8 replies to this topic

[mow]

Are people finding problems with 13" alloys? I've seen a lot for sale recently with people downsizing! I'm about to buy some wheels and fancied the 13's but may not if they are trouble.

[freshairmini]

They need the arches cutting alot more than wide 12's.

You will get better handling with 12's even better with 10's!

they look nice but if you want a proper handling mini go for 12's or better 10's.

[mow]

I have 12's already cooper minilite style, may have to find some nice deeper ones.

[Cooperman]

13" are better for racing in the dry with wide and very 'sticky' slick tyres.
On the road the only advantage is in perceived appearance. Some think they look good, others think differently.
In terms of roadholding a 165 section tyre will always be best as the width is optimum for the weight on each wheel/tyre. In the wet especially there is better braking with a 165 section.
The large offset of a 13" wheel means the suspension geometry is not as originally designed which was for a 10" diameter x 3.5" wide wheel.
In terms of handling, it does depend on how well the suspension is set up, but given accurate settings a 4.5" wide wheel with a deeper section tyre will usualy handle better. This is largely because the Mini suspension was designed for the tyre wall depth to represent a significant part of the suspension travel with sufficient 'give' to iron out a lot of bumps and help to keep the tyre treads in contact with the road.
That is why a lot of owners are reverting to 12" or 10"

[minidave1991-89]

Are people finding problems with 13" alloys? I've seen a lot for sale recently with people downsizing! I'm about to buy some wheels and fancied the 13's but may not if they are trouble.

I have exactly the same problem. I love the look of 13" but i dont want all of the arch cutting etc, as i know i'll mess it up and new wings it is :S! there are some very nice 12" deep dish alloys around which i recommend you look at though through midland wheels etc.

[Wil_h]

I like to think of it like this - If you want to go fast fit 13s, if you want to feel like your going fast fit 10s.

But stick to 6 x 13s for road use.

The reality is there is a lot of preference on how your car drives here. 10s are very forgiving 13s less so. if you have driven on 10s all your life you won't like 13s. You'll be used to wanging the wheel around and feeling the car squidge around on the tyres. Do this on 13s and it'll either understeer or oversteer depending on geometry. Cars on 13s can be just a chuckable though, but in my experience you need a lot less steering input.

IMO choose the wheels you like the look of best, the differance is neither here nor there in 90% of driving. But as said, stick to a maximum 6" wide whetever wheels you choose.

[racingbob]

i got 12 x 5 on mine with 165 tyres and very happy

havent tried 6" but would have to cut the arches and i reckon

would not give as good feel to driving as the 5" which are more suitable

[tiger99]

How does tyre life, cost and availability compare between the wheel sizes? We need to think about the future, not just right now.

As we know, there is a trend to larger wheels on modern cars, which I don't think has any valid reason behind it, just appearance, as smaller, lighter wheels were first introduced to reduce unsprung weight and improve roadholding, based on very solid reasons. The laws of physics have not changed.

[Samini86]

10s :)