anybody doing 17" wheels on an NA miata?

Just bought flyin miata's vmaxx kit.

I would like to stuff as much wheel and rubber under there as I can without getting stupid.

17s won't really help you anyways, and they'll look dumb.

225/45-15 is about as good as it gets, sorry.

I don't even think 16's look right on an NA.

+1 for 225/45/15s. About as wide as you can fit and it looks good.

Blech...

Do you want as much wheel as possible, or as much rubber? Because the answer is not the same.

I actually have a set of 17s for my daily driver. My wife likes them. But I tend to run the car on 15s because I like a bit more sidewall compliance and a have a bunch of 225/45-15 R1Rs that need to be used up.

Woody wrote: Blech...

I think he is trying to "tuck as much as possible" like this:

Hey Keith, how much tire have you got there on the aforementioned 17" daily driver?

205/40-17, I think. You can't put a lot of width on a 17" wheel, the sizes don't work out well as the tires tend to get awfully tall. Thus my question about "do you want a lot of tire or a lot of wheel"?

wheel

Not to pry... but why do you want a lot of wheel over rubber?

Just because it fits doesn't mean it looks right.

i dunno. I know the Rival comes in a 245/45-17, which is a lot of diameter for this little car, but maybe once it's dropped some on these coilovers it won't seem so bad.

this will result in taller gearing, which might be beneficial for an eminent turbo situation.

There is no way you will ever get that to fit at any kind of "low" ride height.

Not to mention, 17x8-9 in 4x100 is hard to find as well.

Lay off the judgements, guys. Let's focus on actually answering the question.

A 245/45-17 is a LOT of diameter. Actually, it's a 245/40-17 which is a bit better, but you're still going to have to some work ahead of you stuffing that thing in there. The first challenge will be finding a 17x8 or 17x9 to mount it on. Then you're going to find that you have a high CG and suspension travel issues, as there just isn't as much room in the wheel wells as you'd like.

I put a set of 245/45-16 tires on an NB years ago, which have the same outer dimensions. It wasn't the easiest thing to pull off.

I've also run a 235/45-17 on an NB, and it compromised the car too badly. Running a 225/45-15 rides better and grips better. I've set an NB up to run 255/40-17, but never had the wheels to try it out. Given the experiences with the 235, I'm not liable to explore the issue.

Much better.

belteshazzar wrote: i dunno. I know the Rival comes in a 245/45-17, which is a lot of diameter for this little car, but maybe once it's dropped some on these coilovers it won't seem so bad. this will result in taller gearing, which might be beneficial for an eminent turbo situation.

It's enough diameter that you're going to be cutting bumper and wheel well in an attempt to make it fit.

As a tire whore and an owner of an NA, it's a painful situation. About the best you can "easily" do is a 235/50-15 R888, and that's still going to take some work.

I think the red NB looks great. Sort of RX-7ish. What spoiler is that?

Gearheadotaku wrote: I think the red NB looks great. Sort of RX-7ish. What spoiler is that?

Stock MSM spoiler. (car is an MSM)

Keith Tanner wrote: A 245/45-17 is a LOT of diameter. Actually, it's a 245/40-17 which is a bit better, but you're still going to have to some work ahead of you stuffing that thing in there.

bfg and tire rack say 225/45-17. which is 24.9 inches across. i misspoke when I indicated 245 mm width.

belteshazzar wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: A 245/45-17 is a LOT of diameter. Actually, it's a 245/40-17 which is a bit better, but you're still going to have to some work ahead of you stuffing that thing in there.

bfg and tire rack say 225/45-17. which is 24.9 inches across. i misspoke when I indicated 245 mm width.

That's still pretty much unmanageable. That's 2" more diameter than a 225/45-15, which fills out stock bodywork pretty dang well.

There is a 245/40-17 BFG Rival. FYI.

yeah, my post was confusing. sorry.

275/35/15 A6 on 15x10 6UL.

Done and done. Lots of tire, lots of wheel, lots of grip.

beans wrote: 275/35/15 A6 on 15x10 6UL. Done and done. Lots of tire, lots of wheel, lots of grip.

A6s make great street tires.

My NB came on 17's from the previous owner when I bought it. Less than a week later, I had sticky rubber on the stock 15's back on the car.