Instead, we wound back the clock and looked for vintage wheels for our vintage car. Modern wheels are mostly low offset and a custom wheel wasn’t in the budget. Fortunately there are literal inches of clearance on the inside of the fender, so even with the huge jump in tire size, we wouldn’t have to worry about clearance except in extreme cases. This gives really good fitment to the fender, but forces a similar fitment in order to keep from running into the fender.

Our wheel requirements are a bit funky: Suzuki gave the Cappuccino a very high +45mm offset wheel. Obviously the original 14×5” wheels wouldn’t work with this new tire, so the search went out for a new wheel.

The whole wheel/tire combination is barely 30 lbs per corner. Remove the center caps and you wouldn’t even know they were Suzuki wheels. The OE fitment is stellar and the factory wheels actually look really good. Honestly if I could get tires in the original size, I would have. We had an option of 50 or 55 aspect ratio and we went with 50 as a 195-50/15 is only 6mm larger in overall diameter than the OE tire, so our speedo would still be fairly accurate. This gives us an entire extra inch of tread width on all four wheels and is a common size for all of the major performance tires on the market. After a month of scrolling through tire catalogs, measuring wheel wells, comparing offsets, etc, we realized we could fit a 195-50/15 under the fender wells of the Cappuccino. Now we can’t just step up to a 165-55/15 since that’s not a common size either. Fortunately, Miatas are popular all over the world, so stepping up to a 15” wheel would give us a ton of performance tire options. When most performance cars today come with 18” or bigger wheels, finding a good performance tire in 14” is impossible. The problem is, the Cappuccino’s OE tire size is practically microscopic: 165-65/14. There’s nothing redeeming about these tires, other than the fact that they survived a 2,300 mile road trip. Not only were they crummy when new, but these tires were also starting to dry rot, despite having good tread. The original tires were Toyo Nanoenergy 3 tires. They’re very squirmy and were easy to lock under braking. They have plenty of tread, but being a commuter tire, they weren’t great for backroad driving. The original tires this car came with were some Toyo commuter tire. We suspect that at one point this car may have worn some aftermarket wheels and tires, but when the car went for sale at Top Rank Importers, the OEM wheels and tires were in place. Are modern trucks too big? Or is the Cappuccino just ridiculously tiny? The answer is both.ĭespite a solid base, there is one noticeable gap in this particular Cappuccino’s performance credentials, and that is the lack of performance tires. Really, that means the only job we have here is to fill in the gaps and make this car a bit better suited to the types of driving we see here in the States, while maintaining the balance of power, grip, and braking that Suzuki blessed this car with from the factory. The previous owner of this car enjoyed spirited driving and it shows in the aftermarket seat and 4-point harness (with harness bar), GAB struts and RS*R springs, and strut braces point to this car having more than a few touge runs back in its home country. Poking around under the skin, we’ve found a number of smart aftermarket upgrades under the car. Our 1992 Suzuki Cappuccino has been an absolute performance bargain. Project Cappuccino: Modern Tires, Ancient Car

Suzuki cappuccino vs miata