Does anyone have experience with this size for an R53, and if so at what offset? Fronts: Since I have the JCW brakes, for any 15" wheel I need to be concerned about clearing the calipers. Rears: Back here the main concern might be the trailing arm for a small diameter wheel. I do have the more curved, steel arms, not the more straight Al. So I am guessing I would need about an offset of 36? at least for the rim to clear the arm? Not really sure though. Also, I am only lowered about 3/4" End goal is to get the best possible footprint with a 225/45-15 tire size. So, a secondary question is if it really makes a significant difference between a 7" and an 8" for this tire size? My present track wheels are TD 1.2s 15 x 7, with Kumho XS 205/50s. I am actually very pleased with this already, but I do have some tire spinning at times and so looking to be able to put the pedal down more/earlier. Thanks in advance for any input.........
I am running 15x8 949 wheels with 15 mm spacers on the front and 5mm in the rear,with nitto nto1 225/45/15 also I have the tsw ldm brake kit, I like the setup but I am going to a 15x9 in the front, with a 225/45/15. This setup is working really well for others.
So, is the issue in the rear the rim proximity to the trailing arm? What offset are you running that requires the 3mm spacer? What camber are you running in the back, and do you have any issues with rub on the outside of the tire? In the front, I was not expecting to run a spacer at all, is this to clear the ldm?
I also ran the 15x8's (+36) from 949racing before I stepped up to the 15x9's on the front this year. I am running the standard R53 brakes, up front the 15x8's fit without any spacers. No rubbing up front with 225/45 OR 225/50 tires. One time I did a quick test fit on a R56 Cooper S, the 15x8's appeared to clear the bigger brakes just fine. I never actually ran them though. On the rear, I use a 1/4" spacer to clear the steel trailing arms. I think you could get away with a little smaller spacer if you want, like 3/16". Using the TSW springs, the rear will rub a little on the plastic wheel arch with 225/45's until it makes clearance. 225/50's will pop the wheel arch off the rear if you hit a bump mid corner, and start to rub the sheet metal just a bit. When I first went to the 15x8's, I ran the same set of 225/45 RA1's that I had been running on 15x7's...they seemed to like about 4 or 5 psi lower on the 15x8's. I think they "felt" better on the 8's, but I do not have any numbers to back that up. I hope that helps! Jason
I am looking at 949 wheels myself. I'll ask you too, why the move to 9" up front, what do you hope to gain over the 8"? A 9" wheel would stretch 225s a little.
I really dont know what it is but it does help the car in the corners, I tested my budds 949 15x9 wheels on my car and loved it, and the nitto really isnt all that streched on a 9 inch wide wheel and yes I am running the spacer up front to clear the ldm kit, and yes the 15x8 will clear your brakes I have had them bolted onto an r56
Thanks for the warm welcome. I figured enough lurking around, I finally had something to add! I went up to the 15x9's specifically to try out the 275/35/15 Hoosier A6's (been more focused on autoxing the past couple seasons). I did briefly run the 225/50 V710's on the 9's- not stretched at all, visually it was an excellent fit. I do miss the ability to rotate tires around all four corners. When I was still running some track days, I thought the 225/45's on 15x8's all around was a great combo! Jason
Looking good, and thanks for the pic! So, those 615s only had the 205/50 size in 15 right? If so, they sure looked wider than 205, I would think the 8" wide wheel has something to do with that.
Wow, 275s on a MINI must look massive. Please post some pics. And yeah, for autoX you want a little more meat than for the road track, still.....275s are ginormous! And yeah, the combo you listed looks to be the direction I am headed. Thanks.
Yes it was a 205, they had alittle strech, but on the 8 inch wheel everyone thought it was a wider tire
Here are a few pic's of the 275's. They are big, but not as big as you'd expect- the actual section width is only 1" wider than the 225/45/15 Hoosier. Jason
I guess Im going 275 looks good, are you running any camber in the front and rear and do you have any side, and rear veiw shots of the car, and that has to be the best color combo British Racing Green and the bronze wheels
I run the 6ul 15x8 as a daily wheel, and hopefully will be picking up a "race" set before long. On my MINI (03 r53) i was able to run w/o spacers all the way around. The rear is the only place for real issue, and for me it came down to whether there was hammer on weights or not (the weights were actually what hit the arm). As far as the plastic, i have not had issues w/ the wheel well popping off, BUT alot of it and the inner plastic are now MIA (hehehe) and i bent the inner metal lip outwards a touch. My daily tire is a 225/50-15 BFG G-Force Sport and the look is killer IMO. Handling is VERY good too, as the wider track really added a certain something to the car as a whole. "Track" tire will mimic JasonSMF exactly. (SMF FTW)
Up front, I have about -2.25deg of camber (as much as I can get before the spring hits). In the rear, I think I'm at about -2.5deg (stock adjustable arms maxed out positive). Not sure if I mentioned it before, but I'm running the 15x8's on the rear with 225/45/15's. I'm seriously considering 205/50/15's for the rear this year..... Thanks for the compliment on the color combo! Bronze wheels were a pretty big step for me....but I'm so happy I went that route! Here are a few side/rear shots. Jason
I find that on high grip concrete surfaces, I'm still getting too much steady state understeer with my 22mm rear bar full stiff. Since I can't adjust rear camber any further positive without installing new control arms, I may give the 205's a try when I buy tires for this upcoming season. On lower grip asphalt surfaces, the car is really nice with it's current setup. Jason
As suspected, well if you just need a tweak then you can do it with a little more or less air pressure. I seem to be making minor adjustments for the day (surface, temp, etc) If you need more then lower control arms are the only option and I just bought and installed some myself. It made a difference after I went down to -1.3 deg, now it rotates nicely. BTW, my 19mm rear bar is on the middle setting and it is perfect, at least for me / my car. When you fix that camber you will likely want to soften that rear sway, probably all the way to soft for that 22 bar.
This is the first time I hane been on in a few days, went down to Cali to watch the Huskers get there buts kicked, but thanks for the side pics.When I get home I hope to get some work done on the MINI