Thinking about ordering some brand new wheels for the rally car I would like minilite style wheels with the lowest possible offset. 15x6 is probably the best size for me but how low an offset can I go? I'm sure I had 15x7 et20s before and the wings rubbed like mad so I want proper clearance but to maintain width!
Forgot to add. The car used to be lowered now it's standard ride height with stronger springs. I've also rolled the arch lips now.
i wouldn't go too low it messes with the handling, i had some et13s on mine and i really felt the difference when i went back to 24 offset wheels! plus you can always lower offset by fitting spacers as required, raising the offset of low offset wheels is a bit more tricky
I use 15" 7j 35et on the MK2 rally car with big problems, these have Avon 205 ZZR's on for hillclimbing. I also have a set of 15" 7j Renault ClioCup Speedline corse mag wheels with CR28 road rally tyres, again in 205 size, I think these wheels are et 45 so I use a set of 10mm spacers with them. They both just touch the inner wing on full lock turns on full lean, but nothing that is a problem. HOWEVER - one issue is that I've got thick tube Bilstein Coilovers on the front and if I run long gravel springs the tyres touch the bottom spring adjuster. If I use short tarmac springs and about 2.5 degrees camber max its fine. If your doing gravel and Tarmac maybe 6j would be a better compromise
The car currently has bilstein b4 suspension and eibach heavy duty springs so nothing fancy or oversized. I run the max camber from available from this set up but I don't measure it! I don't want any rubbing at all so it'll have to be 6j to wheels then
Just a quick note missed the word 'no' above - meant to read 'No big problems' - makes a difference!! Sorry about that! The issues I highlighted are minor, but do mean its quite tight when using coil-overs, with Std spring plates I'd imagine you'll have more room to play with. 195's on 6j's will be a give plenty of grip on decent tyres, perfect on gravel tyres I'd have thought though. Good luck.
It does also depend on your tyre construction, I remember with a A048 changing from a 7" rim to a 6.5" rim actually slightly increased the overall width of tyre because the side wall bowed out. 205's on a 7 with ET35, in my opinion, should be the perfect compromise between arch clearance and spring seat clearance. It also keeps the scrub radius close to factory..
