New Estoril production run?

[SonicHedgeHog]

Has anyone ever looked into getting a new batch of Estoril wheels made? The reason I ask is that they are still a popular design, but the 15" fronts are proving increasingly difficult to get tyres for. If enough people were interested I would imagine it would be possible to get a set of four 16"ers made for sensible money. Thoughts?

[SonicHedgeHog]

Due to the overwhelming response to my original post (cheers Matt) I'm going to run with this for a little while. Does anyone know who made the Estoril wheel for TVR?

[SonicHedgeHog]

Ribol said:

Don't know who made them but they were made in Italy.

Nice one. That's a start. Can we now narrow our search radius to something smaller than Italy?

[SonicHedgeHog]

Good to see some interest. I'll blast off a few emails and see what I can come up with. Will keep you posted.

[SonicHedgeHog]

What I'm going to try and do is find out if a new run is financially viable. Once that has been established I'll start another thread to get opinions on the best sizes and if necessary try and track down the original moulds. Someone must have them somewhere.

[SonicHedgeHog]

MPoxon said:

SonicHedgeHog said:

What I'm going to try and do is find out if a new run is financially viable. Once that has been established I'll start another thread to get opinions on the best sizes and if necessary try and track down the original moulds. Someone must have them somewhere.

How are you doing with this fella?

Just got back from a week's holiday. Back on it this week. It's actually more difficult than I imagined because bespoke alloy wheel manufacturers don't make one piece wheels. So I'm having to ring around the big boys and see what is possible wrt cost and minimum production run. Will post as soon as I have any news.

[SonicHedgeHog]

Full SP said:

I can save you a fair amount of time on this. The wheels were made by OZ Racing. Their absolute minimum batch quantity is 300 pieces (as a run of castings) but such a small run would attract a hefty price premium. The wheel has been out of production for over 10 years so if (and that's a big "if") they still have the tooling it would have to be recommissioned which would attract another cost. The paint finishes have all moved on too so I'd be surpised if they paint wheels the original Estoril colour anymore.

Also, the order, if acceptable to them, would have to allow for manufacturing tolerances so you could either end up with anywhere btween 270 and 350 wheels and you'd be expected to take every one of them or (if you want a guarantee of 300) you'd pay a big premium to cover scrappage for over-production.

I'm pretty sure it won't fly but if you want to give it a punt:

[e-mail]

You have indeed saved me a lot of time. Thank you. You mention 300 units as a minimum production run. Do you happen to know if that means 300 fronts and 300 rears because of the size difference or 300 in total? If your numbers are correct, and they sound fairly plausible, 300 units is 'only' 75 full sets. Sounds a lot initially, but there are at least 5000 Griffs and Chims on the road so we'd only need orders from 15% of them. A challenge, I admit, but not impossible.

Thanks for your post.