Here's the deal. Run what ever you think looks best. I know from personal experiance, that the 17's I have on mine right now is the best handling setup I have ever had. I have tried from 205/60r13s, up to 215/40r17s. These are Konig 17X7 rims, with 205/40r17s in front, and 215/40r17s in back. Just remember, looks aren't everything. You have to have a good tire with your rim combo, no matter what size you go with.

 

17x7 40mm offset

205-40-17 front

245-45-17 rear

 

to be concerned about the wheels throwing the performance of your car off, you realy just need more power. many of the newer larger wheels weigh less than the older/smaller aftermarket wheels most people on here have on their cars. many here with older wheel sizes (self included) will and are going to find it hard to locate tires. the 16-18 inch size have no issues with tire avalibilty, size or brand. I curently can only locate 2 brands in the 245-265/45-50 x 15 size and will be forced to race tires or ones made for europe or japan markets. in real life the performance loss even to 18 inch heavier wheels would be vary hard to measure. now if you would be thinking about gear ratio change with incorect sized tires that could have a big affect. get the wheel size you want for the look you want on your car and size the tire corectly I am consirering moveing to 17 or 18 inch wheels my self. its a personal choice. some like smaller, some do not, but do not lisen to bad info. make yourself happy its your car. it is true about road condtion more easy to damage the larger wheels though.

 

To say that bigger wheels will hurt your performance to a noticable extent with the butt dyno is a bunch of bullshit. I have a friend with a 05 Dodge SX2.0 with 18's on it. Stockers are 14" steels with 175/65R14 rubber. They weigh in at about 25lbs. The 18's are 18x7.5 with 215/35R18 rubber and weigh in at over double the stockers. There is no noticable difference on the road between the two. On a track you may loose .1 second off your 1/4mile time, but I'd say no more than that.

I'm personally going to run 16" Sport Edition E-1's with 205/45R16 Yokohama Parada Spec-2 rubber. These are actually what I bought for my 97 T-Bird, but I sold that car before I used them much. I've got some temp tires on there now. The axles were redrilled to 5x108 in back and I will be using adapters on the front to convert the TII pattern to 5x108. Oh yeah, the offset on these is +38mm, no spacers in the rear.

 

yup. here it is!! =D

 

Here is mine at the track with 17's.

 

Personally,I think 15's fit our cars basic look,just fine.
But,its always gonna come down to individual prefference.I believe that 17's can look good on a 1st gen,if you choose the right wheel and the right stance.I also believe that the tiny,stock brakes make the car look utterly stupid,with most 17's bolted on.If your gonna go big and show off,do more than just bolt on some wheels......or at lease loose the rear drums!

 

Why go 17 when you can go 32?

 

yeah why go turbo when you can put on a cold air intake and exhaust tip?

 

all I can say is...


wow!

 

i run 17's too....205-40-17front and 215-45-17rear.i run them over a year and i am more than happy....

 

hay what did u do to your roof^^

 

does anyone know of any sites I.E. company websties I can go to that have wheels for my "7" 4X110MM? thanks really appreciate it

 

Wow Whats the clearence like on your car wow could I do this setup on ym stock 83

 

this offset clears perfectly no rubbing for up to 225-45-17, but if you go bigger you have to roll the inner fender lips.

The tire shown is a 205-40-17 all around, the 245-45-17 fills the rear wheel well much better

 

IMO 16" is the right size for 1st gen, 17" looks like you are stuffing too much wheel in there, unless you have big fender flares.

Big wheels weigh more but don't forget that the tires weigh less, you have to look at the whole rotating mass and the weight distribution to really know what you are getting. Unlike the later cars Mazda didn't go to great efforts to make the 1st gen stock wheels lightweight so if you are reasonable with performance wheels and not bling you probably won't make things worse.

 

Hey guys,

I also thought 17's were going to be too big. But i found some 17's that i really liked and i think they look amazing on the car. One of the problems was the offset was wrong for them so i had to get a custom spacer made that bolts on and has studs coming off them. Which is actually better in my eyes. There 1" in the front and 1/2" in the rear. I run 205/40 in the front and 215/40 in the rear. Fusion ZRI tires. I upgraded from 15" because the tires would roll over when i did corners and it was effecting my handling. With the harder tire less roll happens and i can turn so much better. My car it's self has alot of suspension done to it and the tires were holding it back. One of the problems was that my car is so low that it would rub on turns. So i had to get the fenders flared and as long as i don't pull corners really hard with two pasengers its fine. I haven't had any problems with potholes or anything like that, even with half a finger gap in the front and 1 and 1/2 finger gap tuck in the rear. I think its funny that the rear tucks and the front doesn't. Thats what i get for pulling everything off my motor ha. Heres a picture tell me what you think.









I wish i had some different shots and not night time but i lost all my pictures.

 

GREAT CAR!the wheels are amazing too!

 

 

Nice wheels! your car looks good too! I got 16's on mine and always wondered how 17's or 18's look on a fisrt gen.