I have the 16x6.5 Loop Spoke 494 wheels with the OEM 195/55R16 Hankook Optimo H426 all-season tires. I want to get a second set of rims to go with dedicated winter and summer tires rather than the all-seasons. I was looking for 17x7 Mini rims with 205/45R17 summer performance tires, and was planning on putting winter tires on my 16" rims. But I recently came across a set of 15x5.5 Heli Spoke 492 rims that I am considering with 175/65R15 winter tires.

Was curious if 205/50R16 summer tires would be a good fit on the 16x6.5 rims? Will they look too wide for the rims? I'm thinking of Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 performance summer tires. They make them in both 195/55R16 and 205/50R16 sizes. I'm assuming either way would be a nice grip improvement over the Hankook all-seasons, right? All things equal I'd prefer the wider tires, but not if they bulge out too much and don't look right. Anyone have experience with the 205/50R16 size on a 6.5 wide Mini rim?

 

I run RE71s in that size and visually I couldn't tell the difference looking at 195s vs the 205s other than the tread pattern.

 

The 205s will fit the factory 16" wheels without issue. However, 205/50-16 is the wrong size tire and actually will make the optimistic speedometer even worse (i.e., a 205/50-16 tire is actually smaller than the factory 195/55-16 size). If anything, you want to go up a bit in size, to say 205/55-16. In the attached photo, Size 1 is the factory 195/55-16 tire and Size 2 is the 205/50-16 tire.

 

Thanks for the input NBCGLX... I have only had my F56 for a little over a month and have not yet tested the speedometer for accuracy. I am not surprised it is optimistic. I've never seen a car that did not have an optimistic speedometer, and always figured that was intentional on the part of the manufacturers to keep drivers from going faster than they thought they were going. I'm not really worried about the additional speedometer error since it is less than 1 mph difference.

I actually had used the same site as you to compare the diameters. This is what they come up with for diameter difference and speedometer error compared to the OEM 195/55R16 tire:

195/55R16
diameter 24.4"
speedometer reading 60 mph

205/50R16
diameter 24.1 (-1.2%)
speedometer reading 59.3 mph

205/55R16
diameter 24.9" (+2%)
speedometer reading 61.2 mph

I don't think either size is right or wrong for the Mini F56. I think it depends on whether you want a lower or higher profile tire, and what sizes are available for the tire you're looking at. FWIW, tirerack.com lists the recommended alternate 16" tire size as 205/50R16, but your recommendation is not wrong.

The Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 is available in both sizes. The recommended rim width for both is 5.5 to 7.5. So either tire would work on the 16x6.5 rim.

However, my question really was, what does the 205/50-16 (or 205/55-16 I guess) look like visually on the 6.5" Mini rim? Do they bulge out noticeably more than the OEM tires? Does anyone have pictures?

The reason I ask the question is because I had a 2005 Mustang GT that came with 235/55-17 tires on 17x8 rims. I wanted a wider tire and went with 255/50-17 which fit fine. I actually used the car for multiple HPDE track days with those tires, and never had any issues. But, visually, they did bulge out more than the OEM size on the same rims.

 

Every F-gen MINI I've driven is optimistic by 2 MPH (i.e., when the speedometer reads 60 MPH, you're actually traveling at 58 MPH). Actually, it's a bit more than 2 MPH and the gap between indicated speed and actual speed grows (albeit, not by much) the faster the car's speed. I know that at 80 MPH the speedometer is off by almost 3 MPH. All of this is with factory tire sizes. Regardless, you can account for speedometer error by just adhering to a faster or slower speed (e.g., if the you want to drive at an actual 70 MPH, then drive at an indicated 72 MPH). I will say this regarding the 205/50-16 tire size: it makes the tire gap even bigger, and though it's not by that much, it is noticeable in my opinion. I had winter tires sized 205/50-16 and I didn't think it was different, 'til I put the summer tires back on and I immediately could tell the difference between the front and the rear (I swapped the fronts first).

By the way, I've had the Firehawk 500 tires in the factory 16" tire size (195/55-16) for about a year now. They are great tires. I can't believe how well they stick for the price. Incredible! I will say that their ride quality isn't the greatest versus competitor tires, though they're still noticeably better than run-flat tires. Noise seems good, though.

I have a set of 17" factory wheels that I'll be installing come spring, and I'm either going with 215/45-17 or 225/45-17 tires (factory size is 205/45-17). Either will help correct the optimistic speedometer, improve ride quality a bit versus the factory size, and help fill out the wheel well a bit to reduce tire gap.