I'm looking at a set of factory BMW wheels that come 9" wide in the rear and 8" wide in the front. Am I pushing it thinking I can run a 9" wide rim with a small stretch in the rear or is that too wide? I could buy two sets and try to sell a set of just the rears and run fronts but obviously if I can run 9's Id love to. Anyone with advice on the subject feel free to chime in

 

Plenty of examples of staggered setups on Minis. 8f 9r is pretty standard.

You are thinking of adapters I'm guessing? Unless they are very old BMW wheels. Adapters can be tough on the 2nd generation Minis because of the 14mm lug bolts. No adapter company that I'm aware of has the 14x1.25M hardare that the Mini uses so you will need to use the factory hardware which in turn requires a very thick adapter.

 

What issue are you trying to address with the staggered fitment. You will add to the understeer in the car if you put wider wheels in the rear.

 

Something tells me they are going the show route, and couldn't care less about maximum handiling.

That said: What kind of MINI? R56's have more room than 53's

 

For heaven's sake this is FWD. The front end has two thirds of the weight and three quarters of the work to do. I run staggered - 8" front and 7" rear.

But to each their own I reckon - whatever makes you grin...

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Show car.... Not built for function, just looks. Wider wheels out back look better to most people.

 

You could be right about all show, no go.

I had someone tell me he wanted to put a custom 8 pot brake in the front and a 6 pot in the back for a 2600 plus pound car. Also for show.

 

There are no OEM MINI wheels wider than 7" for the Cooper S using 4x100 bolt pattern and no 9" wide BMW wheels that fit the MINI.

 

The BMW wheels are off of a e46 M3

Front - 18x8 +49
Rear - 18x9 +23

I'm making adapters, you know, thinking outside the box. This isn't a race car and I'm not trying to turn it into one, also not a show car. It's my car, and inwantnit to be different ten the rest of them. Going to measure it out tomorrow and see what I can come up with, I'm figuring 20mm for adapter

 

I don't think you are going to find adapters that thin for the R56. Also a 9" wide wheel with an offset near or below 0, which is what it would be after adapters, will not work on a Mini. Final offset would ideally be between 30 and 25 for a 9.

 

I'm going to make adapters, not buy some. But you might be right on the offset

 

Yea 9" et 0 is way too low. For reference 8" et30 is about dead flush.

Still unless you can source M14x1.25 Hardware with a lower profile then the stock hardware you won't be able to make a thin adapter. I went down this route last year. M14x1.25 is basically a BMW lug bolt specific size, I was not able to find any source for hardware in that size.

 

I was planning on machining down the heads of the factory studs, hrmmm.

 

With that final rear offset you can and will need fender flares.

Have you done this before? Run wide wheels on a FWD?

Problem is even with a Cooper S, wheel weight of a 18x9 with tire isn't going to be fun to drive. Slower to accelerate, longer to stop, sluggish in handling.

 

woops deleted because this was the wrong thread.

 

Lol at sluggish, I just built a 65 beetle with 8" wide rear Camaro hoops and that car had a whopping 52 Hp after I rebuilt the motor