11"x20" on the front ?

[Bazza1]

Hi,

I'm thinking of putting a set of rear 11"x20" five spokes with 315/35/20's on the front so they would be the same all round. Has anyone done this ?


Baz

[Sanj]

Don't - you'll mess everything up!

[Bazza1]

Really, why's that ?

Baz 

[Sanj]

Bushes for the suspension, steering will all take an extra load - the complex xDrive setup is not configured for rears up front. The tyres will stick out beyond the arches making them illegal (and an MoT failure).

Wear on the front tyres will no doubt be greater on the inside edges too.

[Bazza1]

Cheers Sanj,

I was hoping for a more aggressive look as I really like how the square sidewalls look & thought the 11's would be ok.

Baz 

[Sanj]

Baz - try if you want but I'm trying to think logically (I know, not easy for me).

Everything will work but the extra rubber on the front axle making contact with the road will naturally add extra 'work' on the geometry. Just be mindful of that.

Oh and the wheels sticking out will be an issue though.

[Don Coffey]

Baz, would you not consider spacers if you are insisting on pushing the wheel out?  Another consideration should be tram lining. I noticed a big difference when I swapped the winter wheels over (255 to 285). The car moves around a lot more on the poor coutry roads with wider width, I would hate to think how bad it would be with even wider fronts on.

Don

[Johnell]

Could you the more aggressive look you want if you used 275 width 21" or 22" wheels?  With either 275/35/21 or 275/30/22 fitted the overall size is exactly the same as 275/40/20s and tyres are available:

Link to tyre size comparison calculator:
http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

[Raj]

I know a couple of mates that run squared up rims on CSL's mostly for track use tbh. It can be done for sure but not sure how it'd look. It will add extra load to the front suspension, etc but not massively. My previous AC Schnitzers ran 295's up front.

But as Sanj has said the biggest problem will be the rims sticking out the arches.

[storminmike]

somebody put 285 19s all round on the wifes X before we bought it. The rims were normal though...as in wide at the back normal at the front. Must have been a tyre rotate money saving thing or just threw some tyres at it

Long and short of it....awfull. The steering (compared to my 19" stag set up) was heavier and it didn't feel at all progressive when turning some lock on. Might have been due to squeezing too big tyres on the rim but it was not very ncie