It's a style thing, popular amongst people that have **** for brains. Not good for handling, not safe, not something anybody with a functional brain would try but that doesn't stop these morons.

More stupid ****:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1393344499.jpg

I visited the site in kach22i's post and saw this image.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1393345345.jpg

My guess would be a heck of an explosion a few decades ago.

Best
Les

Not a bad guess, but post explosion pictures look very different.

Long term wind has more of a bending affect.

24 Hours of Climate Reality: Gore-a-thon – Hour 17 | Watts Up With That?
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpre...a4wbmxcta1.jpg

Or just growing around another tree.

Worldrecordtour, Oceania, Pacific, Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, Milne Bay, Highlands, Morobe, Lae, Picture, Story, Diary, Guinness Book of World Records, Toyota, LandCruiser, Emil Schmid, Liliana Schmid
http://www.weltrekordreise.ch/bilder...8-P1030312.jpg

Any number of crazy effects are possible.

Closest so far:
A Palm Tree Life: A Bent Over Week......
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Smzi_s8I4K...lm+tree+3.jpeg

funny, back in the day my father would park his '64 Chevy station wagon's bumper up against a palm tree in our front yard. We after week he would lean the car harder against it til eventually the palm tree grew in an arch like the above pictures. Pretty cool

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1393350053.jpg

Crooked Bush
Close to home.
http://www.tourismsaskatchewan.com/i...e/P9160157.jpg

Its not so much as a style thing, its more stupidity. But that stupidity has turned into a styling effect. I have been to a few local cruise ins and asked some of my son's friends. They have no idea what size wheels/offsets work on their cars so they buy wheels and this is the only way to make them fit under the fenders. That and crazy negative camber.

Yes, with my new small sportscar there are a few people who do this with their cars. When I bought new wheels and tires I made up a spreadsheet of sizes and weights. From the factory the first gen. Miatas came with 6"X14", I wanted to go to 7.5"x16" but was told the weight would have a negative effect on the handleing so I 'upgraded' to 6.5"x15". I was also told that at 8" there would be rubbing and the fenders would need to be rolled... now I hear of guys running 9" anf 10" wide wheels :eek:

Random:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1393362294.jpg

The large rim bead has been around for a long time and I think it was originally to help protect the side of the tire? Here are a couple of pictures of Porsches from 1997 that show the factory used rims like this......not so dumb after all?
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1393362893.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1393362936.jpg

On my old '97, I went from the stock 14x6 to 15x6.5. When we bought the '99 that my wife drove it had 15x7. My MSM came stock with 17x7, and I promptly replaced those with 15x8, but I think the NB could more easily run the wider wheels than the NA.

The stupid small tires on huge wheels are part of the "stance" craze, and I think came about so they could put wide wheels under an over-lowered car without rubbing.

http://www.canibeat.com/wp-content/u...uertorico4.jpg

Were they limited to a maximum size of tire?

Actually, yes it is. It's not that the bead is over sized, it's that the tires are undersized for the wheels, and it's taken to the extreme.

http://gearheads.org/wp-content/uplo.../stretch-3.jpg

http://www.3geez.com/forum/attachmen...ankang_595.jpg

http://jupiter.plymouth.edu/~thrydberg/dsc_0051-1.jpg

From Stanced.

There is sometimes a rubber strip on the outside wall of the tire that is intended to protect the rim from rubbing. Not really effective, but that's the popular theory. Race tires are often of a slightly different construction than strret tires and can use wider rims than street tires. In general, a street tire can use a maximum wheel width that's close to the tread width (not the section width). This is usually true within a half inch, or so. Those wheels look to be at least two inches too wide for the tires.

More stupidty, from the "stance" nation:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1393366767.jpg

Yes, I believe the later models can handle wider rims (however I am still a noob in the Miata world so don't take my word for anything).

I'm kinda kicking myself for not going with the 15x7.5's I was looking at, however the tire I have is a 205 and is has a straight sidewall, I'm guessing I could go to a 215 (or maybe a 225?) with no problem.


Random:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1393367033.jpg

I guess every generation has a choice of how they like their ride to look. Just as a younger generation thinks the previous generation is Lame. I grew up a little late for the 70's tires hanging out from under the lips with the Big and Little look, but to old for the pro street look.



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1393368556.jpg