Which race car? 4x100 edition

A friend wants to go halfsies with me on a race car. He's a BMW guy, I'm a Honda guy, but by "BMW guy" I mean he likes to own BMWs, and by Honda guy I mean I've been taking apart Hondas for 10 years, so I think my preference is a bit more substantial :)

Anyway, I want to stick with 4x100 because I have a bunch of wheels already, so we're looking at Miatas, E30s, and Integras. Obviously my comfort zone is going to be the Integra, but this is my chance to switch to RWD and break out into something different. I do like that the Integra can run in H4 and ITA, but I guess the Miata can do Spec M and ITA as well. The E30 sounds the most exciting but also the most expensive.

Anyone have an opinion?

In reply to steronz:

I'd go for the miata, it ticks all the boxes for you.

Chance to get into RWD? yup.

Cheap and easy to work on like a honda? yup

Abundant parts and aftermarket? Check.

4x100? yup!

+1 for Miata which is always the answer

You've been forewarned. After racing RWD, you'll never want to go back to "wrong-wheel drive."

Though both 4x100, and rwd, a Miata uses a larger offset rim like a typical fwd car. The e30 uses a low offset rim like a more typical rwd car. What this means is that 4x100's that will fit an e30 are much more rare.
The original alloy rims on my Miata came from a Mazda MX3 (fwd.) Mounted with race rubber, those same MX3 rims were on my Toyota MR2 SC (also requiring a more typical fwd offset thought rwd.)

I will also add that I may have some BMW 4x100 rims available if they do not go with the car.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1987-BMW-325is-5-speed-manual-e30-/160895991157?forcev4exp=true

In reply to JohnRW1621:

Heh, I was just looking at your ebay ad this morning. Guess you live in my search radius :)

JohnRW1621 wrote: Though both 4x100, and rwd, a Miata uses a larger offset rim like a typical fwd car. The e30 uses a low offset rim like a more typical rwd car. What this means is that 4x100's that will fit an e30 are much more rare. The original alloy rims on my Miata came from a Mazda MX3 (fwd.) Mounted with race rubber, those same MX3 rims were on my Toyota MR2 SC (also requiring a more typical fwd offset thought rwd.) I will also add that I may have some BMW 4x100 rims available if they do not go with the car. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1987-BMW-325is-5-speed-manual-e30-/160895991157?forcev4exp=true

I have e30 bottlecaps on my civic and they fit just fine. I think the offset difference is very minimal

Sky_Render wrote: You've been forewarned. After racing RWD, you'll never want to go back to "wrong-wheel drive."

I've driven and raced plenty of RWD cars, and for some reason I still gravitate towards the FWD E36 M3boxes. Something is wrong with me

It's probably just because I am good at driving them fast, and already have a million parts for them!

15X7 Miata wheels run +35. 15X7 BMW E30 run either +15 or +25. Get the +25 and your good to go. Center bores are slightly different so you'll need rings.

Good-win-racing has a few different lightweight 15x8's ET20, they will fit an E30 great and fit a Miata with proper camber and rolled fenders.

I don't think I'll be able to get 225/45 vs the 205/50 R888s I have on them now though.

Miata's will also run EProd, GT3, or ITS with the 1.8, and FProd, EProd, and GTLite with the 1.6. Both can run in STU and STL.

If you're asking the group to pick between the E30 and the Miata, you may as well as us all to pick between our children...

That said, Miata is the answer you seek.

I vote Teggy.

wrongwheeldrive wrote:

JohnRW1621 wrote: Though both 4x100, and rwd, a Miata uses a larger offset rim like a typical fwd car. The e30 uses a low offset rim like a more typical rwd car. What this means is that 4x100's that will fit an e30 are much more rare. The original alloy rims on my Miata came from a Mazda MX3 (fwd.) Mounted with race rubber, those same MX3 rims were on my Toyota MR2 SC (also requiring a more typical fwd offset thought rwd.) I will also add that I may have some BMW 4x100 rims available if they do not go with the car. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1987-BMW-325is-5-speed-manual-e30-/160895991157?forcev4exp=true

I have e30 bottlecaps on my civic and they fit just fine. I think the offset difference is very minimal

Sky_Render wrote: You've been forewarned. After racing RWD, you'll never want to go back to "wrong-wheel drive."

I've driven and raced plenty of RWD cars, and for some reason I still gravitate towards the FWD E36 M3boxes. Something is wrong with me It's probably just because I am good at driving them fast, and already have a million parts for them!

Are your lug nuts larger making it lug centric because I had to get hub centric rings for it to fit on my mazda2 which has the same lug pattern and inner hub bore as miata which crosses over to civic

Yes, you can easily put e30 rims onto a fwd car. What you can not do is put fwd car rims onto an e30. What I was trying to say was that a Miata will be much easier to find rims for than an e30 will because there are so many discarded fwd rims. There are few discarded e30 rims and all the ones you will find will be 14"ers and therefore have limited choices on tires.

SE-R / NX2000 is also 4X100

E30 bottlecaps...how many do you want?

I vote Integra. You're already very familiar with the car. That helps a lot when things break.

Chevette!