I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Replacing 4 ‘track day’ tyres
We’ve acquired a very cheap mk2.5 - our first ever MX5 - which is lovely to drive but requires a fair bit of tlc. Having got it through the MOT we are now starting to address things that we feel need addressing. One of these is that it came with Federal 595 RSR 205/45ZR16 83W tyres which still have tread but are beginning to crack from track racing by previous owners and wheel balancing has had limited success on removing shake circa 65mph. We want to put a set of semi-decent new tyres on the car which are multi season and hold the road well but have some (non track) fun, we do a lot of windy country lane driving.
When looking for tyres online the standard recommendation for the 2003 reg seems to be 195/50R15 82V or thereabouts?!? Not helpful.
The wheels are also a bit damaged but don’t need to be replaced unless it is better/cheaper/advisable to do this at the same time? I’m really looking for advice from MX5 owners re the tyres we should choose, pros and cons… good suppliers to use etc…?
Thanks, you’re absolutely right we have the standard 16" wheel, this is why we are so confused as to why the reg (a 2003 reg) brings up the 15" tyres across various tyre company websites and yet we have 16" tyres on it… there must be an error in the tyre searching software they all use.
Thanks for the recommendation… I will change my post as its misleading
15" wheels were also fitted on Mk2s, depending on the model.
Cost of wheel repair depends on the extent of damage; £50-100 per wheel. It saves a little money to change the tyres at the same time, but it can also be affected by whether the wheel repairer is willing to dispose of your old tyres or not. Whether you need to repair the wheels is another matter.
195/50/15 is a good size for the Mk1 and Mk2 Mk2.5.
The Little cars do not like big heavy wheels try and find some of the OEM 15" wheels unless your car has had massive brakes fitted which will not go under 15" wheels.
I have just fitted Pilot Sport 3s to my Mk1 with 15" BBS wheels, they have a reputation for good wet grip as well as dry performance.
If you go for fashion wheels get them as light as you can afford.
It takes a bit of digging to even find wheel weights, and when I did, I found it surprising just how heavy most wheels actually are. The 15" Enkei’s are pretty good (6kg ish, IIRC). Most of the 16"s add a another kg+ onto that.
The option I took was to look at wheels from other manufacturers, as the PCD is shared with a number of other cars, e.g. VWs, Hondas and also the first generation of the new Mini. I eventually found out that these Mini wheels would fit and only weigh 5.2kg each:
On top of their lack of weight, they were also MUCH cheaper than the genuinely light weight MX5 wheels.
Personally, I love the look of them, though that’s just down to personal taste.
They did need a set of spigot rings as the centre is slightly larger, but I found a set of stainless steel ones on Ebay for a really good price.
Those mini wheels do fit over the big brakes, though it’s tight, to the point that I had to have the balancers put on the outside and not the inside of the front wheels.
Mine were £80 + £12 for the spigot rings
