Why not go to 17" wheels?

[Bunuel]

I really haven't seen anyone going with 17" wheels and I'm curious why. They are lighter, you can put a thicker tire on there and it really improves handling.

I haven't had a front wheel drive car since my Cooper S which came with 17" wheels. I bought light weight 16" and some wide Azenis tires and the handling, steering and overall road feel was greatly improved (obviously some of that was due to dumping the runflats). That thing was a monster at the track too.

I was thinking I'd get rid of the 18" on the Mazdaspeed and go with 17" and get some wider Azenis in the same frame of mind, but I'm not seeing anyone else go this route and I'm wondering why? I'm sure 17" will still clear the brakes just fine. 17" cleared the Brembos on my STI and EVO just fine.

Thoughts??

[MTuning]

a handful of owners have 17s? i have 17x7.5's.

[MS3JamOnIt]

I have 17" Winter tires and rims. Great set up, no problems.


07 Silver MS3, Mazdaspeed CAI, Mazdaspeed CBE, TWM short shifter and bushings, SU billet aluminum rear engine mount, Hotchkins RS, Cobb shifter weight, Fuel-Filler door, Goodridge stainless steel brake lines, Motul RBF600 brake fluid, Hawk pads.

[ms6acton]

jcw package on your mini?

[08cosmic3]

I'm goingh light weight 17's when my stock tires wear out.

[derspi]

Only reason being that the MS3 comes stock with 18s and most ppl aren't enthusiastic about spending on a brand new set of wheels & TIRES especially when 18s "look" cooler than 17s even though they may have a performance edge for certain setups.

Your Mini isn't a fair comparison per se, it's a track monster regardless of what size tires & wheels you slap on it.

[Kain]

I'm thinking about going with 16"s.

[Bonafide_Spd3]

17x9 would be a good setup. Wonder if anyone has done this. I don't like too much tire though, makes the car look like a off roading vehicle

[Kurt07]

I went with a 17x8 setup for the summer.

[Moultese]

I think most people stick with 18s because they looks good on our cars and fill out the fenders nicely. 17s would be much better from a performance angle.

[blue-sun]

17 x 7 winter wheels

http://blue-sun.net/Details/MS309Feb/Images/9.jpg

[brooks1277]

I'm running 17x9's with 235/40's.

[dukebrown]

17x7.5 Falken Hanabi 7lbs lighter and more rubber on the pavement

[BillTheCat]

I'm waiting for the stock tires to wear out, then probably going to look for some lightweight 17's as well. I also came from MINIs (Duh... see sig) but I always kept 17's on them, and went for lightweight wheels & good sticky tires. I loved my Kosei K1 Racing 17x7.5's, weighed in at about 13.5 or 14 lbs & only cost about $130 each. Wish they were available in a 5x114 lug pattern for the MS3. Just jump to a tire size with similar outer diameter to keep the speedo accurate...

[black_ninja23]

I too have been thinking about whether to go 17 or 18...I'm actually thinking more 17 for performance reasons.

[seattleMS3]

is performance going to be improved that much with 17's? i understand why it would help, but im not sure it will make a substantial difference.

[08cosmic3]

I'm looking at 14lb wheels in 17". Thats 10lbs each lighter than stock off the rotating mass. The formula says that is equal to removing 158lbs of dead weight off the car.

[CnoTataymo]

Lightest I've heard of is the Enkei RPF's.

[SleepyD]

My plan was to go with 17" wheels when my stock tires wore out for the reasons mentioned in this thread, not to mention that 17" tires are a lot cheaper than 18s. Unfortunately, I postponed my first tire rotation so long that now my local tire place will not put my front wheels on the back due to liability issues. Oh well.

To save money, I've been searching locally for some used 17" rims. Pickings are a little slim where I'm from, but I found a guy selling stock (Enkei) Evo 8 wheels for what I believe to be a decent price, assuming they are in good shape.

From the information I have been able to glean from the internet, these wheels should be 17"x8" +35. I believe they have the appropriate 5x114mm lug pattern. I was planning to stick some 235/45/R17 tires on there, possibly the Dunlop Star Spec Z1s I've been hearing about.

I understand that one of the advantages of 17" rims is that they SHOULD be lighter than 18s, but I'm not even certain that these Enkei's are any lighter than the stock 18s. But they are available, cheap and I think they look alright, so I'll have to work with what I can get.

Can anyone tell me: Will this combination work without issue on my 2007 MS3? Meaning, will it fit without having to use spacers or do any kind of rolling? Also, how much money should I expect to pay for these used rims?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Nliiitend1]

I'm not sure about the hub bore size of the Evo VIII, so you'll want to make sure that is at least 67.1 mm. If it's bigger, you'd need the appropriate adapters to reduce their effective size to 67.1 mm. Also, you'll almost definitely need to roll your fenders with that setup.

[becks]

I'll be switching to 17"s this summer. I'm currently on 17" winters

[SleepyD]

I'm not sure about the hub bore size of the Evo VIII, so you'll want to make sure that is at least 67.1 mm. If it's bigger, you'd need the appropriate adapters to reduce their effective size to 67.1 mm. Also, you'll almost definitely need to roll your fenders with that setup.

Thanks for the quick reply. Could you specify which parameters of the setup I'm imagining would cause it to rub? (e.g. tires too wide, incorrect offset, etc.)

It sounds like it might be more of a hassle than it's worth...

[AutoEuphoria]

Go ahead and do what you want...most people like the look of the 18s on the MS3 (maybe because it's a taller car for a hatch). My winter setup is a set of 17s...see sig

[Nliiitend1]

Thanks for the quick reply. Could you specify which parameters of the setup I'm imagining would cause it to rub? (e.g. tires too wide, incorrect offset, etc.)

It sounds like it might be more of a hassle than it's worth...

Incorrect offset, primarily.

With that offset, you're likely going to have fender interference with the tires. A higher positive offset will have less likelihood of such interference.