Another benefit of 205/50-15 F (or 225/45-15 R) is that there's enough sidewall to protect the wheel from potholes. My cars are regular drivers and anything more aggressive might cause issues here in Michigan.

 

Everybody loves those Konig Rewinds…..I personally think they are ugly but to each its own…..I love the factory wheel look…. Plus there are plenty of other companies that make wheels on 4x110…..

 

Rota has a selection of 15" x 7" rims with the 4 x 100 bolt pattern.

https://www.wheeltech360.com/collect..._pattern=4x100)

 

Best handling: some quality 185/70R13s. Keep the swaybars and the stock positive front camber. You can play the car like a musical instrument, controls are direct, light, and responsive.

Best grip... I have some 255/35-13 A7s on 13x10 magnesium wheels...

Handling and grip are two separate concepts and in some respects are at direct odds with each other. High grip can make for evil handling, with heavy control inputs, dartiness, tramlining, all sorts of unpleasantness until you are up at the coffin corner of lateral G.

 

The odometer is the only thing to really be accurate, the speedometer can be as much as 10% high and still be in spec.
same for the tach, it can be -.5% to +10%.

 

Yep, the tires need to match the car. Really old cars fitted with modern wide radials could reach the limits of the chassis before the tires, which will make for unpredictable handling.

The '85 FSM shows the error range of the speedometer.

 

Excellent comments from peejay regarding handling, tires and the odometer.

When I managed a Speedometer shop in KC, we used odometer readings to determine error. Our advice was to drive the car on the high way past 5-10 mile markers and note the percentage difference in mileage registered and mileage driven. What ever that number was determined the correction that was needed. While we didn't service allot of Asian speedometers what we did test were fairly accurate. The worst were GM mechanical speedometers as they typically had 5-10% error after 10-20 years.

Regarding tire selection, it is helpful to think in terms of a "package." The package would consist of the tires/wheels and the suspension parts uses to manage the tires. Case in point, back in the 80's GMC released the Syclone pickup truck (4.3lL turbo with full time AWD) and somebody brought a new one to an autox I was at. On the OE Goodyear Gatorbacks the Syclone truck put the Corvettes it was classed with on notice. Before the next event the owner fitted a set of BFG autox tires. The truck was slower. The sticky tires twisted the trucks chassis like a pretzel and caused unloaded tires to come off the pavement. The GM engineers got the package right.

 

Hi guys, following up to advise that I just picked up some Riken Mesh wheels locally. They are 15x7 (offset -10 I think) and are currently sitting on 205/50/15 tires. The 5th wheel was included and I’m wondering if it’s worth fixing as a spare. Does anyone know what size the center cap size is? They didn’t come with them and I’m wondering if they even fit as I’ve noticed many rims require the center caps to be removed on the 1st gen.

 

Nice get, those will look sharp.

I'm quite partial to these wheel caps...

https://www.rx7club.com/1st-gen-gene...r-cap-1169033/

Custom made by @KansasCityREPU and really high quality printing. They are a nice tight friction fit (as well as a screw on wingnut).

 

Thanks Toruki, those look awesome! I don't believe they will work for mine though as the front wheel bearing caps extend out quite a bit into the center cap. I'm thinking I need to either run the stocks or other ones that offer a concave/ extend outward.

 

Completely unrelated to the thread but how do you find those BC's? I'm running bc coilovers as well on a 15x7 wheel with 205/55-15 falken rt660's iirc and I find the suspension to be PAINFULLY stiff. I cut my bump stops in the rear and that helped with not hitting my head on the roof but I still feel like the car gets unsettled though a corner with any sort of bumps. After hopping in my friends Miata with Fortune autos I was amazed that the thing didn't feel like a shopping cart.

 

hi guys, so I just test fitted the rims. Here’s what I was able to observe. One of the tires is 195/50/15 and the rest are 205/50/15’s (all are worn out). Both the 205 and 195 rub in the front so I’m going to have to raise the vehicle in the front either way. I am leaning more towards running 195/50/15’s. Also, 3 of the rims have the hub centric rings and 1 does not which made it super annoying to mount -lol. Anyone know where I can get replacements? My uncle likes the look of the 205’s sticking out wide a bit past the rear fender. I personally like the 195’s as they appear flush with the fender. Also, it’s more likely that they offer better everyday driving since the 205’s seem to present a bit of negative camber and most likely inner wear on the tire.

 

Amazon has hub-centric rings, make sure to measure the inner and outer diameters. I very recently learned that close is not close enough, the inner diameter has to rest on the hub perfectly and snugly. Of course the outer diameter should also be nice and snug.

I have an 83 GSL with front and rear discs, no big brakes and 4x110. The hub diameter for the rotors is 59.6 mm. I don't know what your wheels need but it seems like Amazon has all the right ODs and ID combinations.

You could also 3D print a set of hub-centric rings, you just have to make sure to do a very high infill. Thingiverse has a downloadable scad file that you can modify with the parameters to convert to an STL and then slice and print.

 

plastic works fine for the hub centering rings. Rota has them too, you might need to call, they are local (union city)
if you're racing the fit can/should be a little loose. when things are HOT if you try to put a wheel on, too tight can keep the wheel from seating, and then its loose, which is bad.

 

Have you tried putting the dampening all the way to soft up front? Mine were all the way on stiff and the ride was very rigid and harsh. I would honestly say the tires probably make the big difference. I am running a 70 series tire and will be switching to a 50 series once I get new tires. I will let you know how the ride is effected by the new setup.

 

Unfortunately I have tried that and it really seemed like it didn't do much. Its definitely rubbing a bit so I was planning on raising the car an inch or two, maybe that'll help. The short sidewall is definitely part of the issue, it soaks up nothing. It's stiff to the point that I won't notice a flat tire. Visually it'll look fine but then I put the gauge on it and it has 10psi. But the short sidewalls will stay, they feel and look too good. Not to mention I don't really have any other options lol.

 

I haven't come across any issues with my stock 13's. This is with running 185/70/13 all around. Even though the front is lower than the rear; i have experienced zero rubbing with this current setup. I am actually questioning whether I should even put the 15's now as it will introduce having to raise the vehicle and a harsher ride as you are experiencing.

 

My rubbing is very slight, only on big bumps. If I rolled the fenders I'd have no issues. For me the trade offs are worth it.

 

Again completely unrelated to the thread and I apologize, but I double apologize to bc racing, because as per usual it was user error. The previous owner that installed these coilovers had t3 drop brackets in the rear which caused the spring to be preloaded to high hell, after removing the drop brackets, raising the whole thing to the max (still kinda low), and adjusting the preload front and back to the proper setting of just touching the spring plus about half a turn it rides much smoother and doesn't get upset over a crack in the road any more. Still not as good as the fortune autos but those coilovers are double the price and are on a miata that has good suspension design and support.