Tuning a Mazda 2

[Chief Geek]

I'm betting smaller diameter tires & wheels will be much easier and cheaper than the other methods to accomplish the same thing, namely lowering the car, fitting a lower final drive ratio, and removing 50-100 lbs. Plus, you can easily get 4 tires & rims in the back of the car, so switching back for commuting has the other adjustments beat by mile.

I don't know if John's 10:1 ratio is exactly right either, but I'll bet it's not far off.

[hammer]

Smaller wheels and tires are definitely a good idea. And it wouldn't wear out my every day rubber. I wonder if old miata wheels have the same 4x100 bolt pattern as my 2...And if anyone is willing to sell me some...

[dsldubn]

miata wheels are 4x100. I have a set I run on my rabbit. center bore was too small, but I just machined it larger.

[walterclark]

I have some VW "snowflakes" that are 14x6 that should fit and 6-7 BMW/BBS "basketweaves" that are 14x6.5 with a lower offset (stick out further) that I used up until last season. Old school I know but I would let the VW go for free and the BBS for $35 each (they usually sell for $50-$75 each on ebay). The VW arent very pretty to look at, the BBS are nice.

This is what a basketweave looks like:



And this is what a snowflake looks like:

[hammer]

I might be interested in those rims, assuming they fit over my brakes, but I don't see why they wouldn't. What width tires (in mm) fit? For both the 6 and 6.5 inch rims?

[walterclark]

I have 195 on the 6 and have had 205 on the 6.5 but 195 fit them well. I have seen 225 on 6.5 but if you are trying to keep the tire diameter down the lower profile sidewalls seem pinched and that would make steering less precise feeling.

BTW. All these wheels currently have tires mounted and would come with them. The snowflakes have fairly old Yokohama or Falken performance rubber - both with good tread but getting kind of hard now. And the basketweaves all have Kumho V710 mounted - near new tread depth, bought in '11, 4 of them are grooved for Mt Washington, 2 are still slick.

[Chief Geek]

Hammer

I've actually done the Miata -to- Mazda2 wheel swap thing.

The Mazda2 is certainly 4x100mm, but the Mazda2 front caliper extends outboard a bit farther than NA (gen1) Miata calipers do. Don't be fooled, it's really close. I added a 5mm spacer everything is perfect.

The rear's have no issues.

All indications are that the Mazda2 (and, probably Fiesta) use the same diameter centering lug as the NA Miata's.

I'm not a big fan of spacers, but 5mm is about as small as they get and I only planned to run snow tires on Miata rims on my 2. My logic is that snow tires (and snow tire appropriate commuter driving) won't push the limits of anything.

I'm sure some forum members have seen wheel spacers done well and done badly and know why which was which.

Spacers do prevent the centering lug from working, but, on a new car, the studs should still be pretty straight. I tried to give the rim every excuse to wind up centered on the hub and tightened each lug 1/6 turn at a time so they all progressed together. Seems to have worked.

I'll bet Walter's rims will work as they are. Miata's have very small front calipers and Mazda pulled every gram out of the factory, 7 spoke rims with no plans on using them on any other car. Any extra clearance would be "inefficient".

Paul

[dsldubn]

Walter, if Hammer is not interested in the basketweaves, I would be..

[sdwarf36]

You just have to watch the hub-centric vs. stud-centric differences.

[hammer]

Walter, I definitely am interested in looking at the rims, both the snowlfakes and basketweaves. I'll PM you.

sdwarf, could you explain the difference between hub-centric and stud-centric? Does it just mean that some rims center themselves using the hub and some use the studs to center?