Please bear with me, being a newbie and all, but here is my question... I have a 96 SE with the stock 5 spoke alloy rims, and would like to have larger (wider and possibly larger diameter) tires than my present 225/ 60/15'*. What is the biggest I can go, without worrying about scraping?
Thanks!

I'll move this to the detailing and appearance section, since this will actually hurt accelleration and braking performance in most cases, and is strictly an appearance change.

Just my $.02, but I think a larger diameter will look goofy.

i would certainly not go any taller, but wider i THINK you can run a 255 tire without problems. either a 50 or 55 series.

and i believe you mean 225/60/16

not 15

I think you have 16s not 15s. I could be wrong, but that doesn't sound right.

Also, why would you want to go any larger? You don't need wider tires, just a set of high quality tires in your stock size. Unless you just feel like spending money for the look of larger and wider tires, theres no need.

225/60/16 is a very common size with a LOAD of tire options, everywhere from the worst to the best, summer sticky tires to winter grabby ones.

So. You still looking for a size increase or just a quality increase?

Yes, you are right, I meant to say 16", not 15". I just thought the car would possibly look better with them being a little larger, or at least wider, but not so wide that it looks like some adolescent'* hotrod.
So, if I want to go wider, yet keep the same diameter, what size would I need?
Thanks for all of your responses.

this is a valuable resource when changing tire size:

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Thanks for the link to the tire chart. According to it, I should be able to go to a 265/50/16 and it will be about the same diameter as my 225/60/16, but my question is will I have any tire rub at that width? Does anyone else here have that tire size?
Thanks

I believe 265 will rub, 255 seems to be the max, some have rubbing with those.