Hello!

When I get my car, a MCS, that day or the next the 16's come off and my 15 konig rewinds go on.

The tire height is 6.01 mm taller which is as close as I could get. So radius wise its like 3 mm increase in height either direction. - side note

the old is 195/55/16, the new is 205/60/15.

Do I need an alignment or can I just get out the wrench and do the job myself?

 

you don't need an alignment, but if you notice excessive tramlining
you can get a tad bit more toe-in to reduce it.

or if your rear rubs and you have the newer MINI's i guess you can
increase neg camber to see if it can clear the rear arches.

try it first without an alignment and see.

 

hm interesting info.

 

Alignment merely changes the angles of the wheel/tire combo in relation to the car so you don't need to have an alignment done for a simple tire swap because these angles (camber, toe-in, etc.) will remain the same.

 

youre a rockstar

 

If you have stock suspension and stock alignment you will have plenty of clearance for different sized wheels and tires as long as you are close to the stock sized tire in dimensions. Even a little wider and a little taller is OK.

As your suspension drops you will have less clearance and sometimes a bit more negative camber will help with wider or taller tires to fit in the wheel wells without rubbing or with minimal rubbing.

Normally for 15" rims we see 205/55-15. You should be fine with no need to realign.

 

Yeah I know that 205/55/15 is very standard. I went taller as that is actually closer to the original height than 55. I do not care about off the line acceleration, I am much more of a mid game type of driver.

I considered getting 225/50/15 I feared snow and rain though. All of that money for LSD and DSC and I would spin on account of tires being too huge for the weight of the car.

I thank you all for your advice and tips.

 

225/50-15 limits your selection of tires. Less options for all season tires for starters. Kumho Ecsta AST for $53 each 400 treadwear A traction (High Perf All season)

Some good competition tires in this size but also requires wider 6 to 8" rims (so not ok for stock 15x5.5" rims). This size (24") also a little smaller than stock size outer tire diameter.
BF Goodrich g-Force T/A Drag Radial $118
Kumho Ecsta V710 $160
Kumho Victoracer $138
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup $207
Yokohama Advan A048 $193

 

yeah, the konig rewinds are a 5x7 wheel. Allows for sky's the limit for sizes just about. I wonder what the widest tire a 5x7 on a mini can be without messing around with wheel well area that will never rub.

slap som 305's on it!

 

IMO nothing worse than an over tired car. Your 205 choice makes lots of sense.

 

driving wise or looks?

somehow, all the corvette people have these enormous tires (compensatory) on their cars. I always thought that they must be terrible in the rain as it would trap water easily. but, people always talk about how wide tires are better. I duno. I got 205's as it is on the edge of being rather wide for the car but not into 225 category like my 88 camaro had.

hello Crashton!

 

Jefe,

For me it's looks & driving dynamics. Lets forget about looks, because that's a personal choice. The bigger & heavier you go with tires the more it effects handling & braking. If you are going to pound around a race track a wider tire is worth the weight penalty, more grip = faster lap times. In the real world were most of us drive a narrower tire will work better. Like you mentioned in rain, less problems with hydroplaning. In snow I'm a believer in 4 real snow tires on the car. The size you've picked should work well for you.
Others may have their opinions, these are only mine.

Yep Corvette's have steam roller sized tires on them. My best guess as to why is they were designed to have them. Looks plays a huge part, but so does the HP they must contain. I wouldn't be very keen on driving one fast in the rain.

 

Cars with 2x the hp and torque in the 60's had half the size tires and seemed ok!

shrugs.

 

I'm going to guess it was because we didn't know any better back them. Plus the tires that were around then were tall & skinny too. Look at a Wide Oval tire today & it looks not so wide or so oval.