Applicable to: '99-'05 1.8 liter
Wheels Kosei K1 TS 17 X 7 38+
I ordered them and they arrived sooner than I expected. They were double boxed for protection and there were no imperfections on the wheels. Center caps and Lugs were all there. No problems on the install.
I needed lighter wheels, these are about 14 lbs. What a difference, the suspension worked great, no more bone jarring ride. Much better acceleration. The wheels look good too. If you need a light 17" wheel I recommend you get these.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to: '90 - '97 1.8 liter
Kosei K1 Racing Wheels, Silver - 15x7 Now with 30mm offset, made in Thailand, sourced from Tire Rack. Does not come with center caps. Comes with plastic centering rings. Combo comes with lug nuts that are much heavier than stock, but have a taller seat needed to not scrape the paint on the wheel.
Note, offset is now 30mm instead of 38mm, so a 195/50-15 tire is close to fender on my stock ride height 1997 Miata. Bearing stress has likely increased. Wheels are light and look fantastic, other than my rusty brake calipers being quite visible. Upside is being easy to check pads, and perhaps not even needing to remove the wheel to bleed! Big brakes would look better with all the space between spokes and straight inner wheel wall. Stock wheels bend in towards the rotors, making them look less puny. Grip with new, sticky summer tires on the street is fantastic. Low weight keeps them glued down over bumps. If I still raced, I'd be happier with the offset, but its still OK on the street. Manufacturing process and quality exceed stock wheels.
Generic center caps are far less expensive than Kosei ones, though I've not measured for size yet. 38-42mm offset is better for a 1997 Miata. My original 14". 14x6, 45mm ofset wheels are now on my snow tires.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to: '99 + 1.8 liter
17x7 Wheel from Tire Rack. Weight 14.1 lbs
I was looking for a nice looking wheel for my 01 and saw these wheels on Tire Racks website and fell in love with them immediately. The picture doesn't do this wheel justice. It looks more beautiful in person. Be prepared to for lots of stares and questions about these wheels. They come with two valve stems per wheel so the question I always get is why? Well according to Grant at Tire Rack, Over in Japan when during races what they'll do it bleed the air from the bottom valve stem and fill with Nitrogen from the top. I don't have to worry about doing that but they do look neat.
Couple of things that happened to me. The valve stems and caps are anodized red. They seem to be pretty popular with Valve stem cap thieves in my area. A week after I had the wheels someone stole them. All 8 of them!!! I ordered new ones from Tire Rack at 4 bucks a piece. I also put loctite on all the threads and tightened them down so no one without a wrench is able to get them off. Also the anodized red gets scratched easily so use care when filling the tires or cleaning them.
Over 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to:
Silver 17x7.5 K1s
One has cracked after less than 1yr/less than 20k miles. 1.5in long crack starting from the bead, on the inside of the wheel, heading towards the center. This occured after NO particular event. There are NO marks on the tire or rim. They were driven on the street and track.
They look great. They are light. Be VERY careful!!!
Not an installed item
Applicable to: '90 - '97 '99 + 1.6 liter 1.8 liter
This is quite a popular wheel. You can see a picture of it in almost any Tire Rack ad in almost any car enthusiast magazine. Mine are the white painted ones. These wheels are lightweight. Mine weight 16 pounds. Pretty impressive for a massive 17x7.5 wheel.
I bought these wheels in early August and loved the combination of looks and more feedback thanks to the 40 series tires. I cheaped out on the tires but I figure I spent enough in getting the whole package. Well on to my "experience". I was driving down a windy road after it had just rained. Trying to get on a freeway onramp, my front wheels lost traction and I went speeding into the curb, i.e. MAJOR understeer! Long story short, my car saw about $7.5K in damages. What truly impressed me about the whole ordeal was that only one wheel was damaged. I jumped a 6" curb and only the leading wheel was damaged. This wheel was turned in the direction of the turn so it smacked right up into the curb with the outside part of the wheel meeting the curb first. Needless to say, the section of the rim between two spokes broke off.
This next part is the incredible part. Not one of the other rims even got bent! I was expecting some kind of damage but nothing. Again, I had 40 series tires on these rims so there is not much to cushion the rims. Well, that's my testimonial regarding how strong these relatively lightweight wheels are. Great product. Could easily sell for twice the price. I got them for $150 each from a local wheel shop that matched (and sourced) Tire Rack's special at the time. A real bargain with performance to boot!
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to: '90 - '97 '99 + 1.6 liter 1.8 liter
15x7 Kosei K1 racing wheels. Aluminum hub spacers and silver center caps. Ordered from the Tirerack. 38mm offset hasn't been a problem.
I installed the K1's with Kumho 195/50-VR15 ESCTA 712 tires. Wheels and tires look great and the car rides and handles excellent up to the dreaded 65mph mark. Have started to experience the 65mph shimmy since installing the wheels/tires.
In the process of getting the tires trued and rebalanced. Hopefully, I'll get reimbursed by the Tirerack for this expense. Overall, very pleased with the Kosei K1 wheels.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to: '90 - '97 1.8 liter
15x6.5 Kosei Racing Seneka wheels and Pirelli 195/50/15 tires.
The 15" Racing Seneka wheels, at 15 pounds, are only a few pounds heavier than the 14" stock wheels. Combined with P6000, they provide great handling with minimal squeal when pushed to the limits. The white painted center with polished lip matches nicely with my white Miata with tan top.
My recently acquired white '94 Miata needed new wheels and tires badly. Since the Miata is short on horsepower, the weight of the wheel took priority in my search. Second came tire performance followed by pricing and then appearance. Scouring over magazine ads and local newspaper ads, I found the perfect combination at tires.com. They were very knowledgeable courteous.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to: '90 - '97 1.8 liter
16" x 7" Wheels, silver with polished rims.
Excellent quality. Finally eliminated the 65mph shimmy I simply couldn't cure with the stock alloys! They look terrific too.
Bought from the Tire Rack. Came complete with hub centric rings, nice valve stems and lug nuts.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to: '90 - '97 1.6 liter
Kosei K-1 Racing wheels. 6 spoke. 15 x 7 size. +38mm Offset. Plastic hub centric spacers, blue anodized valve stems (cool!!!), chrome lug nuts, socket for lug nuts all included. Hub covers are not included, but may be ordered separately. It seems that units from other wheels that Kosei makes will fit, but for whatever reason, this wheel does not come with one.
Excellent finish and workmanship. Look great on the car, and absolutely no problems whatsoever. If anything, I would say that the car handles better. I used Bridgestone RE 730's and the Bridgestones have a much faster steering response than my Dunlop SP-8000's did, and the car feels just as nimble as before. It does go straight with minimal attention, but it took a few days for them to break in. It does have a rougher ride than the Dunlops, but this may be because the Dunlops had a much softer side wall, as well as the difference in tire profile. I ran 32 psi with the Dunlops, and I now have 27 psi in the Bridgestones, which helped.
I was initially apprehensive about deviating from the factory offset. The Tire Rack was adamant that this would be the proper offset and said they guarantee their "fitments". I talked to the guys at R Speed and they also said that 38 was ok. Basically the offset is the distance from the center of the wheel to the hub. 45mm is stock, but that's with a 5 1/2" wide wheel. If you stick with the stock offset and go 1 1/2" wider (like I'm doing), it would mean that all the extra width would be on one side towards the center of the car. If you go with the 38mm offset, you are closer to splitting the extra width evenly, and this makes more sense to me. Incidentally, I never had much of the "65 MPH shake" before, but now it is definitely there on some roads. Chassis braces will be next on my agenda. Overall though, I am very happy. The 38mm offset has had no negative effect that I can feel, and the car still sticks like glue. The wheels look incredible!
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
These are 16 inch wheels with machined lip.
I have been extremely satisfied with the wheels. They look great on the car. The only down fall is that they are somewhat heavier than the factory alloys.
Greaty buy from Tire Rack.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
Applicable to '90 - '97 1.6 liter
These are the Kosei K1's, 5 spoke. They come in silver or white, from 15-17 inch rim size.
I brought these through the good people at tire rack. Ordered on Mnday, they confirmed it on Tuesday, and on Thursday afternoon I went on ride around the block (it turned into few blocks) testing them out. To go with the wheels I got Yokohama Paradas (205/45 ZR 16), they really complement each other. The info I got was the 15's weigh 13.5 lbs and the 16's 15lbs with 40 offset. they come in silver and white, but I opted for the white, since It goes with the theme. Looks awsome in the car, especially with my body kit. The factory 14's looked dwarfed after the adition and the new 16's give it a intimidating look.
I've gotten quite a few stares and on looker question about the rims. I'm not quite positive about the weight and offset change had on my car but it just seems slighly off what it used to be. An acceptable compremise in my opinion. The ride is a bit harder, not sure exactly it's the rims, or the tires or both that add the extra jolt. But all in all I think it was good investment.
Under 30 minutes to remove completely
| Back to Product Reviews | 15 January, 2014 |
| [Home] - [FAQ] - [Search] - [Sponsors] - [Forums] |
| [Garage] - [Clubs] - [Contact Us] - [Disclosures] - [More...] |
Copyright
©1994-2024, Eunos Communications LLC
|