MG Sports Cars

Trying to work out wheel/tire combos for my GT. Going with sebring flares - 99% street duty. I'm thinking about 16" wheels - 10" in rear - 8" in fronts, but open to suggestions. I don't want it to look like a couple of rubber bands wrapped around monster rims. Could also use help in working out offsets. Planning a ford 8.8 in the rear (with pinion centered) - stock front suspension to start with - what hub mods for ford pattern? Headers through the fenders. Any recommendations, pitfalls, interference issues? I'm making my own flares, so I do have some latitude, but trying to work out starting points. Any advice appreciated. In the meantime, working through some bodywork - floors, firewall mods, motor mounts...

Tom, I seem to go about this differently from most. I usually find the wheel I like first as that is so much a part of the style and look of the car then work backwards to get the offsets right. I'm not a fan of using big spacers or adaptors, but they can be fine if well made from billet material and good high stregth lugs studs fitted. Get the front set up first, you have much less you can do there as far as width goes without screwing up the handling, then have the rear axle matched to that dimension and wheel. As far as going to Ford pattern on the front, the best way in my opinion is to use new hubs such as the ones sold by Bill Guzman. Not cheap, but well designed and strong enough to be safe. IIRC Bill makes both the newer style hubs for the Wilwood brakes as well as an older design which will work with stock MGB brakes, your choice.
Using 16s will give you a much better selection of tires, both now and in the future. Good performance 15s are getting harder to find. I like the looks of the American Racing "Salt Flat Special" with a lot of the old Halibrand design influence. Think they would blend well with the design of the MGB and come in the sizes you are looking for and I haven't seen them on any other Bs that I can think of. [www.americanracing.com]
As far as chosing offsets, check the older Roadmaster threads, there was some good discussion on that subject there a couple of months ago.
I also like the American "Roadmaster" but they only come in 15"





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2008 10:27AM by V6 Midget.

Thanks Bill

I really like the look of the AR 427s - although I think Rob F. is planning on using them - it's a small community, so I'm still searching. In part, I want to get the wheel/tire combo worked out as this sets hub height. I'm starting with a modified stock crossmember, but for the future, I want to take a whack at fabricating my own front end - I want to convert hubs in the meantime - just not the spendy version. From your hub height you can start working out suspension mounting points and design the crossmember to match the points.

I used an 8.8 axle, but if I had it to do over I'd use an 8" Ford axle to save weight (to improve ride and handling).

Since wheels and tires act as flywheels (and since they're "unsprung weight") lighter is always better and IMHO, generally, smaller-diameter is better too. The 15x8 genuine Minilites (with sticky 225/50-VR15 Toyo Proxes T1-R tires) that Darren Jones used seem to suit the Sebring flares very well. You can see several pics of them here: [www.britishv8.org]

Converting to a five-lug bolt pattern could possibly make sense if it opens up cheaper brake or wheel options... but I don't believe for a second that you'd ever find a four-lug hub or wheel inadequate from a strength or durability point of view.

I interviewed the owner/builder/driver of the fastest road-racing MGB-GT in the Americas earlier this month, and took over 100 photos of his car. (Lots of clever construction details!) You might be interested to see what he's using under his Sebring flares. I'll post one photo now, and keep the rest secret in advance of the article:

Genuine Made-in-England Minilites (4-lug) on an 8" Ford axle...

OK Curtis, I'll bite - when do we get to see the rest of ole #2? No fair teasing.

I like Darren's car - one of my favorites. I'll take a pass on the minilites though. They look great, but I can't bring myself to do it. I was thinking 5 bolt more along the lines of what front-steer suspension uprights I'm familiar with and the geometry that goes with them - that and ditching the kingpins more than a strength issue. Probably more of a spindle/hub issue that I'm thinking of than a bolt pattern issue.

I had seen where the 8.8 weighs in at 170 lbs and the mg rear at 179, but I'm not sure I really trust those numbers.

Quote:

when do we get to see the rest of ol' #02?

I'm trying to figure that out myself. It's going to be an AWESOME article - totally superior in level of detail compared to anything you'd find in a printed book or magazine. How many books show 100 big, high-quality, well-captioned, detailed photos of an MGB-GT-V8 race car? You wouldn't get that much good stuff from lifetime subscriptions to "Classic Motorsports" and "Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car" magazines combined. (They're not really about cars anyway... they're about the "car enthusiast lifestyle", right?) Ad revenue won't cover my expenses producing it though. Maybe it'd be a good article to kick-off some sort of new reader pay-per-article system? What is that sort of information, inspiration and entertainment worth?

Tom, I am running 15 X 7 Konig Rewinds on my Sebring gt.......they are zero offset...the tires are 255 X 60 in the front and
245 X 60 in the rear...now, these are rediculously tall tires for anykind of handling, but I put them on the car back in the day when I was running a 90* V6 with a 3 speed auto tranny with no overdrive and the stock 3.9 differential...I was looking for anyway I could to lower my highway rpm's and this was part of my solution...just for the record, the one thing these tires do is fill up the wheel wells as evidenced by the fact that I can not get my index finger between the rear wheel flare and the tires.
Time moves on, I now have 3.9 V8, .73 overdrive, and a 3.07 differential....in the next few months I will be putting on 16" wheels with lower aspect ratio tires....my brother is in the tire busines so I will be trying many different tire wheel/combinations to achieve these goals...lower aspect ratio.....still fill up the gaping cavity as best I can..but yet I do not want the car to look like my crossfire....as you say like a wheel with a rubber band on the perimeter...I'll be watching this thread for ideas as well and later report back my findings....




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2008 09:58PM by RMO 699F.

Tom, there are tons of "what ifs" in this... Here's some info that may help though...

I am using American Racing 427P's. No hard feelings if you used the same.

Fronts are 15x7 with 3.5" backspacing.
Tires are 205/55/15
My front end is 2" wider than stock (53" vs stock 51").
With no spacers & Omni flares, they do a pretty good job of filling the space. I may end up with 1/4" or less spacers, but may not need them at all; will know better when I get the flares on. I think 215/50/15 would have fit better, but (a) they were way more expensive & (b) there were way fewer choices that had similar tread patterns let alone matching.
Even with the wider front end, my tires will hit the headers as I approach full lock. Wider tires would hit a little sooner but 1-2" wider should still be ok (although would likely take a little more steering effort when parking or similar)

Rears are 15x8 with 4.5" backspacing.
Tires are 225/50/15
Rear end is 54" wide (currently)
With Omni flares, the tires extend about 1/2" to 3/4" beyond the flares -- Net is the combination is too wide.
Todd is re-making the uprights for me so which should save about 1-2" per side. If it saves 1" I'll be on the money with this set up. If it saves 2" I'll probably be able to fit 245/50/15's in the rear later.

Per above, 15" tires are hard to find -- as are 15" wheels with good offsets. One wheel I really like the look of but couldn't make work on my car (at the time) was the SportMax 002 (they're now called XXR 002's [www.xxrwheels.com]). They look great, are way lower priced, & have 0 offset (or close to it) in both 15" & 16". I probably would have gone with those but they didn't have 16" back when I was buying my wheels. Check out the XXR 513's & 501's too. They have 15 & 16x8's w/zero offset as well. You'd have to call to be sure, but if memory serves, their 4-lug wheels are dual drilled for 4x100 & 4x4.5 and their 5-lug versions are dual drilled for 5x100 & 5x4.5. Any of those are plenty popular enough to find a spindle that'd work if build your own front suspension later.

Speaking of front suspensions... never mind, I don't want to steal your thread... i'll post my suspension question in the handling board.

Rob, Those xxrs look great - hints of minilites with the 8 spokes. The variables are a bit confounding for where I'm at right now - but I do know I want to set my hub centers pretty soon - perhaps less of an issue with the stock x member, but if I keep going...what do they call that - mission creep I think? If I slow the timeline from this fall to next spring a dry sump and extrudabody injection (think weber ida/hillborn look www.extrudabody.biz) enter the picture. On the other hand - a driveable car this fall...

Mike - keep us posted - seems like you have access to experiment a bit more than most of us. I'm especially interested in what you find in 16s. Seems like a good balance in looks and at least according to GRM, 16s offer the best performance over 15s and 17s.

Curtis, I'm pretty sure people would find value with in-depth articles - how it was done on steroids FWIW I would pay.

Going engine shopping tomorrow at the good ole pick n pull - saw a lincoln lsc and a t-bird supercoupe in there the other day (5.0 roller motors). Shooting for new floors and firewall mods by the end of the week.

Check out Evan Amaya's car with the American Racing Silverstone wheels, they're too big (17") for some tastes but I really like them. I had a t-bird supercoupe, I thought they only came with supercharged 3.8 v6's? I loved that car, but it was literally falling apart around me and I had no money to keep up with the repairs. It was a strong v6 engine!

Tom, I've been working on my car for 2 1/2 years & it's getting close... but, if I were to start over, I'd have gotten the running gear going, then swapped out the rear end, then done the front if/as needed/wanted, then done the body mods, dash mod, bumpers, etc., then painted it. It would have taken longer overall, but i'd have been driving it for the last 2 years! Just a thought.

I keep coming back to get it going on the cheap and upgrading - then I think about the "while I'm doing this, might as well do that". Ran out of time today, but in the process of snagging a 5.0 HO from a lincoln lsc - should have it tomorrow.

Tom,

I'm replacing the front end of my MGA with a custom built Mustang II front end. I'm not going to be using the wheel adapters which are for five lugs. The adapters are well built and safe. Contact me if you want to try them out. You can pay for the shipping to you and the return shipping if they are not to your liking. If you want them I'll take $60 for the pair.

Privat "Zwanzig" 18X8, 5 lug x 100mm 40HGR front wheels with 215/35R 18 tires is the current configuration. This is the clearest photo of the adapter and wheel on the car.

Jeb

Zippy looking A Jeb,

I'll send you an e-mail

15x8 Minilites with Toyo 205/60-15's on my conversion. 550lb. springs up front, "reverse-loop" leafs on the back. Certainly not as low as the race GT but don't want to feel every bump in the road.

Simon, who manufactures those Minilites ?

I can answer that... Simon's Minilites are the genuine article. They were really made-in-England by Minilite. (You can get genuine Minilites from one of our other sponsors, John at "Targett Motorsports".)

Here's a link to John's website: [www.minilitewheels.us]

Curtis is correct. Straight from Minilite. Colour is Anthracite. I don't know how they compare in price to John's but these were £110 each at the time (2002).

I have checkced with them already, What I am looking is for a 15 or 16" wheel X8 with 4" back space and the other two with 5" back space. with 5 on 4.5 bolt pattern.

Americna racing wheels no longer offer the Siverstone with custom offsets. The only wheel available is the Americn Racing
torq-thrust 105-205 and 605 with custom offsets.

Bill, you might call back & talk w/them again... I got conflicting messages just about every time I called when I was researching my wheels, but ultimately they came through. They are still showing custom offset as an option for Silverstone's on their web site... [www.americanracing.com]

I got there by going to their home page, then "styles & brands", "vintage", "see wheels/click here", "silverstone, custom offset, series 401" [note the custom offset is a different series than the Silverstone R or Silverston T wheels].