Has anyone done any research regarding rims & winter tires? In the U.S., I believe that the GS model comes with 16" rims. Here in Canada, all models are coming with the 18" rims. I have ordered a GT. Has anyone seen what the Mazda OEM 16" rims look like? Will they fit on a GT with the bigger brakes? What are others looking at doing regarding winter rims and tires?

This is my first posting. I have recently come across the site and am enjoying it very much, although some discussions regarding delivery dates are rather stressful. At the beginning of March 2003 I ordered a Velocity red GT, 6MT, black/red leather with moonroof. Looking at adding a few accessories. Waiting for pricing from my dealer (enjoying the other threads regarding accessories pricing). Delivery expected in September (but who really knows). Look forward to everyone's feedbback.

Welcome to the board broose!:D

I have started a similar thread in the Wheels/Tires Suspension section
http://www.rx8forum.com/showthread.php?threadid=6613

Once the cars arrive we will be able to find out but I suspect that if other people are getting the 16" rims we should be able to get them for the 8, even if it comes with 18" summer tires.

Had this problem on my Miata but because I had the larger brake package with my 16" summer rims, the 14" steelies did not fit and had to go with 15".

Will be getting 225/45/18 winters for mine. Looks like Blizzak is the only one that will work. Bummer because I really liked the Michelin Alpines for all round winter performance and durability (especially compared to the Blizzak).

R U Krazy


winter tires??? !!!!

Garage the beast, it lasts longer.

Originally posted by FritzMan
Will be getting 225/45/18 winters for mine. Looks like Blizzak is the only one that will work. Bummer because I really liked the Michelin Alpines for all round winter performance and durability (especially compared to the Blizzak).

What's wrong with a Pilot Alpin in 225/55-17? In fact, IF 16" wheels will fit over the brakes, there's a couple of sizes in 16" Arctic Alpins as well. There's also a 215/55-17 Pirelli Winter210 (I prefer at least one width narrower than OEM for winter use, keeping overall diameter the same).

There's almost no way I'd buy Blizzaks, unless it's the LM-22 (no sizes close) or there were no other winter tires available. I have one car on Pilot Alpins right now, and another on Nokian Hakkapeliittas. I've also had the Toyo Garit HT - all great winter tires, and all much better than Blizzaks on dry pavement.

I will be getting 17" or 16" alloys for my RX-8 for the winter tires. The winter tires in those sizes are cheaper than the 18" versions, and the cost of the extra wheels will be recovered within a few years by savings on remounting/balancing costs two times per year.

Regards,
Gordon

Originally posted by Evolv
winter tires??? !!!!

Garage the beast, it lasts longer.

That applies to summer use as well! I'm not buying it to be a museum piece. I plan to enjoy it 12 months/year, not suffer with some beater for half the time just to deter potential appearance of rust 10 years down the road.

Regards,
Gordon

Originally posted by Gord96BRG


That applies to summer use as well! I'm not buying it to be a museum piece. I plan to enjoy it 12 months/year, not suffer with some beater for half the time just to deter potential appearance of rust 10 years down the road.

Regards,
Gordon

10 years? Alberta must be a lot different than Nova Scotia. Here they use so much salt on the roads that it takes until june for the asphalt to stop looking white. As soon as my 8 comes, more poor old 95 MX-3 (soon to be my winter "beater") is going in to get cleaned up and repainted, before the rust gets any worse.

If I get one and the 16" rims will fit then that's what I will use. Tires are much cheaper and snow tires will work better if they are "skinnier and taller" than the 18" OEM summers

Yeah, with the amount of salt that goes on the roads here out east, a winter car is REQUIRED.
But, usually the first snow doesn't hit Halifax until mid-December and it's gone by March, so that's only 1/3rd of the year. :)

I'm going to have to start beater shopping soon, to get the best selection.
But, I figure the cost of snows and wheels, 4 months collission insurance and the daily washing of the car to keep the salt off will offset the price of the beater. Besides, I want something I won't mind taking to the mall parking lot. I will eventually be able to buy food again. :)

Originally posted by Gord96BRG


That applies to summer use as well! I'm not buying it to be a museum piece. I plan to enjoy it 12 months/year, not suffer with some beater for half the time just to deter potential appearance of rust 10 years down the road.

Regards,
Gordon

He, He - I hear you Gordon! No use paying that kind of coin to only enjoy it a few months of the year. Modern cars, especially with yearly rust proofing, last a long time now a days.

Regarding winter tires, I really don't want to spend the extra coin getting a set of 17" rims - especially steelies (do they even come as 17"?). IMO, given the 12.7" rotors up front - not a whole lot of room for a caliper and clearance within a 16" diameter. I'd be surprised if 16s would fit. I also don't appreciate the look and performance loss of steelies. Yeah, I know one shouldn't care of performance loss in the winter, but my wife's Volvo V70 is so much more of a pig in accel/decel when the winter steelies are put on (same size tire). Besides, it's not like there's snow or ice on the road the whole winter, maybe 10% of the time? Don't care for Blizzacks either, maybe I look into different sizes, ie: 215 or 205 in an 18" series and see if other brands can then be possible. I drove my FD with a 205/55/16 winter tires and the narrower size really didn't hurt.

I can understand that after paying $50,000 (taxes and all) that you would want to drive the car all year round.

But consider the return on your money if you keep the mileage low and the rust off your car.

Back in 1995, when a RX-7 cost about $45,000 and you had garaged it or not this is what you get today.

GARAGED with low mileage, and well maintained are selling today for as much as $30,000

NOT Garaged with high mileage and in poor shape are selling for $13,000 or less, if you can get a taker.

Lets take the $15,000 you make on the fact that you garaged the car and you could get yourself a decent used car and have enough left over to pay the insurance and maintenance for both.

So whats really the better/smarter move.. garage the car, or drive it all winter and watch its value drop faster then Air Canada stocks .

Save a renesis (http://www.renesis.ca) don't drive it in the winter.

But if I don't buy the RX-8 at all and keep the 97 Contour SE that we were going to replace with it, then I save $45K right now - and instead of missing out on 6 months a year under your plan, I only miss out on twice as much RX-8 driving time as you but I save 3 times as much money! ;)

On the other hand - life is too short to drive boring cars, especially 50% of the time when you have an exciting car parked in the garage. Why should I save my car for the next guy? It's like people who put seat covers on their car seats so they don't wear out - why have ugly seats for years so that the next guy gets good looking ones? Let him have the ugly seat covers!

I've been that route with my current Miata - it's a 96, and only has 50K km on it. I drove it the first 3 winters, but then replaced the OEM all-season tires with performance summer tires and rarely drove it in winter. Sure, it's worth more with the low mileage than a similar Miata that's winter driven - but then I've also missed out on a lot of fun miles by driving something else when I could've been driving the Miata! Actually, this is a large part of the reason why we're buying the RX-8 - our daily routine has my wife and I commuting together, and dropping our 5 year old daughter at daycare/school on the way to work. The Miata can't be used in that role - an RX-8 can. Another factor in the Miata winter usage (or lack thereof) is that we do a lot of skiing - I spent 15 years on the Canadian Ski Patrol at Lake Louise, only "retiring" 3 seasons ago after finding that I couldn't commit as much time as they wanted following my daughter's arrival. A Miata isn't a suitable ski vehicle - it just can't carry the gear! Again, the RX-8 will do better, easily being able to bring 2 or 3 people and their gear to the mountains.

Regards,
Gordon
Life is too short to drive boring cars!

;) That's always been my motto, maybe I'll have to make it a sig! :D

Originally posted by Gord96BRG
On the other hand - life is too short to drive boring cars, ,

You know you got a point there.

But I'm not sure how much fun a 250hp car would be in the snow and ice, unless its a Subaru WRX.

I think the problem is location!

Can anyone spell Vancouver, wait I just did!

Maybe its time to move :D

Originally posted by Evolv


You know you got a point there.

But I'm not sure how much fun a 250hp car would be in the snow and ice, unless its a Subaru WRX.

I think the problem is location!

Can anyone spell Vancouver, wait I just did!

Maybe its time to move :D

I have an RX-8 on order and plan to drive it in the winter with snow tires.

For the past 3 winters, I have been driving a 282HP BMW 540 in the winter. As long as you keep the traction control on, it is very easy to drive in the snow. With about a 50/50 weight distribution, I have found that it works very well.

I am expecting that the RX-8 to perform very much the same, but it is dependent upon how quickly the traction control engages and how the TCS/DSC behaves. Without those electronic helpers, it will be more difficult (but far from impossible).

I have also had the BMW in the snow with the 235/34 Pirelli P6000 summer tires. It is very scary, and you can barely get enough traction to get going. The tread clogs with snow very easily.

I'm with Gord on this one. I'm 49 and life is way too short to miss out on the fun. My wife told me to get whatever car I wanted. She insisted it be something that I would have a lot of fun with. The reason I chose the RX-8 over other cars was the fact I could drive it year-round. Seeing this video also showed me that Mazda was serious about testing it for winter as well as summer. http://www.rx8forum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=551&highlight=Sweden

I've had an 85 Camaro IROQ-Z28 for some time now. I drive it year round and it's still in excellent shape here in the GTA. I have enjoyed the car year round for years, and now my 21 year old son is enjoying it. As far as I'm concerned, it could easily go on for another ten years.

I'm with Quick_Lude also on getting the tallest skinniest tires possible. I take the 16" 255's off the Camaro and put on 14" rims with all winter radials. Makes it very drivable. And we are talking a Camero versus an RX-8, no comparison. So I'm betting the RX-8 will handle pretty well in the winter.

Andrew,

Is it possible to start some kind of poll looking at preferences for winter tires and rims?

Originally posted by Bulldog6670
Is it possible to start some kind of poll looking at preferences for winter tires and rims?

There's a winter tires thread going in the Tires and Wheels forum right now!

Regards,
Gordon

I don't think you can compare the "cult" status and how rare the RX-7 is to the RX-8. The 8 will be a much more mainstream vehicle with a lot more volume than the rx-7. Ergo I doubt that the resale value of one will be artificially inflated 8 years from now. Cars are NEVER an investment.. besides who knows where I will be 8 years from now.. Drive the car now and enjoy life. :)

For winter tires I've used Yoko Guardex for the past 3 seasons and they have served me well. I think any of the snow tires from major suppliers like Bridgestone, Yokohama, Michelin etc will do very well.

I have a miata as my company car. Drive it year round on winter tires, Blizzak LM-22. Fully agree with what a number of people have said. I could be dead in 5 years, why should someone else have the fun of driving my car.

So far, of all the cars I have owned, most did not survive to be sold to someone else. Mind you most were over 100K KM when I got them but hey. My cars are keepers so I don't really care about resale value.

Now I am really enjoying driving to and from work.

Originally posted by Evolv
Back in 1995, when a RX-7 cost about $45,000 and you had garaged it or not this is what you get today.

NOT Garaged with high mileage and in poor shape are selling for $13,000 or less, if you can get a taker.

what?? WHAT??? WHERE?? GIMME GIMME GIMME!! :D

Originally posted by wakeech


what?? WHAT??? WHERE?? GIMME GIMME GIMME!! :D
Do you REALLY want the headaches? :)

Maybe we could get back on thread - winter tires and wheels...

Anyone with solid info that there are 16" wheels that can fit over the brake ass'y?

Why don't you wait till you take delivery of your RX-8.

Then go to your local tire specialist, get them to fit your car with winter tires on rims that fit over those massive SUMMER BRAKES and get back to us on what fits.

refer to the press kit

it had a blurb about winter rims fitting on the big brakes

(i'm too busy to look it up now)

Originally posted by bgparsons3
Anyone with solid info that there are 16" wheels that can fit over the brake ass'y?

I asked my contact in Irvine with MNAO that exact question, and he had it checked out and told me the next day that the OEM 16" base RX-8 wheels do fit over the larger brakes of the sport suspension.

Still, I'm sceptical! Sometime in the next week or two I hope to try on a 16" Konig Holes wheel (that belongs to one of our local Miata club members) and see if it clears the caliper.

(I hadn't seen that info in the press kit - I'll have a look at the downloaded one later tonight)

Regards,
Gordon

Originally posted by Quick_lude

Do you REALLY want the headaches? :)

for HALF the price of any FD i can find around here?? oh f*ck you'd better believe it!! :cool:

...too bad i'd have to take out a loan to afford it... :(

Originally posted by Gord96BRG


Still, I'm sceptical! Sometime in the next week or two I hope to try on a 16" Konig Holes wheel (that belongs to one of our local Miata club members) and see if it clears the caliper.

(I hadn't seen that info in the press kit - I'll have a look at the downloaded one later tonight)

Regards,
Gordon
What is the offset for the stock 16" OEM wheels? I imagine any aftermarket 16" rims would need to have the same offset to clear the calipers..

There's an easier solution

Park the car in the winter :D

I think the 330i has brakes of similar size. I am not sure if you can use 16" rims on that car.

I just returned from Europe and the cars there are in much better shape than cars here due to the mild winters. I would say if you can afford it and plan to keep the car for many years don't drive it during the winter or at least keep it inside and only drive it in a clear day.

If you're leasing or planning to keep it for 3-4 years only you can drive it year around and park it outside.