Staggered tires on square wheel help

Quick help needed

Need to buy tires ASAP, just recieved my SSR A2 integral wheels, 17x7...square set. I know I know, I would prefer a staggered set and Im still hunting for some wider rears for my SW20 MR2, but this was a great deal and I couldnt pass them up.

But Im needing tires and needing advice on what to get for said tires

205/40 or 45 fronts with 225/40 or 45 rear?

Square tires on square wheels.  Staggering tires on square wheels is just dumb IMO. 

Size the tire to the wheel. Since you have same sized wheels, use same sized tires. 

Yeah I wouldn't stress about having staggered sizes just because the factory shipped them that way.  I know it's less common with SW20 owners, but a lot of people move to a square setup for the track to reduce understeer and rotate tires.  Running a square setup also going to open up your tire choices quite a bit.  That said, as long as your reasonably close to the factory tire diameters front and rear you should be ok.  You can see the real-deal diameters for specific tire models on most retailer sites, but you can get a pretty good idea with https://www.willtheyfit.com/.  That site also calculates offset so you can get an idea of fender and suspension clearance.

Good luck and post up some pics after you've got it all setup!

edit - here's another idea: if you want it to be more visually emphasized in the rear just run small spacers back there.  That'll allow you to run a square tire setup and retain the MR2's normal stance.

If this is only temporary or you don't mind (or prefer) looks, then as long as the wheel size is within the correct width range for the tires, there is no actual harm in putting staggered tires on square wheels... But little benefit as well.

If this might be longer term or if there is a chance you'd want to run square in the long run (as Matt B notes) anyway, then there is no harm keeping it all square either.

The other item of note is if the car has ABS, deviating from the stock F vs R diameter ratio will affect how the ABS responds as you approach ABS activation. This is generally considered more detrimental than beneficial to braking performance.

I run staggered tire sizes on square wheels on my duster. Purely cosmetic for filling wheelwells. Never had a problem, and since it gets driven so little the tires age out before the lack of rotation affects them. 

Put me in the dumb camp because I'm staggering the A7s on MonZora's 4x C5 fronts

It can help with looks. I ran staggered sets on square rims on my firebirds back in the day. It can also help with lateral grip if you have a car that is to loose and other tuning has not helped. 

bad is you loose the ability to rotate tires and you will need more than one spare for track use in case you got a flat. I also have found it can chang how a car acts at threshold braking. This can be good or bad depending on what you are starting with. 

Matt B (fs) said:

Yeah I wouldn't stress about having staggered sizes just because the factory shipped them that way.  I know it's less common with SW20 owners, but a lot of people move to a square setup for the track to reduce understeer and rotate tires.  Running a square setup also going to open up your tire choices quite a bit.  That said, as long as your reasonably close to the factory tire diameters front and rear you should be ok.  You can see the real-deal diameters for specific tire models on most retailer sites, but you can get a pretty good idea with https://www.willtheyfit.com/.  That site also calculates offset so you can get an idea of fender and suspension clearance.

Good luck and post up some pics after you've got it all setup!

edit - here's another idea: if you want it to be more visually emphasized in the rear just run small spacers back there.  That'll allow you to run a square tire setup and retain the MR2's normal stance.

That website super helpful, I was struggling with which direction offset would change with wheel widths, but the visual nailed it for me

My wife wanted me to put 18" Cayenne wheels (square) on her Boxster (normally staggered). I used https://tiresize.com/ to figure staggered tires to match sizes within a mm or two. It rides a lot better than it did on the 20"s it came with and no ABS or other issues. Totally a cosmetic choice (hers) though.

In reply to thashane :

You might also want to check out www.fitmentindustries.com.  They essentially crowd source how different wheel setups work on a bunch of mostly modified cars.  There's even a place to denote what kind of suspension and whether or not it rubs.  Very helpful if you're trying to go outside the tirerack approved specs.