tires and wheels Miata wheels (minilite-style) w/Rabbit rotor spacers (pics!)

[KFunk]

Using these style of wheels has been mentioned before in the archives as a possible alternative to the mini-lite style people pay so much for, but I've never seen pics. The wheels can be found very cheap, weigh like 12 lbs., but the plastic centercaps say 'Mazda.'

The miata wheels have an et45, and most people say the fronts need spacers but not the rears.

In a previous thread on spacers, Delia suggested making cheap spacers by cutting the outside off of an old VW Rabbit rotor. Thanks Delia!

As someone said, my racing budget doesn't even own a shoestring. I just happened to have four miata wheels sitting in my basement for 4+ years, with Victoracer V700 R-compound tires (195-55-14).

One of them had been corded, and a friend gave me a similarly old V700 (205-55-14), and so I mounted it up on the 4th rim.

The fronts didn't seem to rub anything without a spacer, but it was close, and it hard corner things may flex, and so I decided to find a spacer.

Time and availability was limited, so I asked my friend Ben if he had spare Rabbit rotors.

Using a cut-off wheel, he made these real quick for me, for free:

They fit perfectly, as seen here hanging loosely on the studs:

With the wheels on there, there was plenty of threads left on the stock studs to get the lugs on there tight:

I had been worried about not having enough threads, as a friend of mine once used spacers on his 240SX and embarrassingly lost a wheel on an autocross run. But once I saw I could get the lugs threaded on tight, I was very confident.

You can see my miata wheels aren't quite original. Many years ago I spray painted them black, and polished the rim and spokes, in a quarter-assed effort to make them slightly more aggressive looking. I haven't seen my center caps in years either.

Here are more pics:

a bit too blurry:

It was pretty fun, despite the tires being really old and rock solid. No real rubbing issues, except for hitting my big sway bar at full lock while in the grid area (often happens to me). I do have rolled fenders, but I doubt it was necessary for these wheels/tires.

I put the 205 on the rear, just since there seemed to be more room back there.

I ran pretty quick once the tires got some heat in them, but couldn't catch a 510 in my class, which had fresh hoosier 13x9s and dual 40s, vs. my ancient tires and 32/36.

Results here:

http://www.ovr-scca.org/_autocross/results2007/class.asp?season=2007&rid=18

[POP3Y3]

look great! do the center caps fit?

[KFunk]

look great! do the center caps fit?

they'd fit fine, nothing sticking out that would interfere with them. They're just hidden in my basement, and I had no reason to use them. If someone wanted to make them decent for street use on an 02, they'd have to figure out how to to smooth over the indented 'MAZDA' on them. They're just plastic though, so I'm sure it'd be easy to put in some filler and smooth it over.

[02again]

How thick are the spacers?

[KFunk]

I figured someone would ask that... as its important information I should have provided..... but I do not have a ruler in my apartment.....

They're as thick as three quarters stacked on top of each other. Someone measure that.

[bobthomas]

Good post. Thanks. It's always nice to learn (with sufficient detail) how to do something nice & inexpensive for our '02s.

[Beaner7102]

Nice work KFunk - you have been thinking of doing that for almost 2 years I think. With the black paint they have an almost period look about them. 2 Thumbs up. Beaner7102

[KFunk]

I haven't even owned my 02 for 2 years.

Now that I finally have the two cars in one place, I've been able to swap stuff back and forth. The 02 is also using the good headlights from my miata, and I was able to use my E30 bbs wheels to run snow tires on the miata.

[kangarooboy]

They look like some sort of vintage mystery wheel. I'm tempted to dig out my Miata Steelies...

[brad_c-ville_VA]

i'm still interested in seeing if the 13x8 rota wheels work on and 02. someone posted some pics a while back. i wonder if they clear the big brakes. they are always on eBay for about $400/set new. look pretty sharp, i think.

nice job, kfunk. did you happen to measure the spacer thicknesses and get them fairly close to one another? i'm guessing for competitive driving like steve k. does, the alignment issues with the DIY spacers could be an issue. but just for fun they seem to work well!

brad.

[Guest Anonymous]

Are the Miata wheel lug holes 4 X 100 mm?

Maybe I am dense, but I had previously been told by an 02er that the Miata wheels would not fit because the lug holes were spaced a little wider than the 02's wheels. Any truth to this?? From your write up, I would assume the answer to be no, but is this true for all Miata years?

ThANK YOU

[KFunk]

Julia, the miata wheels are 4x100mm. All Miata wheels from 1990-2005 are 4x100mm, and are all interchangeable. The wheels shown were factory alloys from 90-93. I've seen 99+ alloys run on early 90-93 miatas, so I bet those would fit an 02 as well.

The 06+ ('NC' body style) got monster big goofy looking 5-bolt wheels.

Keep in mind the offset is not ideal (et45 vs. et~30). The wheels are sitting more inboard than they should be, by about 15mm, but the spacers help make up for that a little bit. Still I wonder if the handling geometry of the car may be off a little bit.

My major concern was rubbing the strut housing, and I've only run them for one autocross and never on the street.

Brad, I didn't really assist with making the spacers, since Ben lives far away. He just gave them to me at the autocross. He didn't mention checking the thickness, but there appear to be some unexplained cutting marks on the surface. Perhaps he just cleaned off some rust as well.

In any case, they are actual brake rotors, so they are designed to be spun fast at the wheel of a car at high temps, and strengthened and balanced for that purpose. It's not like cutting up a piece of sheet metal.

I did have the car up to the top of 2nd gear for an extended period of time in a slalom, and noticed no vibrations or shimmies.

[KFunk]

Oh, and for other possible Miata stock options, lots of choices here:

http://www.miata.net/faq/wheel_weights.html

The 8.5 lb. BBS basketweaves are the really sought after ones, but the rest can be found for relatively cheap. Lots of people put aftermarket wheels on miatas, so stock alloys are easy to find.