Maximum size rims in Victoria according to vicroads VSI8

so your saying the widest rear tyre you can have is smaller than factory?

The other option (on the rear) is to drop down to expensive 35's and get some really wide rubber, but i think that would be hard to come by and cost HEAAAAAPPPPSSS...
245 35 17 would be perfect or undersized 235 35 17

FWIW I was running 245 35 17x8 +35 on my SW and had no fouling issues. (looked horn too).
 

 

$800 for the set, Maxxis, no idea what they were though. They were ok as a daily but they felt spongy in the hills and took a fair bit to warm them up. 
 
I've got Maxxis Bravo AT on my pathfinder and they're brilliant. Plenty of road grip, decent offroad performance, not bad in sand (haven't tested them in mud yet) and had them on for 45,000km and only half way worn. If I took it easy on them I'd be surprised if I got less than 100,000km and they were a $850 a set. In my limited experience they were as good as the Cooper AT's but they only last 60,000 if you're lucky.
 
As for road tyres I've had the complete evolution of Hankook Ventus Sports through to the current model and while they were crap back in the early 2000s they're brilliant now. Much more grip than Bridgestone Potenza and incredible wear! I replaced Potenza's on my V35 with Ventus (245 45 18, standard Holden SS size and the Potenza's were factory issue, so price went from $250 to $600/tyre). I wasn't sure how the Ventus would go but at $260/tyre it was the cheapest silica compound. I went from accidentally lighting up the wheels at every set of lights to needing a kick in the guts just to chirp them, that was 35,000km ago and I still have a good 4mm above the wear markers on the rear and 6+ on the front. They're now about $290-300 depending on size but I don't think anyone can argue with the wear to grip ratio, you wont get a cheaper good quality tyre.

Hmmm I'm a little confused as to which tires you are recommending so highly, you listed a few here :/

Bloody hell its hard to find a legal tire for MR2's!!!
So i have 17" 7" rims on the rear and i need 2 new tires. The easiest size for these rims to fine are 215/40's
The problem is, is that none of the 215/40's i can find match up to the 91v weight requirement indicated on the tire placard...
 
Now I'm gong to have to go the expensive route and go 235/40's, but the issue with this is that (I'm not 100% sure but) you can't have a 235 on a 7" wide rim...
 
so...
 
now i have to buy 2 rims for the rear that are 8" wide... let this be a warning to all who buy a second hand car with 17's on them. The guy i bought it off even worked in a tyre shop, but i guess he just didn't care...

Yeah i know its possible, I just need these tires for a roadworthy...
 
I'm looking at some Dunlop SP9000 at ozzietires fro $140 each, but i can't find the weight rating on them. The bloody idiots over there can't take 2 seconds to go look at the tire and tell me what it is, they keep promising that they'll call me back when they have it. They even called me once to call them because i presumed that they had the answer, but then they told me they'd have to call me back because they didn't have it... WTF!?!?