Is it blasphemy or a very cool look for a “resto-mod”? I’m often amazed by how militant some people get about other people’s modifications. I’ve made no secret about my own preference for larger wheels… Besides the advantages provided by simple physics – the ability to run bigger brakes, a more favorable contact patch, I LIKE the look of a low-profile tire on a larger diameter wheel to achieve about the same overall circumference!
It has been suggested that I feature another of my posts from the Mini Mania Forum, this one dealing with considerations for different wheel and tire combinations in all the popular sizes one sees on Classic Minis. It started as a discussion of the WEIGHT of the different combinations, so I weighed as many wheels and tires as I could get my hands on. I took one of my 13 x 5 “Minators” with the Yokohama A539 175/50-13, and my original S 10 inch spare off my own car, and put them on the FedEx scale. Here’s the post, a thread that actually goes back several years:
http://www.minimania.com/msgThread/112670/1/1/Tire_Comparison__10__12__and_13_inch_tire_weights
This once again illustrates the gold mine of information that is so easily searchable on the Mini Mania Forum. Informative topics and posts disappear off the “Front Page” in a few days, but that info is right at your fingertips by searching a few key words. You can even search by name!
Classic Mini Coopers 
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