200 wheel fitment

[George Selby]

At 10:10 AM 10/12/2005, you wrote:
>George,
>Probably. you might need spacers to put them out slightly with due to the 
>width. But, the stock wheels on your 200 are 45mm ofset, so they should 
>work. I'd double check, though. The concern is rubbing on the spring 
>perches/tie rod ends.


Well, the wheels are really far away, so I can't test them directly.  Using 
some math, however, I figured out that a 17"x8" ET48 wheel sticks in 22 mm 
farther than a 15"x6.5" ET45 wheel I have now.  That is about 7/8"  There 
is at least an inch of room between the rim and the strut now, and a 17" 
wheel will be an inch farther up the strut, and it has even more room 
there.  The only question now is will the tire hit the tie rod end.  Has 
anyone run 225/45R17 tires on a 5k/1c/2c (particularly on 17x8 
wheels?)  These should be very close in diameter to the stock diameter.

The reason for my tire dilemna:  The present tires are 205/70R15's (not 
speed rated at all) and the stock size is 205/60R15 (speed rating V.)  I've 
driven the car for about 1000 miles now, and think the tall tires are 
hurting acceleration (they are nearly 1.5" taller than the stock size) as 
well as handling.  Since I'm buying new tires anyway, a wheel change now is 
feasible.  I can keep the present tall tires; which have excellent tread, 
just wrong size and speed rating for car; for winter tires (in the unlikely 
event it snows here.)

George Selby