I have just fitted these to mine fifteen52 turbomacs 17x8 et35
I'm running bilstein coilovers.

 

Very nice Turbomac's

What size tire are you running with them?

 

The Turbomacs are beautiful! New respect for Ken Block. More pics please!

And I have to say- these would look awesome in black.

 

I have a set of wheels that I am having powder coated for the summer. I want to use my 17" Cosmos spoke wheels for the winter. Will I run into any rubbing if I use a 205/50-17 tire?

 

I was thinking the same thing. I just did a quick measurement of the JCW brakes and they stick out approximately 2-1/8" from the rotor. Not sure how far the standard brakes stick out, but add the Marlboro box depth of .78". Seems tight. Keep us posted.

 

Just measured because I thought my eyes could have played a trick on me when mini mounted a bbs on a jcw in service. 2 1/2 inches from rotor to rim with oem Cooper S brakes.Will post a photo when it stops raining.

 

Based on that you should be good

 

Did the BBS wheels come with the PFS centering rings?

 

Never looked at them but i am sure there is a centering ring.

 

I had this size in my r59 and had just a little rubbing on the passenger side rear. I stiffened up the rear sway bar and that cured that. As for a f series Mini, I don't know. There may be more clearance here. They did look mean on my roadster though.

 

Looks good congrats,.

 

What's the thought process associated with choosing between 17" and 18" wheels? I'm having a hard time discerning which I like better.

 

Basically...
Outside diameter of the tires are decided by the manufacturer. These need to be correct for the speedo to read accurately....and in some cases to fit in the wheel arch.
Bigger wheel size therefore means you have to have a smaller height of tire. In this case 17" wheel needs a 45 height and an 18" needs a 40.
the advantage of the lower profile (40) is that it is more stable on the wheel and does not "roll" during hard cornering. The disadvantage is the ride is harder and the tire more liable to get damaged running over potholes.
16" wheels would be the most comfortable on bad roads.
Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, Greg for the technical side of the argument. What is everyone's personal opinion on what looks better or why did you choose one as opposed to the other?

 

I've posted on this before....but in my opinion the F56 has a bigger body than the R56 and the wheel gap - front and back of the wheel looks too big IMHO. I think MINI made a design mistake and should have made wheels with 18" 45 tires so increasing the diameter of the wheel.
I had both 17" and 18" on my F56MCS. Depending on the colour of the rims I personally think the 18" rims make the gap problem worse not better. I have also destroyed 2 18 215 r40 tires because of potholes.. I use non runflats.

 

So you liked the 17" better? I thought there used to be a thread on this topic but I couldn't find it.

I love the 17" wheels on James's car and the 18" nm wheels on Shoof's car.

I'm lowered on the nm springs and the standard 16" wheels just don't really do it for me.

 

I'm looking into buying winter wheels/tires for my F56S with 17" Cosmos' and I'm wondering if I'll run into any fitment issues. Will 16x6.5 ET38 wheels be okay?

 

I started on 18's but wasn't happy with how high the car sat. They filled the wheel wells just about perfectly though. Now I'm on 17's and like the height of the car but the wheels look just a little small I think (on the tire sizes I've chosen).

If I was going to choose another set of wheels I'd be going back to 18's

 

This is the aesthetic issue I'm facing^^^ thanks for your input!

 

It's definitely a conundrum haha.

In person my car on 17s looks much better than it does in photos. But they still feel a little small.

 

One of my personal favorites. Sadly not mine

 

I've grappled with this problem too. Only way to really fix the problem is to put on oversized wheels and live with the speedo error. I personally think 45 18's would make them look like the r56. That car had imo the correct sized wheels for the body.

 

Greg, actually if you do a check on this, you'll find that going from 205x45x17 to a 215x45x17 will correct the built in speedometer error that is there. In both of my r series MINIs have had a 5-7 mph error at 60 mph. The up sizing just shout corrected. I'd have liked to have gone to 225x45's but ran into clearance problems. Just my experience but that was on my R series cars, not the F Series.

 

Total noob question. If you change wheel size then then you match it with a tire with either thicker or thinner sidewall. I thought this should keep the overall diameter the same. If it's the same overall diameter then how does it make the car ride higher or lower? What am I missing? Thanks

 

That's correct. ...but I was suggesting going with an 18" r45 as opposed to the correct 18" r40. This way you gain about 1/2" in overall size.
We had this while discussion in the main F56 tread. People posted a link to a wheel/tire size site that you can play with (and it shows you the difference in speed reading).

http://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp