Installed 16" MX-5 Miata wheels, dropped 34 pounds

I posted this on the other 3 forum too, but I figured the idea may do someone some good one day.

Ever since I got the 3 I'd been looking for a set of alloys to replace the stock steelies+hubcaps. I wanted to stick with oem if possible, and when I heard the newer mx-5's 16" wheels were 15~ pounds I figured those would be good ones to shoot for. I loved the results I got from swapping steelies for alloys on my neon and integra, so when someone from miata.net emailed me with a set for sale I jumped on them.



lol enkei


Thanks for the snow+salt < 2 weeks after I cleaned it, Ohio




According to the bathroom scale the stock steel wheel + hubcap is 24 pounds. The scale at the UPS store fluctuated between 23.5 and 24 pounds, so the total weight loss should be somewhere just over 34 pounds of rotating mass. The car feels a tad snappier, we'll see if it affects my gas mileage any.

I feel like 17s would have fit the wheel wells a little better, but I didn't want 17s so I got the 16s instead. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I think with the wheels, intake, and top shelf weathertech floormats I'm done for a while. Maybe I'll do something with the suspension for Christmas next year or something but I'm really happy with the car as it sits now.

Looks good! One thing I noticed in cars in the past is light wheels wanted to break loose easier under hard acceleration.

-Derrick

CorkSport said:

Looks good! One thing I noticed in cars in the past is light wheels wanted to break loose easier under hard acceleration.

-Derrick

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Yeah, this is true. The stock tires are "all-season" in every sense of the word, so 1st gear traction is even more compromised now that there's less weight in the wheel.

Let us know how much fuel milage improvement you get with the change.

-Derrick

CorkSport said:

Let us know how much fuel milage improvement you get with the change.

-Derrick

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Will do, although I'm having trouble keeping my foot out of it thanks to my corksport SRI.


I'd like to take it on a roadtrip and see how things go with that, but no time for a few months at least.

Looking good and I see that you finally got your hands on a set of these.

Mine are currently in the shed awaiting for the first sign of spring.

CTt3P5 said:

Looking good and I see that you finally got your hands on a set of these.

Mine are currently in the shed awaiting for the first sign of spring.

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lol! Yes, finally!