I've only recently purchased a bronze 1.8I What I want to do is to fit 17" alloys. Does any one see any problems? (11/99)

My opinions... DON'T DO IT. Or, to qualify myself, 17" alloys on an MX5, even if you manage to find some that fit, will be good for nothing but posing & track days. You'll get very harsh noisy ride, and you'll pay a fortune for tyres. And the car will be slower. And you'll probably end up in a hedge if you drive on a poorly surfaced bumpy country road.

On a stock MX5, I.M.O. go for 15x7" with 195 width tyres for best performance & overall handling. If you want to spend more, find some really lightweight rims (they all say they are, but they're not) but be prepared to accept that they may not be very strong.

FWIW, I've got 16"x7.5 TSW Blades on a bronze Mk2 - see http://members.xoom.com/_XOOM/john_latham/car_photos/ (11/99)
I own a Mk 2 1.8i, and have opted for the 17" alloys. You should have no real problems at all in fitting them as long as you watch the width of the alloy rim. Mine are 17"x7" with Falken GRB 205/40-17 tyres. The chap who fitted them claimed that 7" was the maximum width permittable without fitting spacers at the rear, but looking at them, I think 7.5" would be fine, you could even try 8" but fitting 205 tyres to these may be a problem (too narrow?), wider tires like 225's are very expensive. The car handles really well with the no-profile tires, but it can be a bit bumpy on poor road surfaces in comparison to the 14/15" alloys. I think the car looks fantastic with big alloys, but again that is a matter of opinion. (11/99)
After listening to the many 'horror' stories of fitting 17" wheels to my mk1 I have decided that the benefits out weigh the drawbacks so I am hopefully going ahead with it soon. Some technical info needed first though to make sure the job is done right. Does anyone please know the correct PCD, Offset and Centre bore for the MK1 5? (10/00)

Standard wheels are 14x5 1/2JJ

Weight of original alloys 5.6 Kg

Offset 45mm

PCD 100mm (diameter)

Hubcentric Collar (Centre bore) 54mm (diameter) (10/00)
4x100 45 mm os with the following NO problems with clearance 185/40-17 205/35-17 possible clearance?? 235/30-17 (10/00)
Just met today with a fellow club member who changed to 17" with 215/40/17. No clearance problems but the car is not lowered. Tyre prices? 150 GBP for the SO-2 so he went for some Falken (whatever that is). btw car is MK2 (10/00)
A friend has just fitted 17 inch alloys to his Eunos. It's not lowered, but no clearance problems with 215/40/17's (10/00)
Of course, these are larger circumference than stock and hence his speedo will be reading slow (or actually closer to reality depending on what you read), and as the wheel tyre combo is about 1" bigger than stock, the car will have been *raised* by about 0.5". And I would of thought contact at the front inevitable when pushing hard through tight corners... But I bet they look really good! (10/00)
I switched from 205/40 17s (came with car) to 195/60 14s (on Watanabes); car handles much better now, rides better, turns in quicker. The 17" wheels were Antara-brand; a good wheel, but these were very heavy. The tyres were Avon ZZ1 directionals; absolute cack in the wet. After speaking to a few people, I suspect a lot of tyres at this size, unless you go very expensive, are really on "show" quality. The car had no clearance problems (35mm lowered), though the rear camber is quite aggressive. Others with big wheels have rubbing problems with the wheel arch liner PCD is 100mm. A lot of wheel places didn't care about offset (!!), just knew that the MX5 is the same fitment as a Golf. Offset I think is 38mm, but I'm sure this info can be found on miata.net. You have to remember to get hub adaptor rings, to make sure the load is correctly transferred from the wheel nuts to the hub centres. (10/00)
Just a quick note to say thanks to everyone who has contributed to the various discussions on alloys over the past couple of weeks. I finally opted for 17" tsw imola's with Yokohama A539'S (205/40/17). I am extremely pleased with them in every respect noticed no drawbacks yet, (apart from my bank balance!) power seems to be the same when accelerating as with 14", apart from now the car seems to 'point' where you want it to go, and they look quite good as well! Need to be treated with a little more respect in the wet, but this is good advice regardless of the tyre size. (11/00)