As those who have been following my posts will know, I am building a midengined car that I want to look like a 60's period Canam sports racer, mainly inspired by the Lola T70 spyder, although I am not trying to build an absolutely exact replica.

Originally, the T70 spyder used 15" x 8J (front) and 15" x 10J (rear) wheels (As the Lola's got older, they were fitted with even wider wheels). These are Halibrands



donahue 70

Others used wheels like this.



Inspiration - Lola T70 Spyder

Halibrands are of course available as replicas, but I would prefer not to have to pay approx 250 pounds plus per wheel. Also I am using a Cortina front upright, with Audi front hubs modified to Ford PCD at the rear, and the Halibrand reps available all seem to be 5 stud fitment, to suit Cobra/GT40. So, in order to get on with the build with a view to upgrading later, I bought some cheap aftermarket steel wheels usually sold for Landrover etc, in 15" x 7J and 15" x 8J. I modified the centres to suit the Ford fitment and had them painted.




29oct05 engine in
Problem is, I ended up with a front offset of almost zero, which means I will probably have to modify the Cortina upright (or the wheel) to get a sensible scrub radius. Or make a completely new upright?

So I had pretty much decided to buy a set of 7J and 8J Supalites, as made by Performance Wheels in Australia. The 7J's are available with a 25 mm positive offset, which helps a lot. I think the Supalites will look great in the charcoal colour, with a polished lip. Unfortunately, they are not available in a 15 x 10J. (The steel wheels will not be wasted, as I can use them on the rear, fitted with slicks I have available, if I want to run the car on the drag strip)



supalight

But then the SA agent of Performance Wheels suggested their Challenger model, which is available in 15 x 10J. Unfortunately, the Challenger 8J is only available with a 9 or 24 mm negative offset, so I will have to use a Challenger 7J on the front, which has only a 8 mm positive offset.



chall platt



chall 8

Initially, I thought they were ugly, but they are starting to grow on me. They do (maybe) look vaguely similar at a glance to the wheels on the blue lola above and the Foreman P4 used similar looking wheels.



foremann



p4 engine

So, do you guys think the Supalites are the way to go, or the Challengers, in which case I can have my 10" rears, without paying spilt rim prices.

Rereading my post, I think that the challengers might actually look great with the rim polished, but the spoke edges left charcoal?

Cheers

Fred WB




[Edited on 8/2/06 by Fred W B]

Panasports or Super/Mini lites seem to work on just about anything. But those Challengers are the way to go for looks, IMO.

-Steve

I like these.

[img][/img]

Super wide Supalites look the biz imho

I like these aswell ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

it's the superlite for me all the way. they have allways been retro and look good on any car modern and old. (look at audi with their RS wheels, very Minilite looking).

imho first impressions last and are usually right. got for the superlite.

Ditch

Superlights look awesome. In choosing wheels in the past, I have superimposed wheel pic onto side image of vehicle in 'Paint'. Gives some idea if not entirely convinvced!

Thanks for replies guys, looks like its 50 / 50 so far.

I found another pic of an original

T70 WHEEL

and this is a replica from http://www.cultsportscars.com



red gold 70 "



[Edited on 8/2/06 by Fred W B]

Fred,

How difficult was it to modify the centers to ford pattern? By coincidence I need 15*19 &15*8 and can't justify the cost of alloys just to try out slick tyres for fun. Yoiur solution sounds OK. BTW there are threads on the running gear forum on front upright manufacture by - rorty- I think?

David

Thanks David, I have been following the upright threads with interest.

To modify the wheels:

The landrover type wheels have a very large centre bore, such that there is no material where you would drill your new pcd.
I had new centres lazer cut out with an undersize centre bore and the outer diameter such that is was bigger than the outside of the existing bolt holes in the wheels .
The thickness of the new centres were 3 mm more than the original wheel centres
I had a step machined in the thickness of the new centre plates, that was a good fit in the wheel centre, and to the same thickness as the original wheel centres.
Clamping the new plate to the back of the wheel face, it could be plugwelded to the wheel through the original bolt holes
The outer diameter of the new plate was welded to the back of the wheel face and metal finished off flush
The outer diameter of the step in the new plate was welded to the front of the wheel face (on the edge of the original centre bore)
The wheel was set up in a lathe and the undersize centre bore cut out to the required size, and the bolt holes marked out, then drilled and chafered

Trust the above is clear. Maybe I should have tried to post a sketch.

Cheers

Fred WB

Clear as a bell Fred no need for sketch Thanks David

Can't you get the wheels from Cult Sports Cars?

The Challenger looks very like the wheels favoured by a certain Italian marque during the '70s , and also very like the Globe Bathurst wheel that was fitted to the Ford Falcon GTHO's that won the Bathurst 500 mile race in the early '70s.

Is 4x4.5" strong enough, when the original Lola had 6 studs? Most production cars go to 5 stud over 2.5 litres.

quote:

---

Can't you get the wheels from Cult Sports Cars?

---

quote:

---

is 4x4.5" strong enough,

---

Got a nice reply from cult sports cars. I had attached some photos of my project

Quote

"Fred,

Thanks for your email. Like the project. Audi transaxle I take it? What
are the exhaust?

Now on the wheels happy to have your enquiry. The wheels on the Red
original car SL73/130 are made per car and have been getting more difficult
to acquire so we are going to make patterns and cast our own. We agreed to
go ahead yesterday.

They will be to the original spec (15 x 8 & 15 x 10) so I will have to get
the offset numbers. No price or delivery as yet so hard to commit.

I can come back to you when we have more details

Get that car moving and come over and race it with us. Attached is a pic of
a CULT T70 "Period 289".

Regards, David Harvey

Un quote



cult motor


[Edited on 10/2/06 by Fred W B]

I used Challengers in my build (as in avatar), but I was thinking of changing to "superlite"s (look like minilites) because they have them in 16".. I think. But I think I prefer the look of Challengers after all these years. Brian

One more thing. With the Challengers, the offset changes with the rim width to maintain a close to zero offset. This means that the "spokes" slope outwards for a 7" rim and slope inwards for a 6" rim. I've got 6" on the front and 7" on the rear and this difference in spokes seems to accentuate the rim width difference visually. I quite like the look.

[Edited on 14/2/06 by Ratman]

[Edited on 16/2/06 by Ratman]

[Edited on 16/2/06 by Ratman]