[Mk2] [Turbo] 17x10" rears - winter wheels fitted and ready for the snow!

[Kongaroo]

Thought I would share a few photos of my winter wheels as I know there were a few people interested in what the fitment of a 10" wide rear would be like.

My original plan was to run some 17" Regamaster evos over winter but that idea went down the tube when I found out one of the tyre valve stems was duff. I have yet to find a suitable replacement as it's not the standard type you usually find on Rays or buddyclub wheels so ended up fitting my winter tyres to these alloys instead as they were 17's and the tyres would fit nicely.

These Volk GT-Ps almost suffered an amateur rattle can respray by my brother but I saved them last minute and instead a set of buddy clubs got defaced by him instead

Rears are 17x10" ET41 with 255/40/17 Hankook Icebear tyres.
Fronts are 17x8" ET35 with 215/40/17 Nexen Winguard tyres.

I know Craig (Rahzel) in particular was interested in the fitment of the rears. They fit fine with about 4 to 5mm clearance between the inner edge of the alloy and the side of the strut. With standard rev 3 springs, rolled rear arches and some negative camber.

I haven't encountered any rubbing yet from normal driving although I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up getting a little on large bumps. I can tell right away that rubbing is less of an issue compared to when I was running 285/30/18 on a 9.5" rear.

Anyway the photos:

235/50/15 R888 (which measures approx. 245mm wide according to R888 spec sheets) vs 255/40/17 on 10" rim:


Strut clearance on the rear:


Some negative camber visible here:


More photos:





What do you guys think? I don't think the rear looks bad at all. In fact with the negative camber and slightly stretched tyre it looks about perfectly flush to me

[Rahzel]

Alright Kong!

So you finally had a bash at putting them on! They look awesome. Pretty much flush with the arch but none of this crazy stretch lark going on. I thought they would look a bit more beefy at the back but maybe its the photo.

Stunning wheels mind. Shame about the rega's though. I was looking forward to seeing those aswell

I still need to come and borrow that roller off you. My P1's are sitting here right next to me waiting to go on hahaha.

How many wheels do you own now?

[RyanRs]

Looks ace! I assume your arches are rolled? I would suggest get a small wheel spacer in there to move the tyre away from the strut a bit as i could imagine if you hit a bump hard enough the tyre might bulge out enough to touch the drop-link nut..

[Rahzel]

Oh an what are the tyre stems on those regas? I got some stern's here with L shaped valves on. You could have one if needed. Also got some metal ones off some advans i got.

Let me know

[ryan]

Volk GTPs by any chance? Jusy bought some myself, the lips are kerbed though quite badly though

Mine are 7inch wide front 8 inch wide rear on stickers, but they measure wider when i put the tape measure across them

[Kongaroo]

Thanks for the feedback guys

Ryan - I think I'm ok on clearance strut side as the 255 tyre is slightly stretched on a 10" rim which helps a little with clearance both strut and arch side too. In fact the side of the tyre doesn't quite extend as far as the metal lip of the rim so good for clearance but bad for parking up against the kerb, lol.
The car is begging me to put some wide arches on but I think it'll be a lot of hassle to get it looking good and I don't want to have the car offline for too long as it's my daily drive.


Sure Craig you can borrow the arch roller any time bud. I keep meaning to collect it back from Peter's but I forgot again as I was too happy to have my clutch fixed (I snuck a lightweight flywheel mod past the wife while the car was in there too ).

This is the valve I needed:


If anyone knows where I can pick this type of valve up please let me know

[Kongaroo]

Volk GTPs by any chance? Jusy bought some myself, the lips are kerbed though quite badly though

Mine are 7inch wide front 8 inch wide rear on stickers, but they measure wider when i put the tape measure across them

Yes those polished lips just scream 'Kerb me' don't they

The stickers will show the correct widths - the reason why you measured more than the stickered widths is because rim widths are measured by the distance between the bead seat walls. You don't include the thickness of the bead seat walls themselves.

I guess you could get the rims refurbed to get rid of the kerbing if you wanted? They are a decent set of alloys and would have retailed for between £1500 to £1800 back in the day depending on sizes but are discontinued now. The outer part of the rim is strong but light because it is forged aluminium (the centre part is spun/cast). It might be worth spending a little bit of money to get them looking nice again

[RyanRs]

The car is begging me to put some wide arches on but I think it'll be a lot of hassle to get it looking good and I don't want to have the car offline for too long as it's my daily drive.

Well if you do decide to fit some wide arches, i have some spanking new woodsport arches sitting in doors that i need to shift.... hint hint

[Driftlimits Performance]

but you want narrow wheels for the snow!

[Steve Horrocks]

but you want narrow wheels for the snow!

+1

Nice set of 4" pram wheels is where it's at for the snow! Thinner the better.

[kayjay0_7]

If anyone knows where I can pick this type of valve up please let me know

when i had my Ray's alloys, got some valves from these guys

http://www.tyre-equipment.co.uk/acatalo ... icles.html

[Kongaroo]

The car is begging me to put some wide arches on but I think it'll be a lot of hassle to get it looking good and I don't want to have the car offline for too long as it's my daily drive.

Well if you do decide to fit some wide arches, i have some spanking new woodsport arches sitting in doors that i need to shift.... hint hint

I saw your for sale ad - believe me I was tempted, lol. Did you ever get a quote from anybody to get them fitted and painted? How come you aren't fitting them - you've been hankering after some wide arches for ages, lol.

Luke - well these alloys were hanging around doing nothing and I wanted to get the winter tyres on as my R888s were getting scary to drive home with on the motorway when it was raining (only 2.5mm tread remaning )

In any case I had these 255/40/17 Hankook Icebears on for the heavy snow last year on a 9" wide alloy and they performed well. I could drive and park up an incline in the carpark at work that my colleague's 4WD Audi A6 struggled to get up, lol (he was wearing summer tyres though). Ok the tyres will have a slightly wider footprint with the 10" rim compared to the 9" but I have a feeling it will be fine

[Kongaroo]

when i had my Ray's alloys, got some valves from these guys

http://www.tyre-equipment.co.uk/acatalo ... icles.html

Thanks for the link

Actually I think I may have found some thanks to Rahzel who has some of the right type lying around. Craig - you're getitng as bad as me for having random car bits laying about the house, lol.

[jonb-]

I have come back from the dead purely to say this is awesome

[Kongaroo]

I have come back from the dead purely to say this is awesome

Hi Jon - pleased to see you are still lurking even after posting your car up for sale a while back. Are you thinking of staying in the MR2 scene? (you know it makes sense, lol)

Thanks for the compliment

[jonb-]

I have come back from the dead purely to say this is awesome

Hi Jon - pleased to see you are still lurking even after posting your car up for sale a while back. Are you thinking of staying in the MR2 scene? (you know it makes sense, lol)

Thanks for the compliment

I'll never sell her, too much time invested in it.

Using it as a daily drive at the moment as I'm between cars. I've put a normal seatbelt in, a matt and softened the RM coilovers and it's nearly civil

[monkeyra]

I'll be picking your brains next year Kangaroo, I've got some 17 x 9 et 37 Buddyclub P1's to fit to the rear of my MR2, along with some 275 tyres...

I've got some wide arches to fit as well which will help I hope.

[cvega666]

as i've recently discovered.. those red (sbits?) droplinks are sh***t. Started knocking 2 months after they were put on!

btw, nice tyres, but for snow you want either narrower and/or lower pressure

[Kongaroo]

I'll be picking your brains next year Kangaroo, I've got some 17 x 9 et 37 Buddyclub P1's to fit to the rear of my MR2, along with some 275 tyres...

I've got some wide arches to fit as well which will help I hope.

No worries bud, although I suspect that you are going to ask me if a 275/40/17 will fit Answer is yes but you will very likely rub badly with that width/offset even with a full arch roll. May work ok with standard ride height (do rev 1 springs sit the car a little higher than the rev 3 springs?) and extra negative camber. Unfortunately the only sure way to find out is to try it and see. 275/40/17 would look pretty awesome I bet

[Kongaroo]

as i've recently discovered.. those red (sbits?) droplinks are sh***t. Started knocking 2 months after they were put on!

btw, nice tyres, but for snow you want either narrower and/or lower pressure

Hi mate, yes they are SBITS droplinks although I have had them for quite a long time now without noticing any problems. I think I had them put on when I had the konis put on the car about 3.5 years ago but I may have become desensitised to suspension noise as I pretty much lost all the rubbery suspension goodness when I had the front Tein tension rods and rear PP control arms put on, lol. Car still rides pretty nicely and has a much better ride quality than my wife's C2 VTS - mainly due to the stock springs and Konis which make for a very comfortable ride when near full soft setting (not 'hard and bouncy' like my old adjustable KYBs at all).

But anyway Peter is a good guy and has always honored any warranty I had on parts from him

Yes I know they are a little wide - especially on a 10" but this is the 4th winter I've ran this particular pair of rears (the last 3 years were when they were fitted to a 9" rim). They've seen me through some bad winters - including last year. The tread is wearing down now so I will probably get a new set for next year as I started noticing some deterioration in grip last winter.

On the plus side having a decent width 255 on the rear means when the road is dry I have reasonably good traction when not snowing -far better than I would have with a 225. Also winter tyres generally make good motorway wet weather tyres too.