I have a 98 se and have im planning on keeping the same rims, i'm planning on buying the dunlop sp5000s and want to know which size looks better, i have read through the comments under the search function but have yet to see a picture of either of the two above mentioned sizes, i am not lowering my car anytime soon so will the 225/55/16 fill in the gap a little and look better then the 50 series...PICS/input please!!!inspection is up in 15 days so i need to know soon..thanks

 

Honestly I went from 65's to 55's and there is hardly any difference, at least none that I see. I don't think going from 55's to 50's is going to be very noticeable. As it is, our car's already look like 4X4's stock

 

But you'll throw off your speedometer, it will not read the correct speed also the odometer will be affected as well...

 

I have Dunlop SP-5000s on SE wheels. Size 225/55-16.
I think you can see them in my sig pic. Great tires, get them.

 

I have 50 Series and the gap is almost the same.

 

Hmmm IMO the gap is just about the same...but everyone sees differently. Also I did that tire size odo meter thing on the net and it said my odo would only be like 0.04% off...so not much of a difference. Does anyone disagree that that thing is wrong? Or does someone care to calculate 0.04% to mph for me so I know what the difference is?

 

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

You can go here and put in your tire sizes and it'll calculate out the difference for you. I had 15" SE rims with 215/60's on 'em, then got 16" rims and got the 225/50's. The speedometer reading difference is very miniscule, unnoticeable. The handling is much better, and will be much better with the 50's compared to the 55's (the sidewalls on the 50's are much thicker/stiffer than that of the 55's - 55's are like 60's and 65's). The 55's will 'fill' the gap a little better but as soon as you get used to looking at the 50's, you're gonna be looking at 225/55's like they are balloons...
BTW, there is a much bigger selection of tires for the 225/50R16 size as well. I have Potenza RE730's which are faboo...

 

"speedometer reading with non-stock tire is 2.486% too fast"

and that means?????

 

Do the math. It means when your speedometer is reading 100mph you are going 98mph. Minimal difference. What size did you start out with (I'm guessing 205/65)? The difference w/ mine is only 1.1% (basically 1 mph off at 100 mph, .5mph off at 50mph)...

 

Go with 50 series IMO. I run 235/45 series for street and bought 225/55 series for auto-x. The 55's do look like balloons and don't grip anywhere near the 235/45's.

Again, lots more choices in the 225/50 because that was a common stang size and others.

Moving from 205/65/15 to either won't change spedo by more than 2mph.

 

My GLE came with 205-65-15s and I now have 225-50-16s. I've testes my speedo error with the little radar trailers that you pass that display your speed. It varies linearly with speed. At indicated 45mph I was actually going 43mph. and at 75mph I was actually going 71mph, so I'd say 100 is off by more than 5. -just my findings. The nice thing is that the error is in your favor if you get pulled over/. (Meaning your ticket will be smaller than you expect)

 

i think im gonna go with the 225/50s, the gap is bad enough, a little more cant hurt, thanks

 

Hi Kineshi!

The difference between the 50 series and the 55 series is that with the 55 series, the tires sidewall will be 11.25 mm larger than the 50 series. Not much of a difference.

Don

 

Here's a 96 GLE with stock suspension and 225/50 WR 16's.

 

thanks for the pic, looks good...

 

hey is that your max, if so you need help with putting it in your sig.

 

Here's my 97 w/ 225/60/16s You can also see them in my sig pic. I'm gonna go with 235/50/16s though for better handeling. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, I like your tail lights...looks stealthy & clean
Black maximas rule