wheel adapters for wide bodied mx-5

mr k · Postby **mr k** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:38 pm

i have seen a car for sale but the wheels does not fill the guards.the guy said it has been imported from japan,and all you need is an adapter behind the wheels to make them to fill out.is this this safe. does it change the handling etc.thanks for any info

Boags · Postby **Boags** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:50 pm

Welcome to the forum!

mr k wrote:is this this safe. does it change the handling etc.

No, i think they are illegal because they put the load further out, and yes, the dynamics of the car will change, again, because the load is further out.

I assuming you are talking about spacers. Get deep dish rims

They look hot with wide body kit!

Boags

Sheck · Postby **Sheck** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:47 pm

I think they are pretty safe, i think they are illegal due to not being tested for ADR approval. Plus it would mean that the wheels are heaps different to the stock ones which is illegal too - but most cops wouldnt bother defecting you for it.

Look at it this way, heaps of race cars and drift cars use them with out any/many sad stories to tell about them.
Putting the load furthur out will happen whether you put spacers on or get a different offset rim - its the same thing.
I've been running around +15-25 in the front and half the time in the back of my car for ages and its fine.
One set of rims i have are +25 and the other 1.5 sets are +40 and when they are on the front i use my bolt on spacers. I've raced and drifted with these heaps of times and it my daily too.

I think the worst that will happen is the front bearing life will be reduced a bit.

Do it, it'll look mad!!

Dave

PS on a side note i put my bolt on spacers and my +25 offest (= 0 offset) rims on the front and it looked wicked awesome! Would just have to flare out the gaurds a bit - ie flip the inner bit out add relief cuts and roll. Weld back together and bog = sweet flares!!

miata · Postby **miata** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:30 am

Sheck wrote:I think they are pretty safe, i think they are illegal due to not being tested for ADR approval. Plus it would mean that the wheels are heaps different to the stock ones which is illegal too - but most cops wouldnt bother defecting you for it.

Look at it this way, heaps of race cars and drift cars use them with out any/many sad stories to tell about them.
Putting the load furthur out will happen whether you put spacers on or get a different offset rim - its the same thing.
I've been running around +15-25 in the front and half the time in the back of my car for ages and its fine.
One set of rims i have are +25 and the other 1.5 sets are +40 and when they are on the front i use my bolt on spacers. I've raced and drifted with these heaps of times and it my daily too.

I think the worst that will happen is the front bearing life will be reduced a bit.

Do it, it'll look mad!!

Dave

PS on a side note i put my bolt on spacers and my +25 offest (= 0 offset) rims on the front and it looked wicked awesome! Would just have to flare out the gaurds a bit - ie flip the inner bit out add relief cuts and roll. Weld back together and bog = sweet flares!!

What a wonderful way to screw up your suspension geometry, put extra load on the wheel centres and stop your suspension from working as it was designed to.
In other words, no, don't go outside the perameters established by the Mazda engineers, if they worked, the car would be delivered with a wider track. If you want (for some obscure reason) to "fill the guards", have the car lowered slightly by a suspension expert.

Craig · Postby **Craig** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 10:25 am

miata wrote:If you want (for some obscure reason) to "fill the guards", have the car lowered slightly by a suspension expert.

Like that picture Mandi posted of the WRX??? :lol:

phatMX · Postby **phatMX** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:29 pm

Miata, take a run on a track with your current setup get your best time come back in and setup your car with spacers and specs that you feel comfortable with then take a lap in your car. Come back with the results then tell us how much it threw your cars geometry off and show us the times.

I think for a daily driver it wont make bugger all difference, and as for track I'd love to see some time's indicating that it's terrible.

Sheck · Postby **Sheck** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:10 pm

Yea i think thats a myth made up by those nancy older folk (no offence) that live over at M.net.
Look at any race car and you will find wider offest & width wheel.

The wider track will make the car more square which will be more stable and more grip, brings center of gravity lower - but once it lets go it will be a bit annoying to bring it back if your not quick enough.

And lowering will not fill the gaurds - it'll bring the gap down but the wheel will still be tucked behind the gaurd by a mile - especially if you put some more camber on 'em.

If the engineers of any car had their way we would be driving a very different car to what we drive now. They have to \"fit\" the car into the many rules and regulations that governments impose and to what the public would accept.

Sure scrub radius will be affected but if you drive the car hard then the camber you have will cause more tyre wear than that.

My 2c
Dave

Benny · Postby **Benny** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:41 am

Most of the MX-5 racing cars I've seen have spacers on at least the rear wheels, and having dríven a street MX-5 with 25mm spacers, it handles very well indeed.

There are spacers and there are spacers however.
Never use the ones that just go over your disk hubs and then you put the wheel on and tighten up the nuts, because the studs will be too short and you will be in danger of loosing a wheel or 2.
Get the type that bolt onto your hub, then have their own studs for attaching the wheel.