anyone have monza 15" wheels on their Abarth?

**reddoak** · 02-10-2014, 11:30 AM

I drove back into to town right as it started snowing yesterday. So I pulled it into my warehouse at work and put the wheels on, and had a chance to test it out in about a 1/2 of virgin snow.

It's a cliche, but it's night and day. On a snow covered road, even just a 1/2 inch, I would have a problem with acceleration at anything more than maybe 1/4 throttle in 1st and second. With the snow tires, maybe 1/2 throttle in first, 3/4 in second. Turning on the A/S was just an understeer demonstration, the snows bite much better. Similar on braking, all kidding aside, it probably stopped the car in half the distance that I could have with the A/S.

I turned the TC off completely (long press) and had no problem getting the car to maneuver, accelerate, and brake. Very predictable, excellent grip, and the car was easy to control. The stock A/S were fine for cold weather, even on wet roads, but were pretty poor for any amount of snow and useless on ice. I took about an hour ride around, roads were more wet than snowy.

The tire is a little taller than stock, I could tell when I swapped the first wheel and had to crank the jack a few revolutions to install the 15". Like I said (and Meatball warned me) the tire does rub the liner at full lock. This is more of a squeek than a full on grind, if you know the difference. I'm not concerned about rubbing through the liner.

**theporschephile** · 02-10-2014, 12:24 PM

Good to know, I was looking to get these wheels for next year, but madness's website says they won't fit without spacers. Gonna try to do these wheels plus 195/55r16 hakkapeliittas

**Haring** · 02-10-2014, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by squeeze

I love the chunk of 15's...anyone done this?
I have a grigio and I'm thinking about these ones:

Google "Abarth Monza Wheel" and then hit the "Images" tab. There's a member of the red forum with a grigio. I used his car to photoshop the monzas on my old rame sport. Almost bought a set. Think he was even trying to sell the set and hasn't had any bites.

Attachment 9768
Edit...deleted a bunch of my images in garage so I could upload photos again. Here's what it looked like.

**Andree** · 02-10-2014, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by reddoak

I drove back into to town right as it started snowing yesterday. So I pulled it into my warehouse at work and put the wheels on, and had a chance to test it out in about a 1/2 of virgin snow.

It's a cliche, but it's night and day. On a snow covered road, even just a 1/2 inch, I would have a problem with acceleration at anything more than maybe 1/4 throttle in 1st and second. With the snow tires, maybe 1/2 throttle in first, 3/4 in second. Turning on the A/S was just an understeer demonstration, the snows bite much better. Similar on braking, all kidding aside, it probably stopped the car in half the distance that I could have with the A/S.

I turned the TC off completely (long press) and had no problem getting the car to maneuver, accelerate, and brake. Very predictable, excellent grip, and the car was easy to control. The stock A/S were fine for cold weather, even on wet roads, but were pretty poor for any amount of snow and useless on ice. I took about an hour ride around, roads were more wet than snowy.

The tire is a little taller than stock, I could tell when I swapped the first wheel and had to crank the jack a few revolutions to install the 15". Like I said (and Meatball warned me) the tire does rub the liner at full lock. This is more of a squeek than a full on grind, if you know the difference. I'm not concerned about rubbing through the liner.

I posted some links in another thread about winter tires and it's good to know the info is exactly what you found out on your own!

Links/posts here:

http://www.fiat500usaforum.com/showt...l=1#post649554

and here:

http://www.fiat500usaforum.com/showt...l=1#post651352

You can adjust your turning habits to accommodate the rub. It's a lot harder to try to accommodate WINTER snow and ice with all-season tires. The last post link above has two great links in it, showing the effectiveness of winter tires.

From one: "Cornering to drive around obstacles is important for avoiding winter accidents. Racing around a 280-foot-wide circle shows that all-wheel drive helps, but not as much as the winter tires. Our AWD tester with all-seasons was bested by the FWD car with winter tires."

**reddoak** · 02-10-2014, 09:34 PM

Yes, the rubbing is very minor. It's just not an issue.

Except when it is. So today I brought my car to the closest service department for the car's 1st oil change. I still have my FL plates, and need to get the state safety inspection done to get my MD plates, so I had them do that, too. Which the car failed. Because the tires rub. Sigh. Make the car safer to drive, fail safety inspection, irony!

So, I need to put all 4 stockers back on (I asked about just the front, no) and drive it up there to get the pass. Then the snows go right back on. So it's a tire shuffling exercise.

**Andree** · 02-11-2014, 05:18 AM

Originally Posted by reddoak

Yes, the rubbing is very minor. It's just not an issue.

Except when it is. So today I brought my car to the closest service department for the car's 1st oil change. I still have my FL plates, and need to get the state safety inspection done to get my MD plates, so I had them do that, too. Which the car failed. Because the tires rub. Sigh. Make the car safer to drive, fail safety inspection, irony!

So, I need to put all 4 stockers back on (I asked about just the front, no) and drive it up there to get the pass. Then the snows go right back on. So it's a tire shuffling exercise.

Are there winter tires that will fit on the wheels that won't rub? Or is the rubbing going to be present no matter what tires are put on the wheels?

In other words, is it the tires, or is it the wheels? Or is the combination what causes the rubbing?

You won't need new tires for awhile, but you'll want to know for when you do.

Would the tire/wheel combo work on other 500s? I think the Abarth has a larger turning radius, so maybe the wheel/tire combo would work better on Pop/Lounge/Sport?

And, what combo would work PERFECTLY on the Abarth?

I don't know anything about wheel and tire combos. But if we can find out what works perfectly on the various models, make a thread on it that will help out everyone. Make the thread as simple as possible for people like me, who doesn't know about wheels and tires.

Simple like a shopping list. This wheel model, that tire size, type, etc.

**reddoak** · 02-11-2014, 01:20 PM

It's the tire height, in this case. a 195/50/r15 would likely have just enough clearance not to rub. But the issue is finding a tire in that size! For the non-Abarth (and possibly non-turbo) the brakes are smaller, so you can fit a 14 inch wheel, and give yourself a few more options.

Basically, the 195/55/r15 are about 23.5 inches in diameter. You just need to go smaller than that not to rub. So a smaller size like the Blizzak WS60 in 175/55/r15 which is an inch smaller should have no problem fitting. But perfectly? Well... It would fit fine. But if you tried tearing around corners on a narrower tire I bet you would notice the difference in grip!

Probably the best way to make sure you have a set that fits perfect would be to keep the OEM size. For the 16s, that would be 195/45/r16. Tire Rack lists 2 in that size: Winter Snowcontrol Serie II and PirelliWinter Snowcontrol Serie 3. There are probably others out there. Get a set of stock 16" rims, mount those tires, and have a nice winter.

**jguerdat** · 02-12-2014, 09:14 AM

Don't forget that the OEM 17 inch size is 23.7" for diameter. Using anything shorter isn't going to rub (width is a different issue) and some here are using tires that are taller than the 17s. Rubbing due to height for the most part isn't the issue unless you get

.

**samwichse** · 01-19-2021, 06:02 PM

I've been thinking about some 185/55/r15's on those Monzas... definitely no rubbing issues that way.

More rubber so I don't bend another rim, and 14.4lbs vs 18.3 for my stock 16" wheels. Plus, even snow tires are around 17 lbs vs 19 lbs for the stock Pirellis. Although if you want to go nuts, you can get all season tires that are only 14 lbs. That's a reduction of almost 9 lbs/corner unsprung, rotating weight.