19's vs 20's

Hey Gang,

Have a dilemma here. I had a set of BBS SX wheels on my MMG 2021 GTR. They were originally the brilliant silver color, but I had a friend of mine powder coat them in pearl charcoal metallic and then machine cut them. My wife who drives a 2018 Tuscon limited ultimate and supposedly is not into cars and wheels absolutely loved the look of them and thought they would look great on her car. We just celebrated our 10 years of being together, so as part of showing my appreciation, I made the sacrifice and had my wheels moved over to her car. Luckily the Tuscon and CX5 share the same bolt pattern and hub size.

So here we are about a month later and I am absolutely missing having the look of the wider wheel with a lower offset. With that said, I am searching for new wheels, I might do the BBS again in the platinum silver as I love the look, but I could also go another route. My question though, is I have a perfectly good set of Continental DWS 06's with about 5K miles on them in 245/50/19 from the BBS setup. Do you think moving from a 19" to a 20" wheel makes a large enough visual difference to warrant the expense of a new set of tires? My goal is strictly for visual appearance as opposed to performance, and in the case of let's say the BBS, going from a 19 to a 20 with new ties, is about a $1500 difference. In other 20" wheels and tires set up, not as much, but just wanted to get people's thoughts who maybe have gone from 19 - 20, and do you think it's worth doing from a cost perspective?

Thank you in advance.
 

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I would pay attention to wheel weight. Each inch in diameter tends to add weight, as does width.
Take a look at the specs for the BBS SX
19" x 8.5"= 13.6 - 14.1 kg
20" x 9.0" = 16.3 - 16.9 kg

I have not found a definitive weight for the stock 19" x 7" Mazda wheels [UPDATE - I found a reference that says the Mazda 19x7 wheel weighs 32 lbs or 14.6 kg, so the BBS would offer a minor savings in 19 inch even though they are 1.5 inches wider, and the 20's would offer a small weight penalty, rotational inertia not counted] , but in my experiences, overall weight makes a huge difference in handling. The BBS SX are manufactured using low pressure casting only. Other BBS wheels that use flow forming in addition to the low pressure casting are lighter by up to 5 lbs, or about 20%, significant in my book. Of course, cost is a factor, whenever you get into more complex manufacturing...and of course you pay the BBS premium!
 
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Finally made a decision and pulled the trigger on 20" Braelin BR10's in Silver with 255 / 45 General G-GMAX AS-05. Wheels and tires should be about 56 lbs per corner. Will post pics when they get here from Canada and get installed. Thank you everyone for your advice.
 
Sound like a good setup. Can you post pics of your new wheels?

Also, do you have pics of your old bbs in charcoal metallic? Thinking of doing the same with my bbs, and powder coat with charcoal, dark gray or maybe a dark bronze.
 
Sound like a good setup. Can you post pics of your new wheels?

Also, do you have pics of your old bbs in charcoal metallic? Thinking of doing the same with my bbs, and powder coat with charcoal, dark gray or maybe a dark bronze.
I do indeed. They started their life in the Brilliant Silver color. They were then powder coated using Prismatic Pearl Black, with extra metallic flake added. They used Alien Silver underneath as well to make it look more charcoal rather than rich black, and then of course adding more flake to it also helped. The wheels were then machine cut, and then finally clearcoated using Prismatic's Soft Clear.
 

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I do indeed. They started their life in the Brilliant Silver color. They were then powder coated using Prismatic Pearl Black, with extra metallic flake added. They used Alien Silver underneath as well to make it look more charcoal rather than rich black, and then of course adding more flake to it also helped. The wheels were then machine cut, and then finally clearcoated using Prismatic's Soft Clear.
Nice. That looks great on the machine gray which I also have.
 
Nice. That looks great on the machine gray which I also have.
I think the key to the Machine Gray is going a shade or two darker, or much lighter. When we were looking at many of Prismatic's samples like Evo Gray, Kingston Gray etc they almost clashed. You could probably get away with not using the alien silver underneath, but my friend who did the work was curious how it would come out, and my wheels were the test dummy. They would still be on my car if my wife hadn't become so obsessed with them. She drives a 2018 Tuscon Limited Ultimate in Metallic Gray and they just happen to share the same bolt pattern and same hub size. If I had to do that over again, I may have gone with gloss over the soft clear, but the soft clear does have a unique look to it. They look really great on her car and she is happy with the look.
 
I'd like to install the largest wheels and tires possible on my 2019 CX-5 without having to mess with the car's suspension and without scraping the wheels. I've been thinking about placing 20" rims with 255/50r20 tires. I'm not very concerned with performance but I am concerned about safety. I'm more concerned about the look of it (yes, shame on me). Can someone shed some light on this on whether this is possible and even if I could go even bigger?
 
I'd like to install the largest wheels and tires possible on my 2019 CX-5 without having to mess with the car's suspension and without scraping the wheels. I've been thinking about placing 20" rims with 255/50r20 tires. I'm not very concerned with performance but I am concerned about safety. I'm more concerned about the look of it (yes, shame on me). Can someone shed some light on this on whether this is possible and even if I could go even bigger?
When up or down sizing tires safely you want to stay with +/- 3% of the original overall diameter of the OEM tires. Assuming you have the 225/55r19 currently, a switch to 255/50r20 would be a +4.5% difference. Why not go with a 255/45r20 instead? It's only a +1% difference.

When I was researching upsizing my wheels I used this site to compare sizes. Tire Size Calculator

Hope this helps.
 
When up or down sizing tires safely you want to stay with +/- 3% of the original overall diameter of the OEM tires. Assuming you have the 225/55r19 currently, a switch to 255/50r20 would be a +4.5% difference. Why not go with a 255/45r20 instead? It's only a +1% difference.

When I was researching upsizing my wheels I used this site to compare sizes. Tire Size Calculator

Hope this helps.
Can the speedometer be adjusted to the new wheels?
 
Can the speedometer be adjusted to the new wheels?
Why do this for a minuscule difference? Most likely the speedo will be slightly under or slightly over. If slightly over, most peace officers aren't gonna come after you because you were doing 66 in a 65 mph zone. They want the 85 mph speeders.
 
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