HELP ASAP PLEASE- After market wheels for Chimaera 4.0
Discussion
Hi All
Help required please. I'm spending some money on the chimaera and one of those perhaps is changing the wheels. I have the original wheels with 205/55/R15 tyres on at the moment. My questions are:
1) If I kept the wheel size as 15" I guess I can just swap the tyres over, just bought 2 new rears so that would be a saving straight away
2) If I changed to 16" would I need to change anything when fitting. I keep reading about the speedo etc
3) Apart from looks would changing to 16" improve the handling. Heard some have 17" on the rear/16" on the front? What is the best handling change to make, stick with 15", change to 16" or some other combination?
I'm also fitting new suspension (protechs) all round so if I do change the wheels makes sense to do it now so that the suspension is set up correctly.
Many thanks in advance
Help required please. I'm spending some money on the chimaera and one of those perhaps is changing the wheels. I have the original wheels with 205/55/R15 tyres on at the moment. My questions are:
1) If I kept the wheel size as 15" I guess I can just swap the tyres over, just bought 2 new rears so that would be a saving straight away
2) If I changed to 16" would I need to change anything when fitting. I keep reading about the speedo etc
3) Apart from looks would changing to 16" improve the handling. Heard some have 17" on the rear/16" on the front? What is the best handling change to make, stick with 15", change to 16" or some other combination?
I'm also fitting new suspension (protechs) all round so if I do change the wheels makes sense to do it now so that the suspension is set up correctly.
Many thanks in advance
http://www.pistonheads.com/GASSING/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Have a read through this, i personally think the only wheels that suit the car are similar designs to the originals. I do like the RL7 style wheels but dont think they are easy to obtain any more.
Have a read through this, i personally think the only wheels that suit the car are similar designs to the originals. I do like the RL7 style wheels but dont think they are easy to obtain any more.
Let's get things in the right order.
1. Decide what kind of driving you intend to do.
2. Decide how much you want modify the brakes, if at all.
3. Decide what size (diameter and width) wheels you want to buy.
4. Choose Tyres to suit.
5. Then get the suspension set up.
So, the things you need to consider:
1. Fast road, or track days as well?
2. If track days too, you might want bigger front brakes, if you don't, then just upgrade disks and pads in the same size as standard.
3. The wheel size depends on your chosen brake size.
4. The tyre size depends on your chosen wheel size. You need to keep close to the standard overall diameters, so the bigger the wheel, the lower the tyre profile. So typical sizes for 17 inch wheels all round will be something like 215/45 front and 235/45 rear, to keep the nose down attitude. Hence your speedo will still read correctly.
5. A full four wheel alignment and ride height set up by a TVR expert is the best £100 you can spend. TVRs are very set up sensitive, so get it done properly.
DO ASK ON HERE. You will get 1000 opinions on here, but you will gain knowledge. Particularly, you will get a lot of reactionary attitudes towards anything non-factory. Just remember it's YOUR car, so ignore them, but keep your factory wheels in case you ever want to sell the car.
If you want a phone chat just email me.
1. Decide what kind of driving you intend to do.
2. Decide how much you want modify the brakes, if at all.
3. Decide what size (diameter and width) wheels you want to buy.
4. Choose Tyres to suit.
5. Then get the suspension set up.
So, the things you need to consider:
1. Fast road, or track days as well?
2. If track days too, you might want bigger front brakes, if you don't, then just upgrade disks and pads in the same size as standard.
3. The wheel size depends on your chosen brake size.
4. The tyre size depends on your chosen wheel size. You need to keep close to the standard overall diameters, so the bigger the wheel, the lower the tyre profile. So typical sizes for 17 inch wheels all round will be something like 215/45 front and 235/45 rear, to keep the nose down attitude. Hence your speedo will still read correctly.
5. A full four wheel alignment and ride height set up by a TVR expert is the best £100 you can spend. TVRs are very set up sensitive, so get it done properly.
DO ASK ON HERE. You will get 1000 opinions on here, but you will gain knowledge. Particularly, you will get a lot of reactionary attitudes towards anything non-factory. Just remember it's YOUR car, so ignore them, but keep your factory wheels in case you ever want to sell the car.
If you want a phone chat just email me.
Many thanks for that.
Fastish road use only, no track days. Like the look of the 7 spoke wheel or something very similar. Don't want to have to start messing about with brakes and pads, speedo calibration etc, not at the moment anyway, would just like a set that I can bolt straight on really. Getting suspension set up sorted by Neil Garner, so no problems there.
Fastish road use only, no track days. Like the look of the 7 spoke wheel or something very similar. Don't want to have to start messing about with brakes and pads, speedo calibration etc, not at the moment anyway, would just like a set that I can bolt straight on really. Getting suspension set up sorted by Neil Garner, so no problems there.
Ian Abel said:
Hi
Happy with 15" and 16" for ride. Just wondered if it made any sense re handling to get different sizes, especially as I'm getting the suspension sorted too.
If you are staying with those sizes I don`t think you are going to get anything nicer than the standard wheels .Happy with 15" and 16" for ride. Just wondered if it made any sense re handling to get different sizes, especially as I'm getting the suspension sorted too.
Most people go for new wheels so they can upsize .
Very simple question and me probably being stupid but I get very confused about all this wheel and off-set etc etc but if I changed my wheels but kept them the same as the originals in size, eg 15" at the front and 16" at the rear I'm right in thinking that I could then get my existing tyres (which are all good at the moment) just changed over???
Ian Abel said:
Very simple question and me probably being stupid but I get very confused about all this wheel and off-set etc etc but if I changed my wheels but kept them the same as the originals in size, eg 15" at the front and 16" at the rear I'm right in thinking that I could then get my existing tyres (which are all good at the moment) just changed over???
What wheels have you seen in 15 and 16" with a front j of 7 to 7.5 ET25 and rear 7.5 to 8J ,ET 33 or close .That's going to be difficult .
The answer is yes, but as Daz points out, finding the correct wheels is the issue.
Assuming you have the 5 spoke Imolas, you can get a set of seven spoke Estorils.....if you can find one.
Honest answer is to spend your resources on refurbishing the chassis and suspension, and yes, the dampers. The wheels are fine as they are. If they are marked, get them refurbed.
Assuming you have the 5 spoke Imolas, you can get a set of seven spoke Estorils.....if you can find one.
Honest answer is to spend your resources on refurbishing the chassis and suspension, and yes, the dampers. The wheels are fine as they are. If they are marked, get them refurbed.
Ian Abel said:
This is where I get confused, not very difficult. On the website of PerformanceAlloys.com you type in your car make and age and it throws up the wheels that they say will fit. Consequently there are Diewe Allegrezza in 15 x 6.5 and 16 x 7. Will these fit?
Assuming your tyres are 205/55 15 and 225/50 16, then yes, they will fit, so long as the centre hole is 63.2mm (or larger) and the offset on the 15s is in the range ET25-33 and the offset on the 16s is in the region of ET 33.If your tyres are not those sizes, please tell us what they are.
Ian Abel said:
This is where I get confused, not very difficult. On the website of PerformanceAlloys.com you type in your car make and age and it throws up the wheels that they say will fit. Consequently there are Diewe Allegrezza in 15 x 6.5 and 16 x 7. Will these fit?
Forget what they are telling you it is total rubbish .Its unusual for TVR owners to try and get a set of wheels in the same size because they have a good set of tyres to fit .
What style do you like ? You can buy a set od SP12`s off the shelve in 17 and 18".
I changed to 16 front and 17 rear, kept the offsets the same but got wider wheels. I now have 8x16 and 9x17. The car is still comfy, but much more surefooted and planted. If you go 16 and 17, there are a lot more quality rubber available than for 15. I'd never go higher offset than the orginal and I would never go DOWN on width! NEVER 
OleVix said:
I changed to 16 front and 17 rear, kept the offsets the same but got wider wheels. I now have 8x16 and 9x17. The car is still comfy, but much more surefooted and planted. If you go 16 and 17, there are a lot more quality rubber available than for 15. I'd never go higher offset than the orginal and I would never go DOWN on width! NEVER
Is there more chance of the tyres catching even if you go for the same sizes . What are you getting out of 8 snd 9" rims ?Are you running 225/45/16 245/40/17 `s
Oh great, it sounded incorrect to me, thank god for that!!! One last question then. Would it be better to change to 16" front and rear or maybe 16"/17" or stick with 15" on the front and 16" on the rear? I'm not looking to bling it up just fancy a different type of wheel style. Will store originals for when/if I sell.
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