Getting Winter Wheels - Need Offset Change advice

[Voodoo]

Help! Still a little confused about offsets after reading many posts...

I'm looking at winter wheels/tires and want to make sure the change of offset won't change the handling.

My S-Lites have an ET50 (+50mm offset I believe) and 205/45/17 tires. All the OEM MINI wheels appear to have offsets of 48-50mm, so I imagine I want to stay in this range. But every aftermarket wheel I look at (TireRack) has a much smaller offset. The closest I've found in a wheel I like is 42mm, and I'm planning to get 195/55/16 tires.

Any thoughts? Will I need spacers? Do I want to avoid spacers?
Thanks!!!

[MINIAC]

Spacers lower the offset

You'll be fine with ET42

[Voodoo]

Thanks MINIAC,

More questions if you don't mind..

If I understand correctly, ET42 will push the wheels outwards by 8mm compared to the ET50s? Won't the centers of the tread be off enough to change handling a bit?? What about bearing wear?

Thanks muchly for your sage advice (I researched using your FAQs)

[MINIAC]

Your understanding is correct ... as the offset gets lower, the wheels move outwards.

The new Aftermarket Wheel Gallery can be searched by offset:

http://www.mini2.com/forum/showpost....51&postcount=2

The lowest offset in the gallery is ET35. Almost one-third of the over 80 cars in the gallery have offsets below 42mm

For a stock size tire, you should have no concerns regarding any wheel which shows up on the Tire Rack configurator for the MINI.

[Voodoo]

Thanks MINIAC.. I feel lots better. The gallery helped me change my mind on wheel style too.