By Colin Wood
If it's a 60's tin top Minilites or Superlites are my favorite.Have both types on my cars.
What is the perfect set of wheels for that old-school roadster, be it an MGB, Triumph TR3, Austin-Healey 3000 or any other flavor of classic British sports car?
Do you go traditional with wire wheels? Or do you prefer the look of a more lightweight magnesium setup? Or perhaps you prefer the resto-mod route and would choose a set of contemporary wheels.
Let us know your pick in the comments.
If it's a 60's tin top Minilites or Superlites are my favorite.Have both types on my cars.
Well I didn't really have a choice on a couple of my cars - they came with Dunlop peg drive wheels - knock off steel wheels. There is no alternative for those that fit the hubs.
On most of my other cars I prefer a combination of originality with something that improves strength and reliability. Nothing I own runs on original 48 spoke wires, but I have no issue with 72 spoke, especially with stainless steel spokes.
For racing, strength and reliability trump originality (this car had the same knock off Dunlops as the top car and was in fact converted back to those when I quit regular racing and started running in vintage events only - in this pic are American Racing magnesium wheels).
In reply to wspohn :
Love those Dunlop wheels.
Depends on the car. I prefer center lock or splined hubs rather than bolt-ons, though I have a steel-wheel MGB with bolt-on Panasport alloys. On my Healey BJ8 I have wider-than stock wires, but I'd also like splined Minilite/Panasport alloys. If my Healey was a BN1-BN2, I'd also like Dunlop repro alloys. My wires are tubeless chrome w/stainless spokes. FWIW I like the British style of painting wires a dark color when it works with the car color. The advantages of alloys for me are their strength and that they run more reliably as tubeless wheels than a sealed wire rim.
I just went through this process on a TR4A that I recently bought. After changing my mind a few times, I ended up with both bolt on Minilite style and knock off wires. I use the alloys in winter when the roads are dirty and the wires in summer.
In reply to DocDup1 :
Nicely done.
This is so subjective. It really depends on what you like. I have wires on an early TR-6. Panasports on my race TR3. And mini-lite replicas on my Tiger and Bugeye. I also liked the Comics, but the lug nuts can get fussy.
And on the Lotus Elan, I went stock, since most of them have mags.
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