First off, a HUGE thank you is in order to Jerry at NM Engineering for going above and beyond in assisting in this project. When I first went looking for aftermarket wheels for the F56 JCW Brake Kit, I didn’t realize how much of a challenge it would be to find ANYTHING available in the after-market. Every option that I found required spacers to push the wheel out enough to clear the massive Brembo calipers of the JCW Brake Kit. As I described in part 1 of this project, Jerry agreed to get his hands on a JCW Brake Kit himself and install it on the NM Engineering test F56 to see what could be done to bring to market a wheel that would clear the brakes without the need for spacers. If you recall from part 1 of this project, Jerry was going to enlarge the center bore and reseat the lug holes of the NM Engineering 8″ wide VW spec wheels so that they are perfectly matched to MINI spec (66.5mm and canical seat lugs). After various test fittings, here are the options that are available for customization to clear the JCW brakes:
RSe05 – (a 17″ version of the RSe52)
RSe07
Unfortunately, you might notice that the RSe10’s are not on this list. These wheels will not clear the brakes due to the taper on the back of the wheel being too shallow.
Jerry has tested the 18″ wheels with 215/40/18 tires and he says he loves how the car looks and rides with that setup. Only under very hard cornering do the tires barely “kiss” the inside shock. According to Jerry, it is not even enough to take any paint off the shock – just a tiny “kiss” (and again, under very hard cornering). It should also be mentioned that if you wanted to run coilovers with this setup, Jerry has also tested fitment with the Bilstein PSS10’s and states that a 3mm spacer would be required to clear the coilovers. If you are interested in having NM Engineering create a custom set of wheels for your F56 JCW, they will only charge $15 per wheel for the CNC customizations. You can reach Jerry at (800) 423-3623. If you get a set, make sure to let us know how they come out!