Posted this in the wrong section last week - sorry 'bout that!

I'm trying to decide between 17" & 18" NON-runflats for my Clubman that's on order. Wheels will be completely black, but I'm trying to determine if the 18" will be too harsh of a ride for daily use.

Anyone have any first-hand experience between the two?

 

Not on the Mini but I've tried 16, 17 and 18s on my RX7 and last BMW. The smaller the sidewall (larger the wheel) the harsher the ride. Gets less tolerable the worse the roads are.

 

my street wheels are 18's. my track wheels are 17's (and light). the first time i put my track tires on my car and drove around a bit (on the streets), it felt like i had a new (more compliant) suspension. the difference was incredible. that said, i like the looks of my 18's and will live w/ the ride. your tolerance may vary....

 

It's all subjective. I ride on 16's and 17's (Track vs Street) with a race suspension, as my daily driver.

Doesn't bother me at all, but it might bother you. The best thing to do is to try to drive in someone else's car to see if it bothers you.

 

I was going to drive a couple of the dealer cars, but they are all runflats, so that can't be used as a comparison.

 

I'm also debating between 17" or 18" wheels with nonrunflat tires. I'm guessing that those are probably better than 16" rims runflats that I'm sporting.

 

I have 3 sets of tire/wheels that I run; the stock 17" web spokes w/run-flats, a set of 17" 10 spoke wheels with 215/45/17 tires, and a set of 18s" 6 spoke wheels with 215/40/18 tires. I also tried the 215/35/18" for a couple of weeks but did not like the ride quality or the fact that there isn't much sidewall on the tire.

So, I'll give you my opinion on the sizes that I have experience with.

The 205/45/17 run-flats and the 215/40/18 ride and handle (normal day to day driving, not highly spirited driving) about the same. The 215/40/18 is actually a tad taller than the stock 205/45/17, so it fill out the stock height fender well better. For normal street driving, the 215/40/18 is my choice.

For those who want to stay with the 17" set up and want a good all round tire, I recommend the 215/45/17.

As stated above, I didn't care for the 215/35/18 at all. If you don't plan to lower you MINI, the 35s leave too much gap in the fender wells.

 

This post contains all the info you really need.

I have driven stock Runflat 205/45-17 and 205/40-18 runflats on stock wheels and they are very close.

The real test are your own roads. How bad are they? You never really know when you drive around on 65 series tires in your family car.

The minute you have 215/35-18 or 215/40-17 tires on you seem to attract every rut and pothole for miles around. In reality these road hazzards are always there but little appreciated until it counts- when you hit them with lowered suspension or low sidewall tires.

So if your roads are horrible then 18's are still possible but likely 215/40-18 will be OK. Stock suspension is better for bad roads.

Otherwise in 17s try 215/45-17 but they are not as friendly for lowered suspensions.

 

I've got H&R 1" lowering springs and 215/35/R18 Palo Uber wheels and because I plan to track the car more often I was thinking about either increasing the tires to 215/40/R18 or even selling the wheels & tires (Yokohama Prada Spec-2) and purchasing 17's.

The 35 profiles looks just awesome and the ride isn't as bad as people make out, but I know 17's or even 16's are better for the track.

 

I just went from the stock 16" runflats to 18's and was pleasantly surprised!

I went with the slightly taller sidewall (40) to keep the ride smooth and found that I like the ride much better.

 

atit2d...do you have lowering springs or coilovers and if so how much from stock is your vehicle lowered. I'd like to go up to 40 profile aswell.

 

100% stock suspension.