Dilemma: is the extra cost worth the half inch of wheel support?
15x5.5 12lbs for $45ea - or - 15x6 13lbs for $65ea. Tires are 195/55 Sport Comp 2s. Use will be for a weekend car with maybe some autocrosses. Vehicle is 2400lbs and has barely 100bhp. Looks, style, etc. not part of the equation b/c I'll strip and paint em the same color regardless and commence not caring about them ever again. (Prices are higher than title to account for gas cost b/c I'm that cheap).
personally, i'd go with the lighter and cheaper wheels.
In reply to Robbie :
I second.
In reply to Stampie :
I third.
For running 195-wide tires, you should ideally move up to 15x7s. You could also run 205/50/15s on that size wheel which will open up many more performance tire options.
Just between the two options you listed, it's a tough call.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
So this is where I'm stuck. Am I up the wrong tree completely putting these on a 5.5" or a 6"? It is a $1500 car and money is truly tight. These are junkyard takeoff wheels I'm considering and the tires were Ebay specials past their rubber shelf life.
It's my DD M-F and running on free Altimax HP's that still have 6mm of depth left the rest of the week.
Oh I'm very familiar with those kinds of budgeting constraints. Putting these on 6" tires will be a significant squeeze, on 5.5" they'll be comically squeezed. I think it would be very much worth your while to look for at least 15x7" wheels, perhaps even 15x7.5". See if you can find anything used around those sizes - maybe mismatched model wheels with matching specs. That extra width will make a big performance difference.
6" is the design width for that tire, and 5.5" is the bare minimum. I'd go for the 6" if it were me.
I used to race with a 195/60 on a 6" wide wheel. Wider would have been better but it worked just fine.
GameboyRMH said:Oh I'm very familiar with those kinds of budgeting constraints. Putting these on 6" tires will be a significant squeeze, on 5.5" they'll be comically squeezed. I think it would be very much worth your while to look for at least 15x7" wheels, perhaps even 15x7.5". See if you can find anything used around those sizes - maybe mismatched model wheels with matching specs. That extra width will make a big performance difference.
I disagree - remember these are 55 aspect ratio tires. From the tirerack website:
5.5 is within the recommended rim range for these, and 6 is what tirerack uses to measure. So I don't think 5.5 will be a significant squeeze. Just standard tire fitment.
5.5 is the narrowest wheel recommended for that tire...from my experience with 195/50/15s, a 7" wheel is just a slight stretch, and that's with a shorter sidewall. I still think a 7" wide wheel would be worthwhile, or at the very least a 6.5" wheel which would be much easier to get from a junkyard than a 15x7.
You save a few bucks and a pound of rotational weight with the 5.5” wheels. They will probably be your faster choice but it’s not gonna be noticeable to the butt dyno.
Wider unless you're really that budget strapped that you can't justify the extra $80 investment. Otherwise wider is pretty much always better than narrower and marginally lighter, in both performance and feel, especially when you're working on the narrow end of the acceptable range like you are.
$80 wouldn't kill me but at the same time it's 5% of the value of the car and as pointed out, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel everywhere else. That buys a lot of diapers, or one less day that I spend at my second or third job and instead get to do something with my kids other than pay for them and put them to bed at night. I'm clearly not enough of a fitment guru to know whether I'm completely wasting the $$ I already spent on the Comp 2s by mounting them to a 5.5"/6". I really appreciate the dialog and I'm keeping track of the yay's and nay's. Keep 'em coming.
I recommend the lighter 5.5s. The 6s might be faster around an autocross course but the 5.5s will be (marginally) faster every time you accelerate on your daily driving. Save the money, enjoy the softer ride from curvy sidewalls, and bank the better acceleration.
i vote 6s. 6 is already kind of narrow for that size and the sidewalls are not terribly supported as it is.
edit: I should point out that I did used to run 195-55/15 Sport Comp 2s, on 15x6 wheels, on a 2800(?)ish pound front driver. Lovely tires, but they were a little bit pooched out. I ran the tires at highish pressure to compensate, which resulted in center wear if I wasn't aggressive enough of a driver. I never autocrossed them, but I did rallycross them once when they were new, and I drove fairly aggressively on the street when the opportunity arose.
Edit edit: If budget is a concern, these tires may not be the best idea. They don't wear rapidly but they don't last very long either. They were worn down to the point where they were kinda questionable in standing water after about 20k miles. Front drivers are a bit hard on these tires, I guess - they wore like iron on my RX-7, which had 225/50-15s on 15x7s.
The width differences wouldn't bother me. I'd go with whichever looks best. If the money is really tight then go with the cheaper option.
More details...
He's the car:
Here's the 15x5.5:
Here's the 15x6:
The white r81 Mini wheels are rough apparently so I'll be painting them Rustoleum Dark Machine Gray because it cleans well and matches my pin stripes. The Miata 5 spokes would stay stock unless they're also ugly and then same paint treatment.
I'm using Woody's old 14" 7 spokes as my Rallycross wheels and they look great as a 90s package. Expecting similar result with either of the two choices.
The tires were a Christmas present from a cool wife who saw them in my 'bay watchlist. Cheap bc who wants a 55 sidewall right? So I've got them and would like to use them. They'll definitely not be relied on for long term commuting and treadware warning heeded; thanks! Like I said, it'll be for fun runs on days off and an AutoX or two after I figure out how to level 4 corners in my garage successfully for an alignment (already wasted 2 Saturdays with that - might be time to use someone else's garage).
I'd think the 15x6 Miata wheels might have a larger / better resale market if you decide to run something else in the future, so that might be a reason to run them.
Difdi Al-Jabal 68 said:after I figure out how to level 4 corners in my garage successfully for an alignment (already wasted 2 Saturdays with that - might be time to use someone else's garage).
Water levels and laser plane generators are your friends.
Go for the lower weight. "Oh how I hate, Unsprung weight."
In reply to snailmont5oh :
I did both. The entire garage is poured terribly. There's an off center drain in the middle and the back half of the floor drains to the rear corner of the space while the front half drains to the front corner on the same side. Almost 5 inches of height difference from the highest to the lowest points that are in the area I can use for the car. Every time I think I've got my shim platforms level, the measurements aren't reproducible after I lower the car and jounce the suspension.
Your car is cool and the mini wheels will look cooler on it. Plus, i agree with giving up marginal cornering to have marginally better ride quality and acceleration on a low power car that isn't an extreme build.
In reply to Vigo :
I agree the Imola wheels are cool... sigh.
Does anyone know of 13lb or less 4x100 fitment OEM takeoff 15x6.5 or 15x7 wheels? Ignoring BBS products because I've bent enough of them in days past to only use them as paper weights or canopy anchors at this point in life.
Could i interest you in 7 different BBS 15x6.5s that are all bent? No? They're pretty good at holding one of my cars off the ground. Almost two cars!
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