At the moment my ba is on 17" alloys with 205 width tyres. They were on the car when I got it and they sre decent but they have always been a bit too big. A friend of mine and fellow member on here advised me to get a set of smaller rims as it would improve the car in many aspects, especially before getting lowering springs. The original size of the alloys was 13" according to data I see online but that seems laughably small. I'm guessing 15" is the sweet spot? What do you all recommend?

I virtually always ran 215/45/17's on my V6 which I didn't think was too bad at all. 15's look a bit small in my eyes so I guess 16's would be the mid way point. BUT, it's totally up to what you like and want :Thumbleft:

Yes, the original for the standard 1.5 BA was 175/70 x 13.

A decent upgrade would be to 195/50 x 15, which is very close to the same rolling radius.

My personal opinion is that bigger than 15 gives a very hard ride because the height aspect has to be smaller than 50.

I don't agree with you guys.
My F came with specs 14" for OEM wheels.
I have a friend from another city with 1.8 and his one says 15"
Both sizes are stated at the stickers on the cars drivers doors .
So, it's just what people wanted when they bought the car for the first time from the Mazda dealers.
I have seen F's with stated 13", but not all are with this size from factory.

[quote="maZZda"]I don't agree with you guys.
My F came with specs 14" for OEM wheels.
I have a friend from another city with 1.8 and his one says 15"
Both sizes are stated at the stickers on the cars drivers doors .
So, it's just what people wanted when they bought the car for the first time from the Mazda dealers.
I have seen F's with stated 13", but not all are with this size from factory.
[/quote]
Hi
Maybe it depends on which country you are in! But the UK standard spec for a pre-Ford 1.5 was definitely 13 inch.

[quote="jinglebells"]Maybe it depends on which country you are in! But the UK standard spec for a pre-Ford 1.5 was definitely 13 inch.
[/quote]

Was going to say the same, except 14" standard for Oz with 15" optional.

For the 1.8l
185/65R14 standard 'steelies' and perhaps some alloys
195/55R15 alloys

I think 205/50R16 were standard for the 2.0 V6 in Oz

[b]Patrick[/b]

[quote="jinglebells"]
Maybe it depends on which country you are in! But the UK standard spec for a pre-Ford 1.5 was definitely 13 inch.
[/quote]
It could be that, i agree now

Ok so really what size is most beneficial?
I'm looking for the best blend of aesthetics and performance. Obviously bigger rims would make the car accelerate slower and would use more fuel overall in my case as I do more accelerating and braking rather than cruising thanks to where I live.
Small rims wouldn't look good. Jinglebells you are probably right about the 15" 195 but would that provide what I'm looking for you think?
How much of a difference is there between rim sizes? In terms of weight and how it affects the characteristics of the car.

When i put my winter tyres (15" 195/55) my F don't like them and spins them really good.Stopping from higher speeds is really afected thou. it's nearly gone.The car skids alot more.MPG is lower and the car didn't look bad as with the 14" stock wheels.
See my car topic, there are pictures with all 14",15",17"..
Best is with 15" comfortably enough and looking good on the car.

I'm slightly confused, you said that the 15" don't perform well on yours but then you said the 15" is the best?

The 15" are not performing well on fast driving and hard braking in my case.
from 205mm(17") to 195mm(15") wideness i feel alot of grip changes driving in curvy mountain courses.
The 15" are the best compromise solution towards comfort and beneficial towards looks.
It's just that for me, they don't do the work i want from my tires(i'm after the grip).
Spinning them exiting the corners is bad thing too.

To be honest my mazda also spins the 17" 205 that I have on it right now aswell. I was thinking of going for 15" 195 as I think it would make for sharper handling aswell as be lighter than what I have now so it would not impact performance as much as my current ones do

Perhaps consider Mazda MX-5/miata wheels as (with typical Mazda commonality) they have correct PCD and rim offsets are about right. If there's a MX-5/Miata club there may be a ready supply esp. if they go racing. One proviso will be check wheel nut shapes/depths to fit correctly, my lug holes are quite recessed.

See [url=http://www.club323f.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=59635#p751367]my thread[/url] on a similar subject.

See [url=https://www.miata.net/faq/wheel_weights.html]this page for MX-5/Miata wheel weights[/url].

[b]Patrick[/b]

[quote="ArtistKS"]Ok so really what size is most beneficial?
I'm looking for the best blend of aesthetics and performance. Obviously bigger rims would make the car accelerate slower and would use more fuel overall in my case as I do more accelerating and braking rather than cruising thanks to where I live.
Small rims wouldn't look good. Jinglebells you are probably right about the 15" 195 but would that provide what I'm looking for you think?
How much of a difference is there between rim sizes? In terms of weight and how it affects the characteristics of the car.[/quote]
It's all about balancing the various characteristics of the different wheel/tyre combinations.
Some general principles first:-
(1) Increasing the wheel diameter size (e.g. from 13" to 15" or more) , and therefore reducing the tyre side wall height accordingly, usually reduces the overall weight, because an alloy wheel weighs less than rubber, inch for inch. So you are reducing the "unsprung weight" which has a beneficial effect on handling.
(2) Aesthetics can be very subjective, and personal choice, but for me the original 13" look too small on the BA; whereas 14" and 15" both look right to me, but 16" or bigger look too artificial.
(3) Bigger wheels tend to come automatically with the wider tyres (i.e. increasing from 175 width to 195 or even 205). This increases the footprint of the tyre, which most people assume must be good, but actually it can be bad in some circumstances, because there is less weight per square inch on the road, so a wider tyre will spin more easily. Often hard to accept this, but think of wearing your slippers on a smooth floor, and now put spikes on them - which ones will grip better? So, don't over-do the width. You can have a smaller width than 205 on a big diameter tyre, it just seems wrong.
(4) The bigger/wider tyres tend to cost more, which often makes people buy a cheaper quality tyre. Bad move! A small high-quality tyre will perform better than a big poor-quality tyre, every time.
(5) Performance can be badly affected if the overall rolling radius is changed. Use an on-line calculator (there are plenty of them) to get the same radius, otherwise you will be changing the gearing, the acceleration, the fuel economy and other things possibly, like noise. My example of a few posts ago shows a good compromise upgrade from 13" to 15".
(6) Comfort is another subjective thing that some people want and some don't. But a car like a BA 1.5 won't be comfortable on 17". In my opinion.
Hope that gives you some pointers to start!

Hmm, interesting, so for example, a 195 50 15" would have pretty much the same rolling radius as the stock 185 70 13" and I would assume, be lighter, as there is less rubber. Although you say the tyres would still spin?

The tyre/wheel combos specified on your car's tyre placard (sticker) are desined to keep the rolling radius as close as possible. Otherwise the drivetrain effectively changes- the gearing, drivetrain component forces, odo and speedo calibrations, top speeds, etc.

In general, alloy wheels will be lighter than the steel ones. Mine were by some considerable margin even going up 1" in diameter.

When comparing same design alloys, the alloy wheel will become heavier as diameter increases. As pneumatic tyres are mostly air, increasing the wheel diameter effectively means replacing air with metal to maintain the rolling radius resulting in a heavier wheel/tyre combo overall. Couple this with the fact the larger diameter tyres are often wider (requiring a wider rim) and the larger diameter wheel/tyre combo is usually heavier than the smaller one.

Not only does a heavier wheel have a dead-weight penalty, it has an unsprung mass penalty (i.e. the weight is outside the suspension which affects ride/handling) and a 'flywheel' rotating mass penalty- for a demo of this one, rotate a bicycle wheel and try to stop it with your hands- then try the same with a car wheel- now extrapolate that to 100+ km/h and multiply by 4 and you get the idea.

[b]Patrick[/b]

[quote="ArtistKS"]Hmm, interesting, so for example, a 195 50 15" would have pretty much the same rolling radius as the stock 185 70 13" and I would assume, be lighter, as there is less rubber. Although you say the tyres would still spin?[/quote]
No, not quite. 195 50 15 is very close in radius to 175 70 13, not 185. A 185 would be over 2% bigger, whereas the 175 is only 0.1% difference.

[quote="pitrack_1"]
When comparing same design alloys, the alloy wheel will become heavier as diameter increases. As pneumatic tyres are mostly air, increasing the wheel diameter effectively means replacing air with metal to maintain the rolling radius resulting in a heavier wheel/tyre combo overall. Couple this with the fact the larger diameter tyres are often wider (requiring a wider rim) and the larger diameter wheel/tyre combo is usually heavier than the smaller one.


[b]Patrick[/b][/quote]
Yes, I think Patrick has explained it better than me!

The point is it's not guaranteed, it depends on the design of the alloy wheel, and the width of the tyre as well. Good point though that alloys are lighter than steel, I meant to put that in my post but forgot. The original 13" wheels on the 1.5 BA were steel (in the UK anyway).

My first BA had 14" alloys, because they came as part of the package with the special edition. My current BA had 13" when new, but the owner previous to me changed them for 15".

AKS: I should add (having re-read your posts) that if you are making your wheels smaller from the current 17" then you need to check if the previous owner also upgraded the brakes. If they put bigger discs/callipers in with the big wheels then the smaller wheels may not fit unless you downgrade the brakes again.

Perhaps worth pointing out again what Mazda originally put on the BA (pre-Ford):
On the 1.5: 175/70x13"
On the 1.8: 185/60x14"
On the 2.0: 205/50x16"

These are not necessarily the same rolling radius, but the gearing was different on these cars anyway, according to the brochure.

Also the weights. 1.5: 1115kgs, 1.8: 1155kgs, 2.0: 1210kgs.
So you can't just put the 2.0 sized wheels on a 1.5 without giving problems! But plan it well and there is a good upgrade.

I meant to say 175 there jinglebells
Ok so at the moment my BA has 205 45 17" and they weigh a ton (when I lift them anyway)
https://i.imgur.com/Mam1ytR.jpg (couldn't get imgur bbcode)

I was thinking of going for these
[img]https://i.imgur.com/e34iVfx.jpg[/img]

They are 15", no idea on the width, probably 195, and most importantly they look epic

So, they would be lighter I'd hope and they should have the same rolling radius as the 175 70 13" which is what I assume came on the car stock (it had these 17" on it already when I bought it)

Also the brakes are stock so no worries there. I have a friend who put the larger 1.8 GT brakes on his and he has 15" rims which clear the brakes just fine.

They look great, i'll say maybe 6.5 for the width and they definately will be lighter than the 17"s.
You'll be good with 195/55 on the 15"

Mazzda's suggestion is good.

You are between sizes! The original 175/70 13" is rolling equivalent to 195/50 15".
Your current 205/45 17" is rolling equivalent to 195/60 15". I.e. your wheels/tyres are currently too big!

So a 195/55 15" should be ok.

Main thing is you like the look of them. Remember to get good quality tyres.

The 195 will fit on a 6" or 6.5" wheel. If those wheels are 5.5 or 7 then you need to think again.

Enjoy.

I think the big think is not to over tire a 1.5 like yours.
15inch looks like a good middle ground and then really good tires.
Off set can help too. Standard is normally 45, so 40 offset with a 6 or 6.5 wide wheel will give better looks (puts the wheel out a bit and will give you better bite when turning.

For me, everything smaller than 17" just looks too small. The wheelarches are just too big, and combined with the 1.5's coming without the sideskirts, it just looks meh.

I ran 18" on my old F, but i would never get them again - 17 forever, and as wide as possible without sticking out, and the car looks absolutely sexy from behind. Sexy 323f BA behind. Mmmmhm.