Retro Miata Rollers for the Modern Age
It’s no secret that the styling of the original Miata borrowed heavily from golden-era British sports cars (most notably the Lotus Elan). The wheels were no exception and took inspiration from Minilites, a banana-spoked alloy wheel that was often paired with British roadsters. However, the Miata’s Minilite homage had seven spokes rather than eight. The wheels, known as “daisies” in the Miata community, were available on the 1990–93 cars and are an important aspect of the Miata look.
In the modern era, tire availability isn’t great for the original 14×5.5-inch wheels. Online retailer Tire Rack lists nine options for the stock 185/60R14 tires, and only two of those are performance-oriented. Plus, a lot of Miatas have been modified in such a way (big power, big brakes, etc.) that they need larger wheels and tires. There are a staggering amount of larger aftermarket wheel options for the Miata, but none of them look quite like the original equipment.
Enter Retro-Modern Line (RML), who has announced an upsized version of the classic seven-spoke Miata wheel, fittingly called the Daisy. The new wheels are 15×8 inches with a Miata-friendly offset of 30—perfect for fitting much more common 205/50R15 tires and clearing larger brakes. The Daisy stays very faithful to the original’s design, so much so that the company claims that the OEM Miata center caps will fit the new wheels.
There’s no info on how much the larger wheels weigh (very important for all Miatas, but especially for the early, 116-hp cars), but RML does use flow-form casting. The process heats, spins, and puts pressure on the wheel barrel to create the final shape, which allows less material to be used and increases the aluminum’s tensile strength. In other words, the RML Daisy wheels probably won’t be boat anchors.
The wheels were planned for a production run of only 600 and have already sold out. However, it is possible that RML could do another run—as it did with its VW-inspired “Snowflake” wheels—if interest is great enough. Here’s hoping that it does.
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Very interesting. I have a ‘94 with seven spoke wheels, which are on the light side at a little over 8 lbs. going larger and wider your overall wheel and tire package simply gets heavier. These are probably going to weigh 15 lbs. and 8” is very wide for an NA. I’d be surprised if they fit within the wheel wells.
I was thrilled until I saw they are 8” wide. I was thinking of autocrossing again in my stock ’91 NA. Rules allow for going up one inch in diameter, but holding at the width of 5.5″. A reproduction of a 15″x 5.5″ rim would have been great. Offset is also limited in the rules allowing only 7mm from the original of ET 45. Now I’m disappointed…
8 inch wide should fit a 225 width tire? Should be good spec for the original Miata assuming that fits/doesn’t rub, etc.
You might have to roll the fenders for a 225. Flyin’ Miata recommends a 205-width tire for 8-inch wheels if you aren’t looking to do that.
225’s fit if you don’t lower the car a ton, or at least they do on an NB. Little bit of poke but they don’t hit the fenders for me.
It’s not all about the most tire per rim, handling can suffer from that approach. Tire rack has an article on proper tire width vs rim width, the narrower tire handled better by all metrics, and flying Miata recommends 205 for a reason.
Cool. Now just need to convince them to do a 15×8 bmw e30 bottle cap