Plus size tire on a P5?

ArkosP5

Member
What size tire is recommended for the stock P5 wheel? Is it recommended to go with the OEM size, or can I go with a slightly larger tire? a 205 maybe?

P.S. I already went through all the threads here. A lot of stuff about MP3 stock tires, but nothing about P5 tires.
 
I think I've heard somewhere on here that we can use a 205/50R16...I think Don mentioned something like that when he was looking to swap wheels... I'll look and see if I can find it.
 
205/50/16 will fit ok.

Wider than 205 you might have problems with them fitting on the wheel because it is only 6" wide.

If the width of your rims isn't the limiting factor then you can go as wide as 225 tires as long as you have a good offset.
 
mounting a 215 on a 6 inch wide wheel isnt a problem. i have mounted much wider on wheels... i have 225/45/17 dunlop winter M2 tires on my stock mp3 wheels... which origionally came with 205's .. im going to test and see if i can get 235's on.. i will have some rubbing but it may just be on the plastic .. i think it may clear the strut...
 
I went with a wider tire 205/45/16 and it fits, but the speedo reads a little slow (1mph at 60mph) as the diameter of the tire/wheel package is now slightly smaller. A benefit of the smaller diameter is slightly better accelleration, but worse gas mileage. Both are very slight. I went with the Dunlop FM901, cheaper than the sp5000 that came with the car and better wet handling too. Figure that one out as the sp5000 are all season and the FM901 are not.

I used the Miata tire calculator

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

and found that 215/45/16 would be the closest 16" up size to the stock, but I don't know if it'll rub. Hope this helps.
 
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