Looking at getting some new wheels on my R56. They are a set of XXR 17X8.25's also in 17X7's. I'm running a complete stock suspension set-up and I was hoping to keep the 205/45's. I'm eventually going to switch to a set of Koni-Yellow's and a very minimal drop in the spring set-up.

Will the 205/45's work on the 8.25 ET20 set-up or should I just save myself the hassle and get the 17X7's?

 

What is your goal?

What do you want your wheels for? Looks, performance, price, weight?

205/45-17 fits 6.5-7.5" wide rims, perfect for 7" rim. So 17x7" is ideal, it has lower weight and likely price than a wider wheel and the looks of the tire/wheel combo will be somewhat limited by the width of the tire.

A 205mm wide tire on a 8+" rim will look a bit stretched, a look some owners want but it's not an ideal fitment, you would be stressing the tire just from the mounting and then driving on it. Not something the tire designers had in mind.

If you were to mount the 17x8.25" et20 rim on the MINI it would poke out about 44mm compared to a 17x7" OEM wheel. You would need fender flares to cover the tire treads and lots of negative camber. Lowering the car makes clearance issues worse unless you use a tire size that is smaller than OEM tire diameter. 235/45-17 would work.

In your case, using 205/45-17 works better with 17x7" wheels

 

That's the problem... I don't know much about wheel set-up's. I figured the 8.25's would be a stretch on the stock tire width.. but I didn't think they would poke as much to cause rubbing and need all that type of work though.

I'm mainly trying to get a little lighter on the wheels and add some nice style to the car. These wheels shipped are on sale right now for like $578 or something crazy cheap so I was trying to figure out which size would be best for an "aggressive fit". But it looks like I should just stick with the normal fitment size and tire, so i don't have to waste a bunch of money.

 

17x 8.25 et 20 would poke quite a bit on the front. Plus at stock hide it would look pretty odd.

There is a wealth of knowledge on this site so do a search and you will soon be able to narrow down your wheel specs to something more suited to your goals.

 

If you go to my build thread on here... I have a few pics of the car with the stock suspension and 16x8 +20 wheels with 195 50 16 tires on there. Tires are stretched but they do fit. Also there is a bit of poke with the wheels as well. Personally if your not trying to lower the vehicle that much I would just stick with the normal OEM specs for wheels and tires. I know your asking about 17's but this can kinda give you an idea of what it would look like and everything. I had some 205 series tires on there before the 195's and there was just way to much rubbing for my liking... to the point where most of the inner plastic liner was rubbed pretty much off. I'm also lowered on coilovers as well though. But take a look at my thread... (on the first page first post theres 3 pics.. the 2nd and 3rd pic are the wheels with the stock suspension. Thought it looked a lil bit goofy without the drop.). Then page 3 theres a set of 3 pics also with the coilovers installed. Hope this all helps. If you have any questions dont hesitate to message me or what not.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ld-thread.html

 

You can ask the wheel vendor what the weights are on both wheels, I think you will find that the 17x7" wheel is heavy enough without having to go wider. For a 17x7" wheel about 20 lbs is standard, any more would be heavy and similar to MINI OEM wheels which can be up to 25 lbs each.

Aggressive fit is relative to the tastes of the owner. Most people are looking for a flush look where the wheel doesn't poke or at least not much. Using a 17x7" wheel you can add wheel studs (or longer wheel bolts) and wheel spacers to make it fit flush. How wide the spacer needs to be depends on wheel offset.

 

I'm not worried about weight at this point.... trying to find a decent pair of wheels seems like pulling teeth.... either way... I found some 17X8 ET25's and by the time i put the suspension together I realized i could just buy some coil's and adjust them for summer/winter with summer/winter wheels.... So if i drop the 17X8 ET25's with a pair of 205/40's and trim some of the inner plastic on the fenders with a razor blade I should be fine even lowered with coils...and since the coil's come with camber plates I can have it adjusted accordingly. At least this is what I think I've learned today from trolling multiple forum's and posts... lol

Which would put me at about 23mm of extra poke... I can't see that being an issue if I lower the car enough with the coil's.

 

17x8" et25 does two things.

8" is wider than OEM 7" so you will get some poke from that and et25 centers the wider wheel further out than OEM et 48.

So the net effect is your 17x8" wheel is 10mm further away from the suspension parts on the inside and your outer rim will poke out about 36mm or 1.4" more than OEM.

As far as fitment of the wheel on the MINI goes, et25 is very aggressive and doesn't need to be sticking out that far for clearance. The wheel could easily fit with an offset of 35 to 40mm.

It's up to you to decide if that wide wheel will work for you. The hard plastic fender liner is best cut or reduced by using a dremmel tool, a razor blade will not be strong enough.

Even though you think that weight is not really a factor, for the MINI it can be. Just depends if you like driving your MINI in a sporty way. If you are pretty easy on your MINI then it will be fine.

205/45-17 fits rims up to 7.5" wide so 17x8" is not an ideal fit. Some tire shops will refuse to mount that tire because it is out of the range that the tire company recommends. 215/45-17 would fit the 17x8" wheel better but it is also taller than OEM tire diameter at 24.7" and reduces clearance a little. This is not a problem with OEM suspension but does factor in with any lowered suspension. Coilovers that allow for full ride height adjustment will give you the clearance you need.

For 17x8" rims you can also consider 235/40-17 tires but that adds tire width and weight and I know you were considering keeping the 205/45-17. Another option is 215/40-17 for the 8" wide wheels, tire selection options may be reduced.

 

Alright.. after taking the weight issue into consideration... and not wanting to buy fender flares and wasting money on other various things. I've decided to go with a set of Enkei EV5's that are 17X7 ET45 @19.2 lbs per shoe. May add some spacers for a little poke in the rear and flush on the front. But I won't be doing that til after I get my coilover's installed later this summer. Thanks for all of your help in this matter but looking at other peoples XXR's and seeing they had to but hub spacers or w/e and all the other pain in the but things that went into it along with them only offering the ET25 on the wheels I like.. it's just not worth it in the end to cause myself a massive headache.