I have decided not to lower my car, just because the roads here suck and when my dad drives my car he doesn't know how to not scrape my bumper.

Anyway, I have 17 wheels right now but the tires are way to small, they are 215/40/17. I was thinking of putting on a larger tire size to fill the gap and not have to swap winter rims all the time. I want to put a larger tire in the back to give it the aggresive high back/low front look.

How would this look: 225/45 for the front and 235/45 for the rear.

or should I just go for the 235s for all 4...

Let me know!

Originally posted by pr0
I have decided not to lower my car, just because the roads here suck and when my dad drives my car he doesn't know how to not scrape my bumper. Anyway, I have 17 wheels right now but the tires are way to small, they are 215/40/17. I was thinking of putting on a larger tire size to fill the gap and not have to swap winter rims all the time. I want to put a larger tire in the back to give it the aggresive high back/low front look. How would this look: 225/45 for the front and 235/45 for the rear. or should I just go for the 235s for all 4... Let me know!

In order to make you car higher or lower, you need to change the 2nd number. 225/235 is the width, 45 is the side wall. Maybe go 215/45 front and 215/50 rear. Although you probably won't notice the height difference. I believe 55 is the stock tire and those would look too big in my opinion.

Edit- I say 215 because I'm guessing your rims are 7" wide. 235, possibly even 225, are going to be too wide for them.

if you go above 55 it will look terrible

Thanks guys, I will look into it. 420a-Tnthewerks my rims are 7.5. :D

ACTUALLY... the 40/45/50 whatever is only a portion of the height. That number is a % of the width. A 40 series tire means the sidewall is 40% as tall as the tire is wide. If you really want to get technical, a 225/40 tire is 225mm wide, 225*40%=90mm high sidewall, so your tire is overall, 90mm(top) + 90mm(bottom) + 17" (rim) tall, whereas a 235/40 tire is 235mm wide, 235*40%=94mm high sidewall, so 94mm + 94mm + 17" high. (math conversion needed one way or another to figure that out.) So, a 225/40 is shorter than a 235/40, and also skinnier.

Use this tire calculator to put in the size you have, or your stock size, and compare it to what you want out of your tire.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

IMO, I would say go the same tire size all around. There is ABSOLUTELY no point in going with a wider rear tire when your car is a FWD machine. You would probably have more handling problems with doing that than advantages.

Same rules apply for raising the back end higher than the front. With less weight in the rear it will give the rear end more of a chance to float or lean when cornering. Also a big Negative.

Originally posted by FlyinEsi
ACTUALLY... the 40/45/50 whatever is only a portion of the height. That number is a % of the width. A 40 series tire means the sidewall is 40% as tall as the tire is wide. If you really want to get technical, a 225/40 tire is 225mm wide, 225*40%=90mm high sidewall, so your tire is overall, 90mm(top) + 90mm(bottom) + 17" (rim) tall, whereas a 235/40 tire is 235mm wide, 235*40%=94mm high sidewall, so 94mm + 94mm + 17" high. (math conversion needed one way or another to figure that out.) So, a 225/40 is shorter than a 235/40, and also skinnier. Use this tire calculator to put in the size you have, or your stock size, and compare it to what you want out of your tire. http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html IMO, I would say go the same tire size all around. There is ABSOLUTELY no point in going with a wider rear tire when your car is a FWD machine. You would probably have more handling problems with doing that than advantages. Same rules apply for raising the back end higher than the front. With less weight in the rear it will give the rear end more of a chance to float or lean when cornering. Also a big Negative.

Oh yeah, I always knew the % calculation but I never put two and two together that a wider tire would make a bigger sidewall lol.