General wheel questions (Yes I have read the sticky's)

[milleniacinder]

Good afternoon,

I have been doing a lot of reading on this forum but the Wheels section is huge and you'll have to forgive me for doing this in the interest of time.

I am a wheel noob and yes I have read through the sticky threads in detail. I get the technical specifications and the arguments about what will and won't fit and stretchy tires and stuff. I just have some questions and I'm hoping people won't judge me too harshly.

First I'll discuss what it is I want and how I use my car. My GBS BRZ is my daily driver. I love this car greatly and the performance it offers me but I am not a person who races or drives on the track. I will eventually make it to one and I do occasionally autocross but I am mostly using this as a daily driver. It is my luxury/performance/cheap car all in one. As such, the things I'm looking for are cosmetic in nature. Though this is not a wheel discussion, I hope to add some sound deadening to my car and change out the head unit for example.

However, I have never been quite happy with the stock wheels and given that I had an unfortunate meeting with a curb the other day, I am looking at other options. One wheel is scratched up now so I'm looking into others. I live in Ohio and the winters can be harsh here. I am hoping to use the stock wheels with winter tires when time comes. Additionally, I want to state that I love the skinny tires that come stock and the fact that I can slip the back end out easily. I have no desire for meaty tires and track times.

Sorry for the spiel but I needed to make clear that I'm not really interested in performance enhancements. I want the fun factor.

1) Is there a comprehensive list anywhere of what aftermarket wheels are the easiest to use with the stock Primacy tires? Like I said, I'm really interested in the fun factor. The stock wheels are 17x7.5 but do the Primacy tires fit on 17x8? If so, what's the difference? The primacy tires are cheap and I like that.

2) In regards to the people lowering their cars a little bit (not a really stanced look or hellaflush or anything like that. Those don't appeal to me.) what performance changes are they seeing for a DD car with the VERY occasional autocross? Specifically, people on Eibach Pro Kit with a 1 inch drop. The wheel gap is a bit much for me but I don't want a harsher suspension/ride. I'm asking because would 18" wheels w this be too much?

3) I have read the discussions about 17 vs 18 and that 18 fills out the wheel wells more but the tires are more expensive. Is there an equally skinny tire that preserves the drifty fun at 18"? If I choose to drop the car with something like springs, would I need an 18" wheel? Or could I just get an 18" wheel and keep everything else stock?

4) I've also read some of the discussions about the speedo being off and stuff with 18" wheels. What's the difference? Is it significant?

5) I'm a fan of the XXR 527s right now and I'm wondering whether they work with the "close to stock as possible" setup I'm looking for.

I'm sure I'll have more questions. I appreciate all the help and sorry to be a pain in anyone's butt.

[Tranz]

I'm no expert but I like to sound helpful and with the amount of hours I've spent scouting this sub section well.

1) I don't believe there is a list of wheels that will fit the stock tires. By the way the stocks are actually 17x7. If you get a 17x8 wheel and wanted to fit the stock tires, it will look sort of stretched due to the tire protector sort of thing. tyrestretch.com is your friend in this regard. Honestly though most people go wider (a 225 over stock 215 usually) and a bit of camber from dropping can make it just as fun with the tail and still perform better overall as far as I've read

2) Plenty of people have done 18's w/ the pro kit. They say it's relatively the same as stock ride, only issue being a little bit firmer which in some cases feels generally better as it takes away some of the bounce from hitting stuff on the road.

3) Yes tyres for 18" are more expensive. If you get 18", I'd say drop the car. Low profile tyres and rally ride height is not racecar and just looks plain stupid. Most tyres should come in a skinny 225 or 215 that would be fine for rippin' phat skids brah. I'm not too sure about which brands of tire would be best, but I believe there is a 235/45/18 primacy hp, it would fill the wells really well but it is pretty tall in comparison to our stock sizes so I would recommend against that.

4) As long as the right tyre sizes are picked out, you should be fine. If you go to google and search in miata.net tyre size calculator, you can put in our stock size (215/45 - 17) and then put in another tyre size eg. 245/35 - 18 and it will tell you how big the difference would be, which in that case is about 0.4% difference in an 18", so not really that bad.

5) This depends on what size you pick. If you want to keep things cheap and more like stock, I'd say the 17x8.25 size, keeps things skinny for drifty tail happy fun, and has a pretty good fit to our cars. Me personally I'd pick the 18x8.75 size at minimum because I'm one of those fitment kids though! But unless you're pretty much a racecar driver who can feel every difference, choosing between either, you probably won't notice much of a difference between the two, besides the steering feeling marginally heavier.

Hopfully I was helpful =]

[mav1178]

1) any 17" wheel with the following width on the HP spec would fit the stock-sized Primacys: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....del=Primacy+HP

2) Entirely dependent on your driving ability and driving style, but keep in mind that the Primacys need a bit of "roll" as the stock suspension works well with them. Introduce too much roll stiffness (even with aftermarket springs) and you'll overload the tires easily under heavy driving.

3) Entirely dependent on your style taste and budget.

4) Entirely dependent on your overall tire diameter, not on wheel diameter.

5) Sure, if that's the look you want.

A lot of your questions are easily answered by the spec of the product you are looking for... but that's kind of an open-ended question right now.

-alex

[milleniacinder]

Thanks for your replies guys. I will keep looking.