getting new wheels because i sold my old ones and my old wheels were 15x6.5 with a 195-50-15. they looked good but i wanted a little smaller sidewall because im a little lower then normal. now my question is do they make a 195-45-15? and is it worth it to run them over the 50 series?

thanks-

 

Chances are - no. What do you drive? And you just want a smaller sidewall for appearance reasons?

 

crx. and at the height i drive my tires rub a little bit so i wanted to try and cut down on that

 

I think Federal 595's come in a 195/45/15 flavor ... try citytireonline or onlinetires.

I can comfortably say that the 595's (I have 185/55/14's) grip as well as the falken azenis 215's (195/60/14) and I was able to keep up with a spec miata (205/50/15 azenis 615) with an "equal" driver in turning and braking in my street miata. Only gripe I have is that they don't deal with the same amount of heat as the more expensive tires.

 

No, it's not worth it. Stick with 195/50-15. 195/50 should work fine, even on a lowered car. 195/45-15 is TOO SMALL for your car.

 

Trevor what was the offset of your old wheels?

 

+34. but the new wheels are +40 i beleive

 

Hmm...thats kinda strange. Do you have camber kits? A 7" wide wheel @ +40 should give you close to the same fitment as your 6.5/34. My old MR5 wheels were actually made to fit that era of car though and they were a 6/45....so you still might rub unless you run a bit of negative camber.

To answer your question about the sizes, the 195/45 is .7" shorter than the 195/50 in the Toyo T1-R. I'm with nsx though...stick with the 50 series.

 

appreciate it guys thanks!

 

toyo and nexen make the 195-45-15
they really look good on low offset wheels and it really helped with my rubbing. but like others said negitive camber helps and the lower the profile of tire the less flex and traction you will get. may not be a huge diffrence but with my turbo hatch i could tell.

 

Quite aside from 195/45-15 being the WRONG SIZE (TOO SMALL) for that car, those two are really bad choices. The Toyo is too expensive - north of $75 for the T1R, which is around 25 percent more than tires in the PROPER SIZE of 195/50-15 that are very similar in performance to the T1R, such as the Yokohama S.drive, Fuzion ZRi, etc. As for Nexen, I've seen too many bad experiences with off-brand tires to recommend them.

 

Oh....you're one of "those guys"..