As I need to eventually fit new wheels to my NA (because the current are crooked AF), I would like to know what size tires you recommend for 15x7 wheels.

29 Sep 2019

These are the wheels I want to get (except in Bronze)… they are Japan Racing JR3s and the reason I chose these is because:

1; they’re cheap (€110 per wheel)
2; they’re local (Dutch made)
3; they’re commonly used in the Dutch car community (even outside of MX5s, there’s someone on my campus who has JR3s on his Civic)
4; they’re TE37 rip-offs, so they’re bound to look good (as Metalluis16 will confirm… I do like TE37s…)

As of now I have bigger issues to fix (rust, star in windshield in driver’s view, broken left taillight gasket, vacuum leak, radiator fan, roof), so it’s not something I plan on fixing this year (yay, low income life with an NA MX5), especially considering my tires are still in really good shape. But it is something I’ll need to fic eventually and I’m not sure the 195s I have now are going to fit.

Side note, there are other JR wheels I thought of getting:

These are JR19s. Thing is though; these are 15x8… so they’re even bigger. Plus the wheels them self are more expensive than the JR3s (€125 per wheel) and I’ll probably need to buy arch flares if I want these. The one in the pic are probably even bigger that 15x8, though, as they’re also available as 15x10,5.

Anyway… all the rambling out of the way. Simple question; what size tires (in advance) do you recommend for a set of 15x7 wheels for my ‘92 MX5? Not to forget, a tire that’s not too expensive at any size.

Comments

195/55-15 or 205/50-15

Thanks

7j are great size. you can fit 195/50 and 205/50 with no problem ;)
also performance tires comes in those sizes if you want something more premium.
I race with Sunfull sf-888 195/50 tires, Super cheap and great for small engines,
Kumho Ku36 comes in 205/50 size
yokohama semislick come in 195/50
sailun r01 comes in 195/50
Also i dont think Japan Racing are made by Dutch ;)

i would recoment fixing car first and then buying wheels new.
or even better check used wheel markets. i think mx5 have smaller center bore than mine Mitsubishi. so you can fit wheels from Mitsubishi, VW, Opel, Honda, Nissan….everything that is 4x100. dont care about center bore for wheels, because you can buy center rings whenever you want.

I really like the Watanabe ones, I feel like TE-37s are overdone.
15x8 should fit fine with 195/205s with rolled fenders. No need for (imo ugly) overfenders

Budget is an issue, though. I don’t really have access to anything with which I can roll my arches, plus, the JR19s have a 35mm offset or something like that (I too am not a fan of overfenders tbh, I prefer a cleaner, more natural look, like Phil has). Anyway, thanks for the advice :)

These are 15x7 with 10&15mm spacers. I wouldn‘t go with 7s again, but they came on the car so I just got spacers

Factory size will serve you just fine. 195/50/R15. If you really want to you can go for 205s but it’s really unnecessary on a 1.6L. As for specific tires i have Pilot Sport 3 all around and am very satisfied. May upgrade to Yokohama AD08R in the following months though that’s definitely NOT a budget tire

Alright, thanks :)

I indeed can confirm… I don’t really use CT anymore tho 😅

Jr3s in 15x8 et25 also fit without any work to the fenders. At least using 195/45. If u prefer a nice fitment, yet functional, roll the arches and go for jr12 8.5 et13 205/45. You would have to roll the fenders, but it for sure looks 10 times better than et25, plus more contact patch and a wider, more stable stance.

BTW, if performance would be a bigger factor and budget less important, uhp/semi tires 205/50 also make for a nice fitment using et25 plus some 5-15 mil spacers