Re-evaluating Wheel Size, lighter/cheaper/lower Options

[Joseph Mills]

Thanks to all for your opinions in my previous inquiry. It made me stop and take a hard look at my current setup (PO). After reading the comments on ride height and small wheel sizes, I went out and crawled under the car (15 degree temp-ouch!), and it's clear that the trailing arm and A-arms are far from being level (and jack points are 6"+ with the big wheels). It can certainly be lowered a good deal (but not with the 16" wheels currently fitted due to too tight a clearance).

So I am going to go to a - Drum Roll Please! - 15" wheel size. Lighter, Cheaper & Lower! Why didn't I think of this? Duh? Thanks guys!

Here's what I'm considering now:

Front: Hoosier 205/55 on 7" 15's.
Rear: Hoosier 225/45 on 8" 15's.

The above combination will actually retain my old tread width of the bigger Yokos, but let the car sit 2.5 inches lower with more camber and lighter unsprung weight. Will let you know how it works.

Those CSP Miatas will never know what hit'em! Thanks again.

Joseph

PS: here's some pics of the car as it is now (check out the license tag):

http://www.josephmills.com/porsche914/index.html

[J P Stein]

For some more unfo
Here's a pic of my car with 225 Kuhmos On 15 X 7.
8 inchers may fit, but it's iffy. The extra inch width of the 8s is outward.
This is with the doughnuts about 5.5 inches off the floor and .25 neg camber.

[Joseph Mills]

Looks like you're good to go. After you drop your car and add more camber it seems you should have plenty of room to spare. Gives me hope.

The quality of the bodywork on your flares looks awesome. I wish mine looked half that good. Metal or fiberglass?

After a phone call today, actually I'm pretty lucky. There's a shop in my area kinda like Brads that builds and maintains race cars. He's got 7s & 8s with Hoosiers mounted and told me we could actually mount them on my car for correct fit before I place an order.

He is interested in trading for my 16s. Unfortunately it's going to be a miserable 30 mile drive with three big-ass tires stacked in the passenger's compartment. I just hope I can shift into 4th & 5th. Think I'll stay in the right lane.

joseph

[J P Stein]

Hoosiers and 2.2 negative camber are gonna eat up ALL the room to the inner fender at 2 inches of compression from nominal.....maybe more than all.
I won't know till I take it out and beat on it some.
That would require Plan B.

I did the flares with a (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif) and dolly. Thanks for the compliment, but they don't look that good in real life. Bondo is a godsend.