I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __Alloy wheels (aftermarket)
Hi. I’m adding a few, largely cosmetic, changes to my pride and joy.
Can anyone recommend a choice of replacement alloy wheels that will fit without any mods to the set up or other grief?
Existing OE wheels are 17x7
I’m looking for an open simple design for ease of cleaning in gloss black - or satin at a push. Budget £600 for the set.
Plan to fit Kumho tyres.
Thanks.
There are a few differing opinions, but if you want the wheels to still fit in the arches nicely and not stick out, then this is what I would recommend.
Remember the width of the wheel changes the ET, the wider the wheel the higher the ET needs to be. Its the front wheels that look bad with the wrong ET.
This is the best fit
17"x7 you can fit a 205 or 215 tyre. The standard wheel has an ET of 55, but im guessing you can run down to about 40ET on a 7" wide wheel.
17"x7.5 you would fit a 215 tyre with lowest ET42, This is the size I would recommend. This is a Dare X5 wheel, See below
I fitted a turbo and therefore wanted a bigger tyre, so I went to this. I would not recommend this width on a standard powered car.
17"x8 with a 225 tyre and ET45. This ET is on the limit of what I consider looks good, a ET48 would probably look better. These are Motgei 152
Thank you. Appreciate your detailed info. I’m really just looking to replace the original wheels with the exact same size, offset etc. but in an open design with (preferably) a gloss black finish. I suppose one option could be to pick up a set of the OE wheels from a later Sport Black model? Something like this.
I’ll be the boring old man who comes along and says be careful not to replace fairly light OEM wheels with heavier aftermarket ones. The handling and ride are quite sensitive to unsprung weight. Personally for the sort of money you’re looking to spend I’d find some good condition OEM ones and get them finished in the colour you want. It’ll save you money and not impair the way the car drives.
Thank you. Interesting thread. I had no idea weight was an issue. Naively assumed they were all identical to the OE. I can appreciate that, from an engineering standpoint, the lighter wheels are going to be more expensive. Think I’ll try to find an OE set from a 2012 Sport Black model.
I got my wheels from a Mazda 3 {Calibre Panik’s) and had them resprayed with new Mazda centre caps. The MX-5 wheels have an offset of 55mm and are 7" wide I think. My new wheels are the same width but the offset is only 40mm, equivalent to adding a 15mm spacer to the original wheels. Don’t forget that the centre bore will also need to be the same (67.1mm?)
But very pleased with the new look
