 snow tires pretty easily.

Kylini wrote:

mith612 wrote: 205/75/15 tires come right in at 27" tall and are available in General Grabber AT2's, which are generally highly rated for onroad/offroad/snow/hoon usage. And that size is rated for 7" wide wheels

Miatas already have issues fitting 195/65-15 rally tires which are 25 in tall. Unless you plan to perform major fender surgery, I would look more in the 195/50-15 or 205/50-15 range. Notably, you can get 195/55-15 snow tires pretty easily.

It's getting a 3" lift, so stepping up 2" in tire height and then a 3" lift should make it work fine.

Flyin Miata Website said: This is a bolt-on lift for NA and NB Miatas. It basically extends your lower shock mounting point. Ride height will increase by 3" in the front and 3.25" in the rear. You can run tires up to 25.5" in diameter without fender modifications. The car in the picture is on 215/65-15 tires, which are 26" in diameter and required some light massaging.

Dammit, I was wrong. But now I know where the 215 came from.

Neither website has a good straight on side shot, just kind of a long one. It looks like careful hammer application (ugh to my new crappy paint) will do the trick, I just don't know which way to go, in or out?

Where would I measure to find out a proper diameter? Front and rear of the wheel well, from the ground to the fender if it's sitting on a set? During paint a lot of the plastic pieces never got reinstalled, for better or worse so maybe that will help?

I'm sorry for both not really understanding tire math and trying to solve a problem without actually being able to do more than speculate. I'm just really excited about this, and want to show it off and go play. Monday the kit is due in, I will try like hell to get it installed Thursday or Friday to show off and get some better measurements. If I can crawl on the gravel at least, I can barely walk currently from my fall last weekend.

The wheels will be in tomorrow, and I guess the smart thing to do will be to just not get the tires until I have proper measurements instead of getting something too big or small installed ahead of time.

Waiting till everything is installed sounds like the smart move.

I know it takes different strokes for different folks.....and I really like the OffRoadster as a concept. But I really don't get why? Miatas are good at what they do, they aren't offroad capable and I'm afraid that forcing one into that mold still won't give you as "good" an offroad vehicle as just starting with something designed for that (small pickup/wrangler/samurai/whatever.

I'm not meaning to be a downer about your project, just trying to understand it.

For me, I'm a sucker for big tires. Particularly on things that aren't supposed to have them. Looking at pricing though, it would be cheaper to just buy an old 4wd and lift it up to go play.

I'm at this weird stage with the miata that I have more money into than I should already, so why not go all the way, over time. Totally the opposite of how most people dump money into theirs to go spec racing.

I was doing the math last night, if I actually did the full offroadster and the ecotec swap, I'd have almost a grand for every year the car is old spent on it. I'm a berkeleying idiot, but I'll admit it.

I think I'm going to stop with just the lift kit and some bigger tires to make it a little more noticeable to the drones on their phones(the safest I've felt driving this car was when it was 4 shades of primer maybe this will help),and just to have some fun. Although the 5.73 ring and pinion set is very very tempting,I know even less about gear ratios than I do suspension and really don't want to mess around inside a differential.

I'm not expecting to go mud bogging in it, honestly I think the lift will do the most good for me getting out of the carport in the winter. the little extra height should mean the difference between "car" and "snow plow".

Who knows, maybe we could eventually see my miata climbing a hella stance bro miata.

I have 196/65/15 tires on the rear of my Miata. I wouldn't think anything much larger would fit without trimming, even if you have a lift. If you are actually going to use them for winter/off road you don't want to go wider.

RevRico wrote: Will a 225 shoehorn it's way onto a 7 inch wheel? I picked 215 for my tirecalc sample just because it's almost an inch wider than tires I'm running on a 6.5 wide wheel, and thought that would be cutting close.

I've run 225s on 15x7s, but only with R compounds.