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215 or 225 and spacers?

5K views 39 replies 7 participants last post by  Bill 
#1 ·
time for new tyres, current ones are 205/45/17 on an 05 plate r53 thats on eibach springs, wheels are 17 x 7 et35 turinis.

i have meister coilovers and a set of rca's to go on asap.

i want to go wider, pretty sure 215/45 will go on without any issue, but id really like to go to 225/45/17's, not sure if im pissing against the wind though?

would i be stupid to try 225's with it being lowered on coilovers? and what size spacers would you recommend for both tyre size choices?

would 5mm be ok or would i need to go bigger?

cheers.

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#2 · (Edited)
225 is too wide for 7" rim

With et 35 you will need "significant extra" rear camber to avoid arch rub

If people say it can done consider it Sub-optimal, at best

I'd look to be selling rims and looking at 7.5 if your set on 225

Ran 215 on both 7 and 7.5 rims happily :tongue_smilie:
 
#3 · (Edited)
right on that note, i will stick to 215's as the sensible option, thought this may be the case, dont really want to sell my wheels either tbh. and it sounds like a ball ache.

any suggestions on spacers? and do i need them all round?

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#5 ·
just fancied a bit of a lower/fatter look, ideally id go to 16" wheels, but i need 17's to clear the brakes.

215's it is, would like to space the wheels out a bit, thinking 5mm all round unless i could go slightly more without to much of a headache, not bothered about the plastic inner arch liners rubbing away.

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#7 ·
interesting thought as that's exactly what I want to do, well not the et35 bit, I'm on et48 with 215's and 11mm front spacers and no spacers on the rear.

A 7" rim is the minimum a 225 tyre can have, ideal is 7.5, and a max 8 according to just about everywhere, that doesn't mean the tyre wont have excess sidewall flex that can either affect tyre wear, or more importantly move further in under side load and still rub on coilover collars, I doubt it'll be significant though, excessive sidewall flex is unlikely if going for a road legal semi slick as the sidewalls are pretty strong compared to regular road non run flat tyres, even XL's, but when spaced to accommodate it a bit there won't be an issue surely, and to be fair, a 45 sidewall height on a 225 is ~a mm under the sidewall height of a 205/50 which people are using on track with 16's so no issue with the height itself, just that width going on a 7" rim and the flex that may have.

if you have et35's you're likely a couple of mm further out than me up front and obviously several at the back so maybe you could have an issue? I'm inclined to try, and need tyres now really or fit other wheels. Looking at the actual tread widths on different tyre sites it doesn't look like much is in it, I do have some 16 spacers so could fit them to the front instead of the 11's and use the 11's on the rear maybe.

One way to see on your own car is disconnect your rear bar, fit remove the shock bottom bolt and raise the wheel to the value of the potential damper travel and see what space you have either side, same up front in principle but you'd have to take a spring off to do it as the damper is used to hold the hub upright.

I think they'd reduce a bit more harshness, improve grip just that bit, not cost much more and still look good, but also have a minor affect on road speed probably doing that bit more to eliminate the speedo error altogether plus maybe on track, yes in weight, but perhaps changing a shift point for some. It's just taking that plunge haha, I think I probably will when I've sold a few bits....
 
#8 ·
yeah seem to remember you mentioning trying 225's somewhere, id be going for ps4 tyres more than likely, i have read recently that one of the saabs came supplied with 225 tyres on a 7" rim.

I've not really got the tools or know how unfortunately to mess about with it, so it needs to be a case of fitting straight off tbh, otherwise im having to call a mate in to mess around with it.

mmmm maybe i should hold out and wait for you to get your tyres haha! more than likely i will buy a couple of 215's and try them on the front and back, and see if i can stick some spacers on.

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#9 ·
the et35 rims are where you're going to have any issues I think, why do you want to run spacers?

If it's just for a wider track and you're only using 215 or 225 tyres I don't see any benefit, if however you were at 235's+ on 8 or 9 inch rims then you'd could just fit GP Garage arches like these:

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Motor vehicle Rim
 
#11 ·
If this is mine with 215's now I'm not going to have an issue at the back with 225's, sorry about rotation the forum uploader did that, fwiw here my rear camber is -2.2 which I may move back to -2 as I bring the car back up a touch (6mm)

something tells me you wouldn't with another 20mm and if you have rca's top and bottom for instance, you have potential to bring the trailing arm bracket all the way in and set the toe off the rca's therefore narrowing the rear track, or vice versa, arm bracket out, set toe off the rca's, to widen the rear track.

Automotive exterior Bumper Vehicle Transport Automotive lighting
 
#13 ·
If this is mine with 215's now I'm not going to have an issue at the back with 225's, sorry about rotation the forum uploader did that, fwiw here my rear camber is -2.2 which I may move back to -2 as I bring the car back up a touch (6mm)

something tells me you wouldn't with another 20mm and if you have rca's top and bottom for instance, you have potential to bring the trailing arm bracket all the way in and set the toe off the rca's therefore narrowing the rear track, or vice versa, arm bracket out, set toe off the rca's, to widen the rear track.

View attachment 91327
I've decided to order a couple 215's, going to try them on both the front and back when my coilovers are on, and weigh it it from there, keep me posted if/when you go 225.

im also debating some 17 x 7.5 alloys later on in the year and keep my turinis for track/winter etc.

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#17 · (Edited)
This helps no end...https://www.willtheyfit.com

The thing with wide rubber and low offset wheels is they look fab in July,
this time of year they just spread all the mud and shit off the roads up the sides of the car :wash:
 
#19 ·
You'll probably need 5mm spacers at least. I have 15x8 for the summer at et31 but I use 5mm spacers with those. With 17s you may have a bit more room but it'll be very close or touching the strut at the front.

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#22 ·
liking the stuttgarts, so they'll be having 225's then?
 
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#25 ·
Picking them up tomorrow, picked up the monza’s today, took them to get a refurb in luminous yellow haha!

My mate does it, he has a load of tyres knocking about, including some 225/45/17’s, so I’m going to get some put on the Stuttgart’s and see how they are, will report back, but this may be a good month or so off.
 
#24 ·
like the st3 too but not available in 17x8
 
#28 ·
This table might help. It suggests that the chunkiest tyre you can reasonably fit to an R53 is 215/45-17.

"Assuming 24.00" (609.6mm) as the factory specification for overall diameter, any of the following tire sizes may be appropriate:
+-----------+-------------------+
| TYRE SIZE | DIAMETER |
+-----------+-------------------+
| 195/55-15 | 23.44in (595.5mm) |
| 205/40-17 | 23.46in (595.8mm) |
| 215/50-15 | 23.46in (596.0mm) |
| 215/45-16 | 23.62in (599.9mm) |
| 195/50-16 | 23.68in (601.4mm) |
| 185/60-15 | 23.74in (603.0mm) |
| 215/40-17 | 23.77in (603.8mm) | <GP2
| 205/55-15 | 23.88in (606.5mm) |
| 215/35-18 | 23.93in (607.7mm) |
| 175/65-15 | 23.96in (608.5mm) |
| 225/45-16 | 23.97in (608.9mm) |
| 205/50-16 | 24.07in (611.4mm) |
| 225/40-17 | 24.09in (611.8mm) |
| 225/35-18 | 24.20in (614.7mm) |
| 195/60-15 | 24.21in (615.0mm) |
| 205/45-17 | 24.26in (616.3mm) | <R53 17s
| 215/55-15 | 24.31in (617.5mm) |
| 195/55-16 | 24.44in (620.9mm) | <R53 16s
| 205/40-18 | 24.46in (621.2mm) |
| 215/50-16 | 24.46in (621.4mm) |
| 185/65-15 | 24.47in (621.5mm) |
| 215/45-17 | 24.62in (625.3mm) |

I don't think all these sizes are actually available though.
 
#32 ·
Let the tyres sort the rubbing issue out, it's only plastic bits you have to worry about so they'll self trim. Maybe an arch trim will pop off but that's it.And here I am running 205/50r15, 586mm diameter with barely any arch gap [emoji15]



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#29 ·
215.45.17 profile 96.75
225.45.17 profile 101.25

so 4.5mm taller, as 225/45r17 isn't in the chart it should be, and it's a cheap enough tyre in many sizes including all the track day variants so I think I'm going for it and maybe stop running on Feds as daily tyres, maybe as daily/wet tyres T1R's even though they're shit, but more likely Rainsport 3's which seem to get ace reviews, or Michelin PS4's but they're dearer, although from what I can see so far they'll take a dry track day better than Uniroyals…..but then Feds are really good on the road too.....will I miss them? Haha
 
#34 ·
some don't at the top, but the bottoms of the arches on some cars look so wrong to me and remind me of one of the Mazda 323's, hurts my eyes haha
 
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