I've been doing a lot of research and thinking about whether or not to lower the Mini and buy new wheels/tires. I've come to the conclusion that I will keep it stock (for now) but I'm thinking about adding some spacers to make the stock 16" wheels pop out a little and give the car a more aggressive stance. If I'm not mistaking, adding a 5mm spacer to my stock wheels would give me an offset of 43. Do you guys think this would even be noticeable? I was thinking of an 8mm spacer to get it to ET40 but I don't see any spacers in that size from Eibach or H&R, is there a reason for that?

I found this place that makes custom spacers of any size, you can even choose "Hub Centric to Vehicle and Wheel Centric to Wheel
Fits hub perfectly tight and, where wheel bolts to adapter, a custom machined adapter lip fits perfectly tight into wheel's center hole. This extra measure positively influences the ride and kills vibration. Highly recommended for newer vehicles and those which will be used for towing."

http://motorsport-tech.com/

Are Eibach and H&R's also "wheel centric?" If not it sounds like it might be better to go with these guys even if I go with 5mm. What do you guys think?

 

spacers (225/45 17's in my case on stock 17x7 rims) and am satisfied w/ the end result and the remaining clearance. But I have used spacers a lot on a big Audi and even a Smart car. On the Audi, I know only starting at 12mm and above were the H&R spacers truly hubcentric. If you find their detailed catalog online, it was covered in the footnotes for the H&R parts listing specific to the given vehicle. If I am using spacers I want the hubcentric set up for starters personally.

 

Thanks, can anyone else comment on the above?

 

I'm running 16mm spacers on my '07 MCS with stock wheels, hub centric type with longer bolts. I got them from: http://www.promini.com/product-exec/...arch_model/100. No problems with any of my 3 sets of MINI wheels (Crown Spoke 17's with stock run flats, Flame spokes w/215/45/17 or S Winder's with 205/50/16) I think it does fill up the stock height wheel wells better and haven't had any problems with rubbing etc. I hope may answer some questions.

 

Thanks for the in depth response! 16mm, that's pretty aggressive. No other problems at all with that set up? I've heard people say not to go past 5mm. Would you happen to have any pictures of your car with the spacers and 16" wheels? Thanks again!

 

Are you thinking about eventually lowering your car with coilovers? If so, you need your wheels tucked as much in the wheel wells as possible. Having too big of a spacer will cause your tires to rub. You'll need to decide on looks vs. performance.

 

can we get some pics of those 16mm spacers on a vehicle, please.

 

I want to lower the car but I'm not sure that I will, If I did it would be minimal. I was thinking 5mm since that would give my current stock wheel an offset of 43, but would the difference from 48 to 43 be that noticeable?

 

I thought about spacers also. (easy mod). I am curious if there is a noticeable difference in steering with spacers installed.

 

For those interested I found the following thread:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post3014319

There is a picture of 16" stock wheels with 20mm spacers, can anyone else post some more pictures of 16 (preferably) or 17" stock wheels with spacers installed?

It looks pretty cool with those 20mm spacers but that sounds very aggressive and not too safe. Anyone care to comment?

 

I want to also point out that the link above is for an R53 which is lower stock than the R56. Wonder what it would look like on the R56.