I just picked up a set of four 17" steel wheels from Walmart @ Agincourt (for GTA people) for the winter.

I haven't taken it to the tire shop to install the wheels yet. But I went in to Walmart and they have their own book with the different makes and models of all cars and they said the set I bought is what's listed in the book for RX-8. The size 17x7 and 5x114.3 bolt pattern makes sense at least. The only concern I have is the offset but the book they had didn't list the offset value, so I'll only know once I try to put them on.

I'll keep you guys up to date. I thought this may be useful for anyone thinking of putting on steels for winter. Yes they are ugly but it's only for the winter. Once summer rolls around my 8 will look nice and shiny again

 

I suggest you test fit the wheel on both the front and back of the car to make sure it doesn't interfere with the caliper. I don't really trust Wal-Mart and CTC to have correct application information for the wheels they sell, and if you find out now that it doesn't fit, it is better than after you've paid to have tires installed.

 

Thanks, Marc_GS, that's what I plan to do as well. Will try out the wheels this weekend, hopefully it fits, but if not at least I can return them.

 

Steel wheels? Ugh.

 

Exactly. Good luck!

 

OK here's the update.

I jacked up the car last night and tried both front and rear wheel. The rear wheel fits fine, since the calipers are smaller. There's plenty of clearance at the back.

The front wheel suprisingly also fits, but just barely. I mean you can't tell how much clearance there really is, looks similar to that picture someone posted of a stock RX-8 with 16" alloys. I did put a couple of bolts on and gave the front wheel several spins, and I didn't hear anything abnormal.

So I think these steels would work. Does anyone know how to tell the offset on a wheel by the way? Or it's not relevant for steels?

 

http://www.1010tires.com/WheelOffsetCalculator.asp