Rims for the Toyota Supra MA-70
It’s quite difficult to get good rims for your Toyota Supra. I’ve spent over three weeks to find good rims for my car. The difficult part in finding good rims is the offset or "ET value". These are just two names for exactly the same. The offset of a rim is the value (in millimeters, hail the metrics system) the rims stand to the side of your car. The bigger the offset the ‘wider’. If the value is small your wheels will ‘fall’ into your car a little.
If you put rims under your car with an ET value being too big, the tires will scratch on the inside of the fender, especially when your car is either lowered or you take a huge bump. Some people have used the grinding machine to remove the little thickening at the inside of the fender, but I don’t think it is a fairly good option.
If you put rims under your car with an ET value being too small, it is possible the tires will scratch to the inside of your car, especially the wheels you’re steering with.
Some companies specialized in repairing rims are able to change the ET value of your rims. They do so by removing some aluminum from the rims where you mount them on the wheel bearing. Please keep in mind these companies are only able to make the ET value less, as it is quit impossible to put some aluminum on the rims.
ET values can be negative as well.
The right "ET value" or offset for the Toyota Supra MA-70 is ET 37.
Rims are indicated by more values than the ET value only. The other parameters include:
- diameter (this is the normal ‘size’ people refer to when saying 16 or 17 inch)
- width (common values are 7 or 8 inch)
- Bolt Pattern (Number of holes for the bolts; 4 or 5)
- Size of the holes for the bolts
- Pitch Circle Diameter (P.C.D.)
The Toyota Supra MA-70 has 5 bolts for every rim, the Pitch Circle Diameter is 114.3 mm (which equals exactly 4.5 inch). This value is the diameter of the imaginary circle created by the middle of all bolts mounting the rim.
If you put other rims under your car, than the stock rims (16 inch x 7 inch), your ET value can change a little. Although the ET value is not something you need to comply with to the millimeter precisely, it’s more something like an indication. One, two or three millimeters change is not really a big issue; when you take a very fast turn or something, the tires can swing a couple of millimeters around as well. The ET value given for your car is the ideal ET value though.
The following rims has been mounted under the MA-70 Supra without any problem:
- 16" x 7" ET 35
- 16" x 7.5" ET 35
- 17" x 8" ET 40 under my own MA-70
- 18" x 8" ET 40
Please read the page about tires as well, to get a good indication of what tires can be combined with your rims chosen.
Related links:
General Information about rims (and tires)
The Tire and Wheel bible This site is quite an awesome site giving you a lot of information about rims and tires. Give it a look. It’s very informative.
Suppliers of Alloy wheels
TSW Very nice rims, especially the ‘VX1′ model, in Europe also known as "Venom". Currently mounted under my own Toyota Supra. The TSW site has a nice application page, where you can see what sizes fits under your car, as well as how they look under your car. Well, it’s more or less an ‘impression’ it’s not your own car of course, and the bad thing is the Supra MK III is not in the application guide.
http://www.enkei.com/
The enkei site, I’ve never heard of before, but today somebody put it on the UK supra’s list. Quite some nice wheels over here. Check it out.
BBS These wheels are quite common over here in Europe, especially under European cars, like Volkswagen, BMW or Mercedes. Can’t find a web page. If you know the URL please email it to me.