Custom 15x7.5 Rotas & 224/45-15 fitment

[AlfaAutoCrosser]

I spoke with a lady at 18Racing, who is a large distributor for Rota Wheels, and found out that I'm able to custom order wheels to fit the Milano. I've always liked the Slipstream, especially for autocross setup, and after about a week of research and thought, I am considering a 15x7.5 wheel with 224/45-15 tires. I'm running my car in a street tire class, so there are several factors which have led me to the wheel size and tire size choices.
After searching through some old forum posts, I found some info on the Ronal A-1 which was available in 15x7.5 with a 25mm offset, and someone posted that 225's worked with those wheels. Worst case scenario, I could always roll the fenders to give a little extra clearance.
So, based on that, I'm considering having the Slipstreams ordered with 15x7.5, 5x98 bolt pattern for 12mm lugs, 25mm offset, and 58.6 center bore. The cost is $550 shipped, but it's a 3 month wait to have them made.
If anyone doesn't think this offset will work, please feel free to recommend another offset. I won't be ordering the wheels for a few weeks, so I still have some time to research and plan some more, if need be.
Thanks for all of your input, and please, there is another thread for bashing my choice of autocross car, so let's try to keep this one wheel size specific.

[Travis_k]

The only comment I would have is im not sure if $550 is alot of money to you or not ( to me it would be), but I would be concerned that 15 inch performance tires may soon be a thing of the past. I think if I was to buy aftermarket wheels id be looking for 16''.

[AlfaAutoCrosser]

My understanding is that with the Milano, it is best to keep the tire diameter down, for clearance issues. In 16", my best bet would be a 215 width tire, and it would be over 1/2 inch larger in diameter. The 15 gets me as wide a tread as I feel I can get. Plus, the 225/45 is getting more popular as the performance tire market is recognizing the need for that size in the popular Street Touring classes.
$550 is of course a lot of money, but cheap compared to a lot of the other alternatives for Milanos. And for custom, it's probably less than half.
Thanks for your input, it is greatly appreciated, and there are certainly no wrong issues to discuss here.

[conedriver]

If you want to go really crazy, Hoosier now has a 275/35x15 A6. Overall diameter is almost the same as the 225/45x15 size. Minimum wheel width is 9.00. I'm interested in trying these on my Spider, but anticipate wheel well clearance problems.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlfaAutoCrosser My understanding is that with the Milano, it is best to keep the tire diameter down, for clearance issues. In 16", my best bet would be a 215 width tire, and it would be over 1/2 inch larger in diameter. The 15 gets me as wide a tread as I feel I can get. Plus, the 225/45 is getting more popular as the performance tire market is recognizing the need for that size in the popular Street Touring classes. $550 is of course a lot of money, but cheap compared to a lot of the other alternatives for Milanos. And for custom, it's probably less than half. Thanks for your input, it is greatly appreciated, and there are certainly no wrong issues to discuss here.

[Grant]

Jeez..I wish you needed wheels earlier. I also talked to 18racing, but my track event is this weekend and I needed a straight set of wheels fast.

I've just mounted 5x98->5x114.3 adapters (20mm wide) that I had made by Serpent Auto in LA (I'll do a write-up on this later). Anyhow, it allows you to buy, not just rotas, but any Nissan/RX7 wheel of your choice. Granted, you need to find wheels with a high offset, but it's nice insurance if one of the custom Rotas break or bend. I'm using Z32 300zx wheels ATM, which are 16x7.5 +45 offset with my 225/45/16 ES100's. I'm going to search for 15's to use instead once these tires are done for because the effective 25 offset and my nearly 24" tire diameter means I can't turn the wheel all the way lock to lock anymore.

Anyhow, buying an adapter is something to consider versus ordering custom Rotas. Your plan sounds like it will work out well though..

What tires do you plan on using? I don't suspect the RE-01R comes in that small a diameter..

[Grant]

Lol, sorry about the other thread. You might notice some of the suspension discussions get pretty heated, especially when JungleJustice was still posting!

[AlfaAutoCrosser]

George, I'm running the car in STX, so R-compounds are out.
Grant, I've seen the Serpent spacers, and read the article they linked to where someone did a write up on them. The only issue with that is paying $300 for the spacers, yet the wheels still will cost me $550. I do have to wait a while for them though, and if one of them gets messed up, I'm SOL on the replacement.
As for the 225/45-15, my cheap choice is the Hankook Ventus Z212. Though not the best tire for STX, it will serve me well locally, especially since I'm not running the best car anyway. Toyo also has the 224/45 on their "coming soon" list, which is the Proxes R1R. They will probably be a better autocross tire, but also probably double the price.

[Travis_k]

For tires to use in STX, its true availability shouldnt be as much of a problem. All of the street tires that I or someone i know has liked that used to be available in 15'' are discontunued now though. The smallest 16'' re01-r is too tall then? I actually may get a set of the hankooks for my car for the 15 inch wheels i have now too.

[Echo Leader]

I'm interested in the prospect of some Rotas. Can any of us do this or would it be a group-buy for everyone to buy identical spec wheels? Or can we order something besides 15x7.5 Slips in +25ET? Do we have color options? Is $550 just for 15x7.5?

Thanks for any info!

[Grant]

If you buy the adapters, then buy 16X8 OEM FD wheels at 13-15lbs per wheel, you're doing pretty good as far as cost and replacement wheel availability. I emailed Rota about re-drilling blanks, but they won't sell blank wheels due to liability issues.

Good luck on the Rotas though!

[AlfaAutoCrosser]

Echo, if you go to 18racing's website, you will see their prices. Looks like the normal price for the 15x7.5 is $500, so they're getting another $50 to make it custom.
Grant, you'll have to forgive my ignorance, but what is an FD?

[Grant]

Sorry, 3rd generation RX-7 (93-95)

[Duk]

Hey Grant, any chance of some photos?
Using factory wheels is always a good idea IMO. They're always high quallity.
I've seen to many cracked aftermaket (cheap!) rims.
Besides, with Japanese import wreckers bringing in heaps of quallity brand name and standard rims at low prices, I've developed a low tollerance for high prices

[Echo Leader]

AAC, thanks for pointing me in the right direction! You've started the gears turning in my head. I've been comparing potential tire sizes since I read your post yesterday.

Your Milano is a Verde, correct? If so, running a lower diameter would benefit fitment and potentially be good for your gearing. How fast is the Verde traveling when you hit the rev limiter in 2nd?

The downside seems to be that finding a decent tire in an outer diameter that is considered 'low' for the Alfa and in a size that fits within ST* classes seems tricky at best. With my GTV6, I'm currently running the non-optimal Kumho Ecsta MX in 215/40-17 (23.77" OD) and the max offset delta allowed in STS. This combination rubs the front edge of the tire on the fender wing when turning the wheel from lock to lock. I also become rev-limited in 2nd with some regularity.

With this all in mind I'm contemplating the cost/benefit of increasing my positive offset (narrowing my track) and dropping to a 16" wheel in order to allow me to move to a 225 width with a larger OD then my current setup. If the rubbing issues on the Verde are similar to those of the GTV6, you may want to think about running 16" with a higher offset and a larger OD tire size. The key aspect being that you'll hopefully have more current tire options...and that those options may exist in the future. Take a look at the 225/50-16 tire options.

[AlfaAutoCrosser]

Mine is a Verde, but since I just took ownership like 2 weeks ago, I haven't driven it enough yet to know where the limits are. I'll have to use my GPS, since the tach and speedo barely work. I've been sorting some things out, and this weekend will be its first trial run at an autocross, with 205/50-15 Azenis RT-215 on the stock Verde wheels.
I'm not sure about the rubbing issues, yet, but I would venture to guess that increases overall tire diameter would not be a wise choice. A 225/45-15 is 23.0 diameter, and a 225/50-16 is about 24.8. That's a huge difference, and to me, it would seem like great potential for hitting inside the fenders during hard cornering. Still, though, it's just a guess, as I have yet to experience it myself. I'm basing my info on results from searching these forums for info.