14 replies to this topic

[safehands96]

Looking to get some wheels for a 87' reg civic. 15" x 6.5's with a 35mm offset fit ok?

 

Couldn't find an answer by searching.

[PowerWheels86]

Yeah those should fit fine... Most people are gonna suggest 14 or even 13... Unsprung weight, blah blah blah... It's your car, do what you want with it!! Hahaha but back to your question yes, yes they will fit... I think the biggest concern is actually offset... Just search the biggest offset or just offset by itself and you'll get plenty of results

[squareback]

Yeah, those should fit fine, but they will stick out a little more than stock wheels. Shouldn't be a problem, since there is some room there. What size tire were you going to use?

[chedda_j]

Those will fit just fine. I have 17 x 7.5 with 205's and once I get over fenders I will be doing some 235's in the front and 205's in the rear, but that will likely be on 15" ssrs with 0 offset.

 

[safehands96]

Thanks for the replys.

 

I heard 14's were the best with weight etc but was unsure with the offset and the size of the wheels.

 

Not sure about tyres but it'll be a daily car but I'm not bothered about the tyre walls having any 'give' in them. Its a b18c 3G so lighter the better.

 

Im struggling to find some te37's, ce28ns or regamaster evo wheels in 14's in the UK so was thinking about the plunge to 15's.

[azz187]

I am going to run 15s any bigger and I swear the acceleration is affected dramatically 13s and 14s limit what brakes you can run if your thinking of swapping the engine out for something with alot more grunt but if your just going for looks it don't make a difference and the choice is yours and the possibilitys are endless

[spuker1]

Yeah, this size you've asked for will fit almost stock like. I'm running 15" 7,5J ET15 with 175/60 tyres and there's loads of poke and fair bit of stretch too. Probably couldn't tuck the wheels under the arches like chedda did without some major fender work though.

[Madkore]

The problem with 15s isn't the weight of the wheels, it's the weight of the car.
Our cars weigh less than 2000 pounds. Gutted, a lot less. 15 inch tires don't get hot enough to reach optimum handling temperatures because our cars don't weigh enough.
15 inch tires are designed for cars weighing 3,000 to 4,000 pounds, or more.

An early Car & Driver article tested the first Jackson Racing CRX. It was stacked with all their goodies, full suspension and engine mods with 15 inch wheels and tires.
In the CD measured testing, the car handled terribly. They tried adjusting tire pressures all over the place, and it still handled worse than a stock CRX. Then they measured the tire temperatures with a pyrometer, and every tire was 20 to 30 degrees below where it should have been, even though they had been driving the crap out of it. They just couldn't get the tires up to optimum handling temperatures.

You can easily fit 14 inch, and some 13 inch wheels, over Integra disk brakes. Integra brakes and really good brake pads is your best option.
There are a lot of 14 X 6 wheels available. 14 X 7s are out there, but are gonna stick out a little, and are going to be pricy.

With 14 X 6 you can 195/60 - 14 or 185/60 - 14 tires. There are a lot of 185 size tires out there. A whole lot. And a lot of them are H rated to 130 mph. And some of them are as cheap as $52.00 on Tire Rack. So like $60.00 to $65.00 with shipping.
With 14 X 7s, you could run a 205/55 -14 tire, but the only ones available now are race tires.
These tires are also close to the same diameter as the stock 175/70-13 tires, so your speedo isn't way off.

I ran 14 X 7s with the old 205/55 - 14 Yokohama 008s and AVSs on the street. They handled great, but if you hit deep water in the rain, you will float and lose traction with the road.

Another simpler way to measure wheels is total backspace. Most custom wheel builders use this. It's the distance from the wheel mounting surface, to the back edge of the wheel. Just lay a straight edge across the back of the wheel, and then measure from the area next to a bolt hole to the straight edge. It's usually around 4 inches on so on a Honda. Once you have the backspace number, you can calculate the offset for your wheels, or any wheel width you are interested in. Stock Honda wheels are usually tucked pretty far in, so you can only go out if you go wider. You want to keep the same backspace number no matter how wide you go. If the number is too big, like 4-1/2+ inches, the wheel could rub or hit something. If the number is too small, the wheel will stick out too much and upset the handling.

The problem with offset is that the offset number changes every time you change the width of the wheel, and you have to state if it's positive or negative offset.  Backspace is a constant number, and never changes.

It really depends upon what you want to do with the car. Even I admit that some 15 inch wheels look really really good on our cars with a 195/60 or 205/60 tire.
Do what feels good, and have fun.

MK

[safehands96]

Thanks Madkore for the info.

 

The idea with the car is to use as daily and with track days when I can. So 14's would be ideal and with the cost of good tyres being cheaper smaller the rim.

 

Thanks again everyone

[chedda_j]

Was that test done back in the day? Just wondering if new compounds help, I can get my tires pretty sticky. I agree tho, I wish I had 15's with 235s.

[E-AT_me]

you're going to rub... +35 is kind of aggressive unless you can dial in some negative camber. these are 15x6 +35:

 

DSCF3086 by fragile_this_side_up_retro_club, on Flickr

 

edit: and yes, they did occasionally rub. 195/50-15 tires. 

[spuker1]

I'm running 15x7,5" ET15 wheels with 175/60/15 tyres.

Check out photos of my Civic here.

Edited by spuker1, 17 June 2013 - 03:39 AM.

[safehands96]

Thanks for the good info.

 

I'm running 15x7,5" ET15 wheels with 175/60/15 tyres.

Check out photos of my Civic here.

 

Same colour as mine getting it repainted in artic blue pearl ready for JAE

[8TEE6Si]

I'm using the Honda VX's (made by Enkei) 13 x 5.5 @ 9 lb and 185/70/13 Sumitomo's  correct me if i'm wrong but I think they are the lightest wheel produced for a street car.

 

Original Steel's and tires were 32.3 lb/each
Honda VX's and tires are 26.6 lb/each

 

Shaving a pound from your tires is equivalent to shaving at most 2 pounds of non-rotating weight. That's PER TIRE, so a pound off each tire could worth close to 8 pounds of weight reduction. For wheels, the multiplier is closer to 1.6, so saving 5 pounds per wheel (20 total) would feel like a static weight reduction of 32 pounds. For brake discs, it can be as low as 1.2. Regardless of the equivalent weight ratio, you're best off reducing weight as much as possible, as you might expect.

 

Rotating mass info:"Wheel Changes"

http://www.w8ji.com/...cceleration.htm

http://hpwizard.com/...al-inertia.html
 

[E-AT_me]

you are wrong. Miata 14x6 bbs were 8lbs.