The new Miata came with some really nice light wheels, Konig Dial-Ins in Matte Gray, and very sticky tires, 195/50 x 15″ Toyo Proxies R1Rs, that look really good on the silver car. Unsprung weight on a lightweight sports car like the Miata is important and that combination weights 30.4 pounds.
Because David also gave me the original wheels that were on this car when he bought it I have an extra set of wheels to play with. Those wheels were the OEM 15″ wheels that came on the car with some 195/50 x 15″ Dayton Daytona SR tires. Based on the amount of tread wear on them they probably were bought by the previous owner new to put on the car when he sold it to David. Then he promptly replaced them with a real sports car tires that he put on some new wheels of his choosing. For the heck of it I weighed this combo too – surprisingly they came in at 30.2 lbs.
I opted to put those stock wheels with the Daytona SR tires on the now dethroned Emperor because I’m selling it, this left his old wheels, the 16″ Drag DR-19 with 205/50 x 16″ Yokohama S.Drive tires as an option to put on the new car. So while I had the Car To Be Named Later sitting there I rolled a set of these up next to it to see what they looked like. Not too bad, sort of brightened up the look some. Go hover your mouse over the image above, if you haven’t already accidentally done it, to see what it looks like. Because these are 16″ wheels and tires the combo weighs more at 34.8 lbs.
I went ahead and put this combo on the car. When we went a small drive this morning to go get some breakfast the car actually felt different. A little clunkier over bumps and slightly slower feeling turning corners. You wouldn’t think that 4.4 lbs a corner would be noticeable, but it is. Not sure I like it, may just go back to the Konig/Toyo combo that was on the car, but for now the heavier Drag/Yokohama combo will stay on. At least until next weekend.
Think of it of like wearing some clunky work boots around all day at work and then slipping on a pair of lightweight running shoes to go home in. If you wore nothing but the boots all the time or you wore the running shoes all the time you would get used to whichever and never know any different.