You're all skin and bones! Here, have some meat.

"t0ast" (t0ast217) 03/28/2018 at 15:33 • Filed to: Exocet, Tires

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And yet, no weight was gained! As it turns out, the 15x8 (Bassett Racing) steel wheel with 205-width tires that came on the car weigh about as much as a 15x9 6UL with 245-width rubber (17+19 vs. 13+23 lbs per corner respectively).

I know everybody and their brother’s husband’s hairdresser’s Miata runs 6ULs and the color doesn’t match up particularly well with the rest of the car, but having something with the right offset was too good to pass up. The frame bows out just enough that the rear tires will rub on it unless they have a pretty low offset, so wheel choices for wider rubber are limited and many require spacers. These 6ULs hit the market late last year in an Exocet-minded +12 offset, so I grabbed a set during the car’s winter hibernation. I’m happy to report that they clear the frame as advertised, but unfortunately they now rub my front brake lines at full lock, so some bracket changes are now in order.

I was planning on putting a set of Hankook RS4 on them, but those were back-ordered into oblivion everywhere I looked (2+ months), so it instead got one of the latest autocrosser favorites: the BFG Rival S 1.5. My wallet wasn’t particularly happy with the extra $50/tire hit, but I can’t say I’m too upset with the trade-off otherwise. I’m just happy to be done with those slippery DZ102s.

Seat time has been limited since the change-over due to weather and some additional work needing to be done (like the aforementioned brake line brackets and a radiator fan that no longer wanted to hold on to the radiator), but I can say the car now has the stupid amount of grip it deserves. I can’t wait to finally drive it in anger at the KC SCCA Test & Tune event coming up here in a little over a week.

MonkeePuzzle > t0ast 03/28/2018 at 15:49

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they dont seem much wider, but certainly the contact patch has increased. those old ones look darn near stretched

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > t0ast 03/28/2018 at 15:51

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i love neat tread patterns

AestheticsInMotion > t0ast 03/28/2018 at 15:55

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They’re good wheels  they can take a beating

Wacko > t0ast 03/28/2018 at 15:55

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t0ast > AestheticsInMotion 03/28/2018 at 16:04

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Good to hear, especially with all that you put yours through. Are those the corresponding 949 aluminum lug nuts as well? If so, how have they been holding up?

t0ast > MonkeePuzzle 03/28/2018 at 16:07

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Yeah, that stretch hides a good amount of the width difference. Those wheels on the 205s are are a full inch (if not more) wider than what most vehicles use for that size of tire.

AestheticsInMotion > t0ast 03/28/2018 at 17:28

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Yep, and they’ve held up pretty well. Two years of use, year-round and this is how they look on the most beat up of the 4 wheels. (it’s all super dirty right now but should still give you an idea)

Threads are still perfect, no cracks, haven’t seen any kind of negative reaction with the steel studs