My biggest concern is finding something that will clear the brakes and look decent, but won't break the bank. Any suggestions? What's out there?

TIA!
Dave

 

You should be good down to 16". Anything 15" would be on a wheel by wheel basis if it will clear your brakes, but my understanding is any 16 should.

You can find 16" steelies some places, or a set of cheap aftermarket aluminum wheels might pop up on your local craigslist. If you have to go brand new, steelies or the cheapest aluminum 16's you can find should work fine. Also, don't be scared to go narrower on your winter wheels/tires. You will grip better in snow with narrower tires than wider.

 

Sounds like some solid bad advise here. No 'steelie' will fit jcw brakes. Also, you're going to be challenged to find any 16 that fit either. The 'cheapest aluminum 16's' almost certainly won't fit.

 

I don't have a JCW, but these Enkeis should fit JCW brakes. I have 205/45 17 Blizzaks on them.

I have them on my car, you can see pictures in this thread from last year.

I worked with Alex at TireRack when I got them, and told him that I intended to go with JCW brakes when mine need replacing ad he OK'd the choice.

 

for wheels cleariing the brakes, Alex @ tiirerack will know

[FONT=Verdana]Tirerack.com

as for tires, there are 2 groups of winter tiress (3 if you count studded)

winter performance and winter studless ice and snow

if you are going to drive every day, snow or no, you should look as the studlesss ice and snows. get the tallest tire that clears the wheel well and go narrower than stock

if you will only be driving when the roads are mostly clear of snow and ice, then look at performance winters and go with the stock size

in my case, every day driver, i went from 225/45R18 to 205/70R16, from a 25.9" OD to a 27.3" OD, in a studlees ice and snow, gaining ground clearance and better snow penetration by going narrow

scott
[/FONT]

 

My bad JRS, I didn't realize the JCW brakes were that much larger than the S brakes. Didn't mean to **** in your cheerios, but thank you for correcting me. I don't want to give bad advice any more than I want to see it given.

 

I had 16" Bridgespokes over my Wilwood Calipers, but they definitely don't clear the JCWs at all. It wasn't even close (ie. even with crazy spacing). I'm running General Altimax Arctic tires in a 215/45R17 on 17x7.5 Sport Edition CE wheels no problem though. I bought them as a set, mounted and balanced with TPMS preinstalled from Tirerack.

Here's a pic (click the image on the other end of this link for an 8MP copy):
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/593/06cq.jpg

--Matt

 

Initially I was dealing with a local tire shop (trying to keep local businesses going) when I was planning on getting winter shoes. For days they tried to find the tires I wanted (Blizzaks) and the right sized wheel. They finally concurred that it would be better to call Tire Rack. I called their office, had a nice long conversation with one of their folks as we went through what product they had in a location near to me (to save me shipping costs). Ordered on the 16th and received on the 17th. Swapped wheels and drove off happy.

 

Be prepared to feel like your are driving on balloons. I run a dunlop winter sport on my BMW and even a performance winter tire has cushy sidewalls.

 

For factory winter Wheels form MINI that will clear the JCW Brakes on the R56+ with the Four pistion brembo: Which is what the 2009+ Factory JCW MINIs came with.

JCW 4 Piston Sport Brake Kit Retrofit - Priced As Kit Part # 34110432802


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/34110432802





There is no Factory MINI steeiles ( steel wheels ) that will work. But they do have a narrow 17" wheel. Anthracite is color.

R114 JCW LM Rad Cross Spoke Wheel 17" (4x100) Anthracite Winter 17 x 5.5 ET:42 Part# 36116786220


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/SiteSearch/36116786220/




Thanks and I hope that helps, good luck with the tire search.