This is great news!! Jessica at www.18Racing.com emailed me to let me know they now have a few sets of 15x8 Rota Slipstreams in Stock in Flat Black. They are hubcentric and have 4x100 bolt pattern and are 40mm offset. They will likely need small spacers depending on your suspension setup. Every suspension/alignment is different, so, I am glad they set the offset at 40mm to allow for use of spacers as needed rather than having it too low of an offset where you can't adjust offset.

Anyway, I'm going to get 2 of the sets, it will be several more months before they could get more I'd guess. I'll post pics when I get them mounted up.

Craig Wilcox

 

And of course there needs to be a set of 245/40/15 A06's to go with them right.

 

Craig,

Thanks for the info!

Any idea what the 15 x 8s weigh?

 

I know my 15x7.5's were roughly 12.5 ish, not positive on the 15x8's. I'd guess 13 ish. :-)

One good thing is that the 15x7's cleared the Willwood 11.75" Big Brake Kit

 

Hmmm, based on the weight of the 16x8s (almost 17.5!) I bet they're at least 14.

 

I doubt, unless they have a completely different casting that they would be that heavy. The 16's did come in a bit more than expected, but, the 15x7.5's I had were in the 12.5 range, but, now that I think about it, my 15x7's were 12.7lbs on one set, so, who knows maybe my 12.5 wasn't 100% spot on, I didn't use my more accurate scale at work. There is some variance though so, 13.5-14 could be a possibility I'd guess but I would be very suprised if they were over 14+ pounds since that would be quite a large jump. I have a scientific scale that I can weight them on at work when I get my set just to verify, I'll post when I do with pics. Man, I'd be real disappointed if they were 14-15lbs. Ughh. I doubt it though.

 

Yup, I was a bit disappointed by that but I kept mine. They're still in their boxes.....I think I'll finally break them out as winter wheels once I sell my Koseis.

I'm really curious to see how heavy the 15x8s are. Rota Slip 16x7s are 14.5, that makes the jump to 16x8s about a 3 lb increase. So, I think your 13.5 guess is probably a bit closer. We'll see.....

 

As I posted in the other 15x8 thread, Jessica at 18Racing said the 15x8 Slips with 40 mm offset are 14.8 lbs.

My early Kosei K1 TS are under 11. Trying to decide if the extra width advantage offsets a significant increase in unsprung weight. Especially since wider tires (if possible) will be heavier as well.

I think my Kosei/Hoosier 225/45-15 combo weighs about 31 lbs total.

 

This is weird, why would 1" add 2-3 pounds per wheel? Thats not normal. I wonder if they added material to the center on the new molding for the 15x8's or 16x8's. Hmmm. I sent them an email. When we did the special order, I asked them to REDUCE the weight as much as possible, not ADD weight. :-( I know my 15x7.5 SSR Comps show 9.8 pounds per wheel, thats 5 pounds per wheel lighter, I could live with 3 pounds, but, 5 pounds is pushing it if they are really 14.8 pounds.

 

I asked Jessica twice about the weight.

She actually had called me in response to an e-mail about weights of the RBs.

She presented the 15x8 Slips as a lighter weight Rota alternative to the 16 lb. 15x8 RBs (with 30 mm offset).

I asked her to check and e-mail me the weight for sure, and she still said 14.8 in the e-mail.

Hope she was wrong.

 

Aside from any extra tire weight from a wider tire, if you add 5 lbs. per wheel, isn't that like adding 80 lbs. of sprung weight back to your car?

 

With 5 pounds per wheel, I'd guess you could feel it slightly on the average autocross course with equal width wheels/tires, not sure about the sprung weight thing, I'd guess its 100+ pounds though, 20 pounds is significant IMO, but, the wheel is also 8" wide compared to 7.5, so, its going to improve the tire fitment which will offset things slightly. Also, your wallet will be lighter too since 15x7.5 SSR Comps are non-existant now and they would probably run $1200-1300 on the used market. So, in comparison to available wheels, they are only 3 pounds heavier but are 1 full inch wider. I'd go with the 15x8 all day long over a 15x7 that was 3 pounds lighter. Luckily, I have the SSR Comps, so, I don't have to make that decision if the 7.5's work well. :-)

Also, With the wider tires, the extra rubber will offset any weight addition 10 times over. My moto is - put as much rubber on the ground as possible(for the fronts at least) as long as the tire isn't too tall and get wheels to accomidate the tire properly. The 275/35 is going to transform my/any Mini into a Nationally competitive DSP car I'd guess, without the 275's, we wouldn't have a prayer.

My plan is to have 15x9 or 15x10's with the 275/35/15 on the front and use the 15x7.5's or 15x8's on the rear to allow for good rotation with the 225/45/15's.

Anyway, I'll be doing some serious testing once I get the car back together and receive the new tires/wheels, I'll post how the wheel/tire stagger works out.

 

Cool! Looking forward to it.

This season I'll primarily be running in BMW CCA, (BMW equivalent of SM).

Athough I've been fortunate this past year, I'm always looking for another angle. You know the drill...

 

OasisT, I am glad you are staying in ASP despite the rules outcome, I have a vicarious stake in your success and wish you well in 2007! I will be running against the current Nat'l Champ here in NER using my JCW Mini, and look forward to measuring my progress against that high standard. I wish I could predict that I could soften Mr. Shields up a bit for you but frankly that isn't going to happen... Good hunting!

 

Thank you all you people for sharing your comments ..

 

Yes - definitely! I just got back into a MINI (having owned several classics and an 02 MCS) - picked up an 06 Cooper. Autocross is most definitely on the radar for me, so this is all great info. Was thinkin' Rota RBs for the street and maybe slpistreams for the sticky stuff.