Good Wheel and Tire Combo Questions
 

Hey everyone. I've got a 1986 N/A RX-7.

I was wondering what everyone thinks is the best combo for wheels and tires, like size and width and stuff.

I know that bigger is better when it comes to looks, but I know that sometimes that's not great for going faster. I want to have a good balance of speed and handling, and have them look nice as well.

I have a line on some 15 inch wheels. They only weigh about 11 pounds. Would those be good wheels for the RX-7, or do you think they'd look too small??

Jeff

Takahashi
 

Well, you know....Mazda sort of...thought that people...would like to go...fast with their cars...so they...kinda...put...good tires/rims on them...you know...as stock. However, if you want to get away from those than your best bet is to get a good, light 17' rim with some generic good tires. If you are like me I go through tires pretty fast and anything expensive is going to start to hit the damn wallet. So...I guess you could go higher than 17 however, the wider the more weight. And for tires, find some you like and stick with them. Jees, I guess I was no help at all, oh well. :D Oh yea, your little pic suggests you have twin turbos so you might want to look under your hood and see if you have a big, shiny box thing that says turbo on it. K?:D

For fitment/performance/looks/cost/replacement tire cost a good size pkg. is 17X7.5 35+ offset with 215/45's.

This will not rub, looks fairly aggressive and you won't get killed when you replace tires in that size.

I personally think 15-16" inch rims look great on FC's. As for width, 7-8 is my preference so you can put some fatty tires on for auto-x'ing and other forms of racing. If your interested, if I have a set of 16x8" Volk Racing TE-37's for sale that are brand new. They weigh 12.5lbs's a piece. I bought them for my 90 GTU, but never mounted them. PM me if your intersted.

How much you want and what color?
What size tires will fit on 16" and 17" (widest possible height doesn't matter although lower is better)

Hey gimpdiddity,

I have 16" OZ wheels, 205 55's on the front, and 225 50's on the back. They look pretty good, and those tire sizes are easy to find without emptying your bank account.

They are 16x8, and powder-coated white. I paid about $1600 for them with a group discount. I'm willing to let them go for $1000. If your interested, PM me and I will send you pics of them. They are still in their original packaging from Rays Engineering. I just took them out of their boxes to take pics of them. I don't know if you've heard of Volk Racing rims before, but they are extremely light and strong forged aluminum rims. The quality of them is outstanding. http://www.volkracing.jp/

While it isn't the best looking combo for street posers, I've found that for autocross, the 225/50-15 size on a +25mm offset 15x7 gives the best grip and feel. Shorter sidewalls make for more violent breakaway at the edge, meaning harder recovery, so the 50 series tend to function the best (vs 45 or 40 series). I used this combo with Yokohama A008RSII and A032R tires to beat much more expensively equipped RX7s (and other cars) at the track.

Volks
 

First I would recommend getting coil-overs so your car is lowered and has an aggressive stance.
As for rims, you can't go wrong with Volk racing rims wrapped with Pirelli P-zeros or any Z rated tire.
The rims gotta be atleast 18'-17' but you could get away with 16' with the coilovers. If you're really gonna modify the car, get 245s on the back and 225s or 205s on the front depending how low your car is.

For the FC, I personally believe 16 is the best choice. Although 15 inch can get you widest tire and very affordable and light, but 15 inch looks small on the FC. 16 inch looks right, where 17 inch is too big for the car, plus the widest tire u can fit on a FC is probably 255 in the rear, you can do that with just 16 inch...

I personally dont like to go offset tires in front and rear. I really think it will ruin the handling of the car. Plus putting wider tires in the front will give you more understeer, as if the stock ones dont have enough.....

I'm getting some great info here guys. (and gals???)

Thanks alot everybody, and keep giving opinions!!

Jeff

i've got 17x7's with 215/45 rubber on them all around. it didn't add too much harshness to the ride but REALLY improved the handling.

i ended up getting yokohama a520's and they SUCK. don't get them. i don't even drive the car hard and they wore like crazy. i think kumho supras are around the same price range and a better quality.

good luck

It rains a lot where I live, so I had to get tires that are decent in the wet. I've had good luck with Goodrich comp TA's. Good in dry and wet conditions and reasonably priced. One trick I've learned over the years; find a place that shaves tires. I found a truck tire service place locally. They shave just enough tread off your mounted tires to make them perfectly round. Smoother, quieter ride, better handling, and I don't think the life of the tire was shortened, due to decreased rolling resistance.

I had Comp T/As on my FC when I first got it. In stock form, I couldn't accellerate in the rain from a stop without completely blazing the tires. Sucked bigtime. (I was living in the Seattle area, so rain was a constant). The Yokohama A008RS2s had more rain grip with almost no visible tread.

BTW, this is what the 225/50-15s looked like on my car, with the +25mm offset 15X7 wheels:

http://www.supercars.net/servlets/Ms...14/435275c.jpg

I just bought some a coulpe days ago becasue I bent my rims and my tires were bad, so I went to a place like RENT a TIRE I know what your about to say but wait, these rims were repoed so I got them for $400 with tires, I anit got much money left you know it's christmas and all, but would any body you be willing to trade + cash? there bad ass rims don't get me wrong but there only 195/50/16 yeah I got bicycle tires on but the price was right and I needed new rims and tires, and I want at least 205's, I don't know but you guys thnk my setup is good now or should I strive for wider tires??

What front bumper do you have on your red car there??
Is that the FEED Engineering nose with the stock front lip?

Hey Chris V,

Beautifu car, is that a factory blue paint?

I was thinking about 16" O.Z. Racing F1 Cups with Nitto 555's....what do you people think about the price....$1400 for everything(mount, balance, wheel locks)?