I posted this as a new products announcement, but thought it'd also be useful here.

Rota RB, previously only available in 15", is now also a 17x7.5" wheel.














Good points: Wide width, light weight (18.2 pounds), reasonable price, wide polished lip. Fits over JCW/R56 brakes. Fits the late-model tire pressure monitoring (TPMS) sensors. And I love the Panasport/Minilite look.

Annoyances: The hub bore is 1mm larger than the Mini bore, at 57.1mm. Since you won't find a 1mm hub bore adapter, these are going to end up as a lug-centric mounting. From experience, this usually isn't a problem, but the purist in me would prefer perfect hub-centricity.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

Looks like these are now highest in the running for my new wheels. I'm looking forward to seeing how they look on the Mach V. Is a 1mm hub adapter just too thin to work properly? or could it be custom fabricated?

 

Since there's only 1mm to make up, it would have a thickness of 0.5mm -- something like aluminum can wall thickness? I wouldn't know how or where to get something like that made. It would be extremely fragile!

It might be easier just to have the centers milled out a bit (then you could use more normal hubcentric rings), but that's a pretty big hassle, too...

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

These look really cool, like big Miata wheels :D

 

Dan, Very nice indeed.. what do you intend to use as a center hub cap?

 

They come with a color-matched black-center Rota cap.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

Oooo!! Can't wait for the spam! Er... pics. I'm really interested to see how these look in 17". Do you know what the offset is?

How much are these suckers?


EDIT: Duh. I should learn how to read first. Went back and found all the info.

 

Update: Added some pictures to the first post.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

It will be interesting to see if these fit on an r50/53. That offset and width will put it mighty close to the suspension bits on the inside. Has anyone worked with this size setup before?

 

Heh! Cool. Thanks.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

Pics on a MINI, Pics on a MINI, Pics on a MINI, Puh Puh Paleeze!

 

Sorry, but what is the offset?
They look very good. Prolly wont fit my 13" TCE BBK...

 

17x7.5 et45

It's pretty high

 

I was running this setup (Motoforge SG-10 @ 17 x 7.5 45mm) on my '03 Cooper S up until last week. Had 214/40 Hankook R-S2 tires. Camber set at -2.25 up front and -1.75 on rear. Koni coilovers dropped 1.5 inches. No rubbing at all.

 

good to hear....someone had a similiar setup and said they were mighty close to the coilovers, so i wasn't sure if the extra few mm's would cause a problem.

 

Okay.

--Dan
Mach V
FastMINI.net

 

Sweetness! I still wanna see a set of the silver-spoke ones on an R53.... like mine.

So Dan, how noticeable is the difference in hub bore size when putting the wheels on? 1mm? I'd bet it hardly matters. And what size tires are you running? 235/40s? They look pretty wide.

 

They look really good....nice job

 

Just to be clear 18.2 lbs is not "light weight".

 

False....it is lightweight. Check out how tire rack explains their weight classing. They have a 17 inch wheel at 20 pounds being lightweight.

So it might not compare to other lighter wheels....but if tire rack would consider it lightweight, no reason we shouldn't here as well.

 

Except that we do not have to be sheep who believe whatever consumer-level marketing propaganda is barfed upon us. Tirerack can explain "their weight classing" any way they wish. One cannot negotiate away the fact that 18.2 lbs is a lot of weight that will amount to a lot of rotational mass. 18.2 lbs == 18.2 lbs.

Your assertion that 18.2 lb wheels are lightweight simply because Tirerack "explains their weight classing" in a way as to deem it so is incorrect. Tirerack could also classify the shape of the Earth as a tetrahedron, but they would be wrong.

Tirerack is a great resource for mostly consumer-level wheels and tires and wheel/tire packages.

 

I'm not sure what your benchmark wheel is, but here are some weights for some of the OEM 17's from Mini. These are all 7" wide wheels, by the way, not 7.5".

S-Lites (R85): 25 pounds
Cross-Spoke (R90): 24 pounds
Bullet (R91): 20.6 pounds
Flame Spoke (R97) (I love this style!): 22 pounds

I could go on, but I don't think there's any original equipment 17" MINI wheel under 20 pounds, and most are 22 pounds and up.

Sure, the aftermarket has plenty of wheels that are lighter than 19 pounds, but many of them don't look good, don't fit this car, or are mega-bucks. In the under-$200 price range, the list gets pretty short.

I stand by my previous statement that 18.2 pounds for a 17x7.5" wheel is "light." Perhaps you are used to 14-pound forged Volks; I dunno. But in my world, 18.2 pounds is certainly better than most.

--Dan
Mach V
FastWRX.com

 

You're right, instead of believing tire rack....i will start believing you. Sorry.

I still don't get the point of your post. In your opinion....it's not lightweight? So what? It might not be as light weight as some 14 pound wheel.....but those are generally termed super lightweight. So what do you propose be the guidlines?

 

As you said: "OEM 17's from Mini". Of course they're incredibly heavy.

You get what you pay for. This is why cheap wheels are usually not light. Claiming that cheap wheels are light is altogether different than acknowledging that they're as light as you want to afford.

"Better than most" cheap wheels might be a better way to describe the weight of 18.2 lb wheels.

 

No need for tears, even though this has gotten sadly comical. You might be better off believing Tirerack; no one pays me to tell people what to think.
It really wasn't that complicated.
By Tirerack?
Whatever Tirerack says, I guess.