I own (4 months) a 2005 mini S JCW. Tire Size 205x45x17. Does anybody
know or reccomend staggering tires? If so, What size for the rear without
modifing fender well? Thanks

 

I'm not sure I understand correctly, but it seems like you want to put bigger tires in the rear than in the front, is that correct?

 

i hope not...
if he does...guess he does not understand the 50%-50% weight thing...and traction on a fwd car...
maybe he is talking about adding spacers to the rear? make a similar look maybe...

 

If the diameter is more than a little different from front to back,
the flat tire light and probably the ABS light will go on.

225/40/17 would probably be close enough to 205/45/17 if
you could get them in there without rubbing, but it seems
kind of pointless to run a bigger rear tire in a fwd car.

 

Looks like he wants bigger/taller/wider tires on the rear. Maybe give it a rake. Back in the day before FWD we would put Bigger/taller/wider tires on the rear to get better traction from the driving wheels and also for that racy look. If he does that it will transfer more weight to the front and could cause handling/braking issues. I know some of the early 70's AAR Cuda's had them

Tom

 

Your MINI does not have TPMS so slight difference in tire diameter is OK.

You can do staggered fitment for tires.

What is your reason for doing this? Appearance only?

It is not functional or of any benefit to do staggered (wider rear tire) setup for a MINI which is FWD. If anything, wider wheel and tire on the fronts can work for high performance driving such as for autocross or on the track, but only slightly.

Otherwise it is much more common to-
Use the same tire and wheel size for all four corners
Use a wider rim than OEM and wider tire than OEM.
Use wheel spacers (and if needed longer wheel bolts or add longer wheel studs) for the wheels with wider spacer for the rear to give the appearance of a wider rear fitment.

More wheel and tire weight in the rear is not going to help the MINI, in general lighter wheels and tires can benefit all four corners.

Most times owners want a flush fitment for the rear, you don't want to make the rear wheels poke out too much further than about 15mm more than OEM. So if you use spacers you can make the difference between front and rear about 10mm (wider on rear) using the same size wheel and tire for all four corners.

You can search for other threads on staggered setups, it's been discussed before.

 

Congrats on your new toy!


No, and no.

MINI has square tire setup (same front and back axle), which is great for rotating tires to equalize the wear (fronts will wear more).

On many other makes and models that come with staggered tires (usually wider driving wheels on RWD cars), people upgrade to square setup for the above reason.
You are already there.
Enjoy.

a

 

jeffpinto,

read up on staggered tires-
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...on-a-mini.html
and
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-the-rear.html

And there are more threads on this.

Owners have done it. They are looking for that muscle car look. If you ask them, they like it, therefore they might recommend it.

For those of us that are practical and are more interested in correct function, we will stick to the square wheel and tire setup for more balanced handling and as mentioned you can rotate tires for better tire wear which is a big deal since front tires wear out up to twice as fast as the rears depending on how you drive.

As I mentioned if you want a wider track in the rear you can do that with wheel spacers on longer studs or by using longer wheel bolts. This would be cosmetic.

While you could use wider tire sizes on the rear wheels even though both front and rear wheels are the same width, you will find that tire diameter will not match. A taller tire diameter size for the rear would add some rake which for some owners is desirable.