MG Sports Cars

Ok, so I respect the fact that your car is your personal statement and style is individual but I have to say that most of this discussion seems to be going in the wrong direction. 17's on an MGB? Please, please, please, no. 16's with the right tire profile, maybe but, 17s and above would make it look like a wagon and the body lines cant hold wheels that big. That blue MGA made me throw up in my mouth a little and I am not the only one to think this. I am in no way a purist, in fact I love modifying these cars (72 MGB GT getting a 13B Turbo and an MGA getting a Ford Zetec) but at some point someone needs to say whoa. That thing does NOT need wheels that big and I can not imagine that they are any improvement in handling. MGAs are made for 15s and possibly 16s, if they are the correct style. That red GT is sweet but please dont be afraid of lower profile tires. It looks like a truck. Drop the profile down to 45 or something and itll sit much nicer, plus handle better.

YoungGuy Wrote:
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> Ok, so I respect the fact that your car is your
> personal statement and style is individual

Thanks for letting me know what my allowable personal style is. I'm sure I was fretting that. :)

I don't have Sebring Flares but this shows what can be done with larger rims and smaller tires. Fronts 225/45/17 Rears 245/40/17. Using Omni Flares

I am afraid I can't give you guys any more info at the moment as all my car stuff is packed away for moving. But once I get set up I will up date my info in the Photo Gallery

Bruce

I am not trying to tell you what to do and I am into modifying a car but at a certain point, it doesnt look that good anymore. Maybe the bigger is better movement has moved on from the younger crowd to the adults. I had a MKII VW and anything over 16's, and they had to be the right 16's, was laughed at. It just didnt look right. If bigger was truly better, the people racing these cars would be running them too...

I was thinking you could probably manage to get 20's on it with the right tires. Something like a 215/25-20 would be about the right diameter and width. Bet you wouldn't get any sidewall flex with those babies!

Jim

Quote:

It just didnt look right. If bigger was truly better, the people racing these cars would be running them too...

I'm inclined to agree with you Jarrod, although I believe the road-racing/vintage-racing classes where MGB's are raced have wheel size restrictions in their rules...

Obviously appearance and performance are entirely separate issues. Some people prefer the looks of 17" wheels. That's their own preference, and it's certainly not wrong. To my eye, it just "looks wrong" not just because it isn't "period" but because from a performance point of view 17" wheels make so very little sense on an MGB, especially if carving corners is a priority. Bigger wheels = bigger flywheels (4 of them!) = harder to accelerate = harder to decelerate = more energy wasted every time you brake and thus worse fuel economy. By the time you put tires on them, the rotating weight is usually substantially increased too. More unsprung weight moving up and down = more difficult to control with shock absorbers = worse ride quality. If you reduce sidewall height, you're looking at a less compliant ride on a car that already has a pretty uncomfortable rear suspension (unless you're replacing that... as Rob and others are.)

The funny thing about fashions is that they change constantly. One of these days, realistic wheel sizes will come back into fashion.

Re: the earlier comment about sports cars that "look like trucks"... that comment confused me because I personally love trucks. Big trucks anyway... Check out the special European ultra low profile wheels and tires on my old truck!

(p.s. This photo was taken on a frozen lake in Arjeplog Sweden where we were testing a brake-by-wire braking system. What a great truck that was! Took me fun places.)

Maybe this is a fad and proper, realistic wheel sizes will come back. Nice Volvo. A friend of mines father owns one and I went to school close to one of the factories in Va. I love trucks. Ive had trucks and SUVs pretty much all of my life. I dont have one at the moment, 3 cars is enough for me at 26 right now but, will probably get one again soon. I was just saying that if you compare the red BGT with the white BGT, you will see what I am talking about. Shorter sidewalls and some lowering would make that thing look amazing.

Yes, I also believe that they are limited in terms of what size wheel they are allowed to run. At a certain point, big wheels are more a detriment than an advantage, let alone the fact that it just looks wrong. TC, TA, Midget, etc... with running boards, throw some big wires on there. Looks at home. Throw a big set of wheels on a car whose body is almost as tall as the wheel itself, horrible look. Just dont get it.

And so it doesnt seem like Im just trolling or anything, here is my GT. 72 spoke wires, lowered a little over 2" (its much lower in real life than the pics show), neg a arms, 3/4" sway bar with solid mounts, wilwood 4 piston caliper conversion, 13B Mazda w/ 5 speed in the garage waiting to be dropped in.



P.S.- Please dont put XXR, otherwise known as Sportmax, wheels on your car. They are cheap in price because they bend unbelievably easy. A lot of the MKII VW guys run these because they are cheap but first really good pothole and you are going to have trouble. If I had a choice, and the money, to throw a set of bolt on wheels on my GT, I would put these on in an instant. 15" BBS RS. They are three piece so you can choose your offset, width and lip depth, and center color. Plus, they have that mesh, wire wheel look that would work so well with an old British car.

YoungGuy Wrote:
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> but at some
> point someone needs to say whoa.

Who is that someone? An elected official, a self appointed regulator, a hereditary ruler, or someone annointed by God?

Will he contact us, or do we need to locate him?

Before or after we violate his decrees?

Are the rules published somewhere so we can know what we can and cannot do?

What are the penalties for failure to heed his dictates?

danmas Wrote:
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> YoungGuy Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> Who is that someone? An elected official, a self
> appointed regulator, a hereditary ruler, or
> someone annointed by God?
>
> Will he contact us, or do we need to locate him?
>
> Before or after we violate his decrees?
>
> Are the rules published somewhere so we can know
> what we can and cannot do?
>
> What are the penalties for failure to heed his
> dictates?


Well, in case you havent noticed, that someone is me, haha. But seriously now, step back and look at them, really look at them. Look at the size of the opening on the body and compare it to these big wheels. Im not talking about period correctness or anything like that but just porportionally speaking, look at it and be honest with yourself. Does a car this small with openings shaped the way that they are, really warrant a wheel of that size? Are we trying to catch up with the ricers or DUB magazine or the current (dying) trend of wheel sizes? Are we going for a wow factor with these wheels? Everyone complains about brake fade so are we trying to add more rotating mass (unless you drop big bucks on wheels, bigger does equal more weight) so we can continue to complain about the brakes? Are we looking to diminish the "chuckability" of these cars in the twisties? My GLI has 18's on it with a modified suspension and they fit the car porportionally and greatly increase my handling ability due to the design of the suspension. Are we looking to slow the sprinting ability of our cars down (rough math says every inch equals .10 off gearing)?

Chuck and A into a corner on 18's and one on 16's and see which one comes out first. If we are looking for more traction, why are we not looking to go wider? 15x8's would do a great job and can handle the HP some of you claim to be putting out. Why should we need to look to grafting fender flares, which if arent done correctly or are of a bad outward design detract from the flow of the car, to make big wagonesque wheels fit? Wider, not taller and just because we can make them fit doesnt necessarily mean that we should...

Some automotive trends arent trends but fads and fads die out. Do we as an enthusiast group want to fall victim to following a fad and joining in with the ricer/ dub crowd or do we want to stick with a Euro/ Brit style? Massive body kits and useless wings were the thing not to long ago. Where are they now?

Perfection, on 15" wires:

Jarrod, it amuses me that you're stirring this pot. (It's been stirred many times before, of course.)

When, on the one hand you question the performance advantage of big-diameter wheels and then on the other hand you post pictures of spoke wheels... I mean, what could possibly scream "low performance" louder than spoke wheels? Let's see how many people we can annoy this morning! It's all in good fun, right?



Your GT is very handsome, by the way. Next time you're changing tires, can I trouble you to weigh one of those spoke wheels? I'd like to build a wheel database... As I recall, the original Rostyle wheels from my 71 GT weighed about 18.3#. Alloy wheels are stiffer and lighter. Even Minators (which aren't a high performance wheel by any measure) only weigh 13.6# in the popular 14x5.5 size.

You had to post the pic of the BBS RS wheels. For years, I have wanted those on my B for soooo long I can't stand it. I think they have been out of production for some time.

That is true. There is a draw back to running wires in strength so I elected to run those 72 spoke Daytons. I will weigh them next opportunity that I get.

BBS RS have been out of production but are a cult wheel in the VW circles...you just need to know where to look...

www.rbwheels.com
www.raderwerks.com

Centerline Draglites are light in any size Probably the best weight/strength ratio on the planet. Those and 205/25-20's are going to be lighter and outperform your old tech Dayton wires any day of the year.

Jim

Don't think BMW, Ferrari and Porsche got the memo that smaller wheels were the way to go, but then again, what do they know about performance? I'm glad you appreciate tradition, I think mgbs look good with 15" minilites, but that's not really what I'm going for. Mine may end up looking like crap to you, but it's my creation and I'm pretty sure I'll be proud of it anyway if it rolls under its own power.

That is true, most manufacturers have gone to larger wheel diameters. Like I said, even my VW GLI has factory 18's on it. Yes, BMW, Ferrari and Porsche have gone to larger wheels but they designed the car and ALL of its components around that wheel size. The brakes, the suspension and ride quality and, most importantly, the body and wheel openings were designed with larger wheels in mind. If you have to graft wheel arches and flares on to make taller wheels fit, maybe they arent supposed to be there?

I said it from the beginning, style is individual but Im just trying to understand why this trend exists and praying that it will disappear.

It won't. Otherwise we would never have had things like the AMC Gremlin. And that's not a bad thing. So, bigger wheels, here's one for you, how about 22's with a 10 series tire? a 205/10-22 would be 8 inches wide and smaller in diameter than the original wheel so it would fit the wneelwells just fine. No cutting, no bending. Same with a 205/25-20, that's maybe 1/2" taller than stock. Maybe.

Why? You might ask. Believe it or not wheels are lighter than tires if made right and they are also stiffer, so no sideways give in the corners, meaning improved handling. The ultra-modern trend in brakes is to attach the disc to the wheel, meaning an extremely effective and lightweight package. Again, improved handling. Or didn't you get the memo?

Jim

YoungGuy Wrote:
> Perfection, on 15" wires:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but those are 16" Borranis ;) I have a MG Enthusiast Magazine with a write up on those cars (they were made in a small series of 10 iirc)

Personally I'm looking for 16" 3 piece knock offs with 60 or 55 profile to go under stock arches.

I found my issue of that one last night and noticed that they were 16's, which is only 1 inch larger than the stockers.

As for the 22's with a 10 series tire. I cant imagine why. So you want a shorter tire than original, thus changing your gear ratio? I shudder to think what would happen to those wheels the first pothole or road imperfection you meet up with...unless they were made by Schmidt Wheels. The one piece wheel sounds like a good idea but practical, I think not. When something like this actually makes it into any sort of production, even on something like an ALMS or F1, Ill pick that memo up out of the trash and read it again.

Tire/ wheel trends, the tweel:

Now THAT looks FUNNY! I like it though, no air. Actually we'd better get used to the look because it's the shape of things to come. Better performance, less weight, and no air. Pick the right wheel and it'd look great on an MGB too.

Jim

Edit: A 205/10-22 would be a 23.5" diameter tire. So what size are yours, smaller than that? Not from the factory.

JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2008 10:07AM by BlownMGB-V8.

Bond a flexy cover over the sidwall and it looks pretty close to an ordinary tire. Might be nice to see some new technology introduced on the auto - most of the technology in cars is getting pretty ancient. Where's my flyin' car anyway???? Can't even buy one with a joystick controller and not huge advances in batteries even with electric cars being 100 years old.