I have a r53 Mini Cooper s. 2004. The stock wheels for the car are 17’s and to me this sits too tall where as this is a show car and I wanted it a little closer to the ground so I tried putting 15 inch wheels on. BUT... I didn’t think of the difference in calibration on the speedometer that it would make cause now when it says I’m going 65. I’m actually going about 55 or 60. Has anyone ever tried this or have any tips for me to try?

 

Normally, if you want to lower the car, you do it with lowering springs or coil overs. Also, when people change wheel sizes, they usually get tires that keep the overall diameter of the tires the same.

 

yes. I already have coilovers for the car. I just wanted to go lower so I went with smaller wheels

 

A bunch of us who autoX our R53(and of course I’m the only R50) run 15” wheels with 205/50-15 Bridgestone RE-71R tires. A pretty fast, grippy set up, you will be lower, but be warned you will

still have a lot of tire gap.

 

Here is what I have. It’s lowered on coilovers and then with the smaller wheels it puts me about 2-3 inches from the ground which is perfect. That’s what I was looking for. Or is there any other way I could be stay this close to the ground with keeping same size tires on as stock to not mess with spedometer?

 

What size tire are you running?

 

Assuming that you don't want to change your setup, you can figure out the speed difference and make mental adjustments. The link below is for a site on which you can enter the stock size and the size you are running. It will calculate all of the relevant differences, including the speed differences for each 10mph increment.
tire size comparison