Chim wheel upgrade

[Marcroftk]

Hi, I'm a relatively new Chim owner and wanted to bring my '99 Chimaera up to date. I figured the wheels and lights were items which dated the car, wheels these days are always bigger than the stock 15"/16" combo and the lights are much better now too. So I took the car to Heath and Paul at X Works near Preston. The guys did a fantastic job, they did the Lupo light conversion and checked everything over for the MOT and while they were at it did the outriggers and put on the new wheels. The wheels fit straight on without the need for any alterations other than adjustment of the steering bump stops. They're 17" with Toyo tyres and the offsets are perfect. She's now bang up to date. I hope you approve of the face lift.

[Marcroftk]

Thanks. Heath suggested the 17" wheel was the best compromise, big enough to look good but not too big to overwhelm the Chim's standard suspension and chassis. Heath's own Chimaera (which is a work of art) has 18's, he explained he'd had to employ every trick in the book to remove the idiosyncrasies of the massive rubber, particularly the tendency to tram-line. The slimmer profile of these 17's firms things up a bit but they're pretty hard anyway so not much change.

I'll post a pic of the headlights shortly, I've only got this one to hand. It's a bit difficult to see the difference it makes here. They're slightly more swept back than the originals, a touch more streamlined and you can see into them as the reflector is at the back rather than in the glass.

[Marcroftk]

Yep, they're Lupo's.

[Marcroftk]

Thanks. Yes, I'm sure the Lupo light conversion splits opinion. Anything like this will upset those who like completely stock cars. I'm more a restomod man, I'd prefer to have a 1960 Dodge Charger body on a 2010 Corvette chassis and running gear than a 1960 Charger on drum brakes and leaf springs etc if you know what I mean? I'm not precious about the design it's not like I've added bodywork. Unless you point it out most people won't even notice, not like one of those horrible mesh grills people add, I even saw a spoiler recently - yuck. My aim was to take a 20 year old car and bring it up to date. You're right about the set up. Heath and Paul did a lovely job and had the car MOT's afterwards so all the angles are spot on too.