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I am looking into buying some new wheels for my ep. I am looking to get the rota slipstreams in bronze for my car, but I can't decide the size I want. The 15's weigh 12 lbs, and the 16's weigh 13.5 lbs., which would you get? I am leaning more towards the 16's. Also if you can help me with the tire size for each, and what brands are good, I am looking to get some good tires for road use/race use.

 
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By race tire... what do you mean? I'm assuming not a slick or DOT R-compound...
So you must be meaning something like a Falken Azenis or another one like that... which are available in very limited sizes. 205/50/15 is the only 15" size you can get. 205/55 and 215/45/16 can also be had. I would say go with 16's if you want them for double use. They'll look better on the street than a 15... plus I think the 205/50 is gonna be a little shorter than stock (run the tire calc). Honestly, I'd recommend you use the stock wheels and put tires for racing on them, and then get your Rotas for the street...
The compromise is you destroy your road tires racing, or you wear down your race tires driving on the road.
My Yokohama AVS ES100s do double duty autocross and daily drive... they obviously are wearing quick because of racing... and they're not gonna last nearly as long as they should. Its probably cheaper in the long run to use 2 sets of tires despite it costing more to begin with.

 
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Okay, okay I like your opinions. They got me thinking now. Any other opinions out there worth thinking about?

 
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Well... how much and what kind of racing are you going to do? If it's Drag Racing... then get 15s, some sticky street tires and go with that.
If you're talking about AX or Road Racing, and you're gonna do it more than once in a while... then I'd say use 2 sets if you're already hooked... cuz you'll eat tires. If you're just gonna do it on occasion.. then sticky street tires and 16's. I don't think Falkens or others like those will last more than 10 or 15K and I don't know if I'd want them 1/2 worn down and be on them in the rain.

 
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Hmm. I have been thinking about autox, but I haven't gone and done it YET. I mainly do drag racing on Sundays every once and a while probably more often than others. But I think I will more likely go with the 16's because I think 15's will be to small with another tire and it'll look funny in my opinion. (More wheel gap)

 
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Here are 2 options (This is all dependent on thinking that you start out from the factory with 195/60-15 so if you don't, please ignore the sizes I quote in rest of this )

#1 You could go with the 215/45-16 Falken Azenis that Boilermaker1 spoke of. Compared to your factory size, their sidewall is shorter so your tire-to-fender gap will become slightly larger (about 6/10th of an inch), but it will gear you down and give you some snap off the line too! According to the tire calc, the speedometer will read about 2.6% too fast.

The reason I'm also recommending this is that I remember a Sport Compact Car article where they tested the Azenis against a drag radial and a slick. Even though it lost, it was a lot closer than the testers thought it would be due to its stickiness. Discount Tire says $107 shipped.


#2 You could go with 205/50-16 Yokohama AVS ES100 or another moderately priced tire for your Rotas and then buy two 205/50-15 BFG g-force TA drag radials for either your factory wheels or buy 2 steelies (or more 15 inch Rotas!). The 205/50-16s are almost exactly the same size as your factory tires and the 205/50-15 drag radials would REALLY gear the hell out of your car for the strip. (I don't know if I would go with real slicks because you start tearing up clutches & axles then - I would still rather have the tire as the weakest link in the driveline

 
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Just a note: the Falkens arn't designed as Drag tires. The Side walls on them are too stiff. They are autocross/road course tires. but they are Excepioinally sticky, and I love mine.

Like Boilermaker1 said, if your really going to get in to raceing (Drag or autocross) the way to go is to have 2 sets of tires. One for the street and one for your racing. Thats what I ended up doing. (17's on the street, 15's on the track)

 
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Also something to think about, is if you plan/ think about possibly moving up to larger size brake rotors in the future, you ahve to have a minimum of a 16 for the caliper to clear the wheel.