17" or 18"s - Help me out!!

[Twin40]

Alright gents, i\'ve recently dropped the 7 on some tein flex coillies, shes running some 17" 5 spoke wheels - doesn\'t look too bad but not the \'look\' i\'m after. Prob is i tried a mates 18" BBS Lm\'s on there the other day - and i thought it looked cr4p! (not the wheel - the whole appearance)
 
The 18\'s looked massive!!! seemed to big for the car....
 
But tons of people on here run 18s
 
i\'m confused
 
heres mine...
 

 
So basically, can some of you post some shots of nice 17s or suggest why those 18\'s look so out of place....:3Confused

[logicalChimp]

I wont\' swear to it, but i expect a lot of people running 18\'s also have a body kit on - which would change the balance between the body and the wheels...

eg side skirts drop the side of the car by an inch or so (or at least mine do), so adding another inch to the wheels would bring them back to (approx) the original body:wheel ratio...

note: this is all pure speculation whilst i eat me potato wedges...

[Red and Single]

Get the lightest 17\'s you can afford and enjoy the cars performance.

18\'s are for show and not go.

19\'s are for chavs.

[Red and Single]

[interloper393]

iv got 18 rears n 17 front, but with a full kit, mine looks the dogs doodaa`s

[Nik da Greek]

17s for me, ta. Best compromise between grip, looks and handling, imho, although every second person will say the opposite. 18s and bigger are for Fast Car \'readers\' lol! Plus, they make your brakes look really puny and gay unless you\'ve got a big disc kit

[AtomicRex]

On the note of really nice 17" wheels
 
We have 1 set of Mag wheels left....lightest wheels around, and will fit over even the biggest of brake kits...so future proof!
 
We have just bought some 18" wheels hence selling off our 17\'s but I think it is about running a wider car!!

[Twin40]

Really appreciate the advice gents. Glad to see i\'m not the only one thinking 17\'s are a better option, I\'m off to see martin at speedline imports tomorrow, looking at a set of 17" enkei RPF1\'s.....
 
Atomic Rex - Don\'t suppose you have a pic/link to those mag wheels you mentioned....?

[Red and Single]

Good man

V nice wheels those enkei\'s.

[M@r]{]

IF you dont mind either way go for the 17\'s, the wheels will be cheaper and so will the tyres.  My personal opinion is there is not much to gain or loose performance wise between 17 / 18\'s, not noticeably anyway.  I run 18\'s, used them for the 1/4 and get very respectable times with modest power and stock twins!  I also use it for track days etc and they are great.

I think if you have an \'agressive\' body kit 17\'s can look a bit small imho, but depends on the style.  So if you are planning on kitting it I would go for 18\'s.  18\'s generally come in wider sizes too  

Bottom line, if its not going to be a track or 1/4 mile monster,  imho dont worry too much about performance, go for what suits your budget and what you think looks best.

[AtomicRex]

These are the dogs dangels
 
http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47254

[Nik da Greek]

{;505519\']IF you dont mind either way go for the 17\'s, the wheels will be cheaper and so will the tyres. My personal opinion is there is not much to gain or loose performance wise between 17 / 18\'s, not noticeably anyway. I run 18\'s, used them for the 1/4 and get very respectable times with modest power and stock twins! I also use it for track days etc and they are great.
 
I think if you have an \'agressive\' body kit 17\'s can look a bit small imho, but depends on the style. So if you are planning on kitting it I would go for 18\'s. 18\'s generally come in wider sizes too
 
Bottom line, if its not going to be a track or 1/4 mile monster, imho dont worry too much about performance, go for what suits your budget and what you think looks best.

I agree with most of this, except the width sizing. You can get 17s as wide as you like, my Volks are 10 inches in girth on the back (oooh, matron :Giggle). The only thing is, to get that sort of width, you kinda need to get split rims which puts a lot of people off cos of the cost, weight and maintenance issues. If you get a quality make, though, they don\'t weigh much more than one-piece rims, in fact makes like Rays/Volk are forged so
in fact weigh a lot less than heavy cast one-pieces. Plus they look well \'ard!

[neil_jdmr]

I was in this same place last month and decided on 17\'s as the car was fairly low anyway on eibach coilovers. tried 18\'s and it just looked like it was on stilts sitting much higher off the ground.
 
I wanted as wide as i could possibly get so i chose 9.5 rears and 9 fronts and dont get any rubbing on the arch liners and imo its looks the tits, LOW and WIDE:yes

[20B_boy]

18\'s are for show and not go.

And to fit AP 6 pots and 356 discs under. I know some \'big\' brake kits fit under 17s but its very dependant on the design of the 17".

You better tell Max he has a show car not a race car btw Dave! :p Same with Jon when his are running

[Red and Single]

It\'s too scruffy to be a show car what with all that gaffer tape holding bits on :p

To be fair, they are running 18\'s through necessity with the brakes.

You know full well as do I that 17\'s offer better performance :cheers