Wheel Spacers

[dantvrgriff]

Hi

Would like to improve the looks of my Griff 500 from 1997 by getting the wheels out to the edge of the rear wing and get the front wheels further out as well. Have the original shocks in. Any recommendations ? how far you can go ?

Thanks

Dan

[Barreti]

What wheels and tyres do you have fitted now?

[phazed]

Totally pointless.

Apart from the fact there isn’t much room to play with, a small space that will reduce your stud safety margin.
The larger bolt on spacers with new studs would be too much.

A new set of wheels with a slightly larger offset may give you what you’re looking for.

Personally speaking, it is a classic car and I would leave well alone unless you’re changing the wheels for something classic that would go with the car.

I fitted five stud hubs to mine and then fitted Cerb wheels. This keeps it semi original and I’m now running 255 mm on the rear and 235 mm on the front which gives it a nice look in my opinion.

[dantvrgriff]

I am running the original Griffith alloy wheels.



Your wheels look great on the Chimaera.

[phazed]

Very nice.

The point is, I would leave it well alone.

[bobfather]

Also need to consider the hub bolt length. As these wheels are secured with nuts the amount of exposed thread after fitting a spacer will reduce with corresponding loss of thread engagement

[andyy]

I’ve got 5mm spacers front and rear.
Been running them for 10 years or so without problems.
No one else would probably notice the difference - but I do and that’s what matters!!
Cheers Andy

[anonymous-user]

dantvrgriff said:

I am running the original Griffith alloy wheels.



Your wheels look great on the Chimaera.

As the tyre lettering has been painted and the car has a cobra white stripe, I'm guessing " leaving well alone" is not an option ;-)

[Stever]

Maybe consider going a bit further and get some aftermarket wheels? Keep the originals for when you sell it, that's the only time mine will go back on!
The following thread from when I got mine.


https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[dantvrgriff]

I marked up the tyres to give it some of the 70s muscle car look. Furthermore I added a stripe - thinks it helps the natural curves of the car.



With the Wheel spacer I wanted to give the car a more "bad-ass" look while keeping it more or less original. I was thinking of +- 10 mm spacers to bring the wheel edge closer to the arch but I do see the point with the stud safety margin.

[anonymous-user]

Stever said:

Maybe consider going a bit further and get some aftermarket wheels? Keep the originals for when you sell it, that's the only time mine will go back on!
The following thread from when I got mine.


https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I've twice nearly pulled the trigger on those wheels, but the photos I've seen of them on black griffs just don't look anywhere as good as on your blue one.

[Dominic TVRetto]

FYI I've tried 5mm, 20mm and 12mm on my Chimaera.

5 is too small to notice, at 20 the tyre made contact with the wheel arch on compression, and 12 works perfectly while giving a noticeable visual improvement - bringing the wheel further out towards the outside of the wheel arch.

I would start at 12mm and see what happens - bearing in mind they will all be different due to the handmade nature of the beast...

[phazed]

I wouldn't be happy at all removing 12mm of thread from the studs!

[phillpot]

phazed said:

I wouldn't be happy at all removing 12mm of thread from the studs!

.... Longer studs

Edited by phillpot on Thursday 20th June 09:47

[MisterT]

I would be concerned about the effect adding 12mm to the scrub radius of the suspension/steering geometry will have on the straight line stability (especially under braking), and the feel of the steering. This assumes you are spacing the standard 7" rim and not fitting wider wheels. With increased 'positive' scrub radius, under braking conditions, the car will tend to veer to the side with most grip

[QBee]

A few points here:

1. Adding anything more than 5mm spacers will leave too little thread on the studs. IF you decide to use thicker spacers, use longer studs too.
2. Phazed has it wrong - you need to go to a lower offset wheel, not higher, to make the wheel sit further out in the wheel arch. I often buy Ford fit wheels, which are either ET38 or ET40, ie a 38 or 40 mm offset. This means that the centre line of the wheel is 38 or 40 mm further in to the wheel arch. I use 5mm spacers to bring the wheels down to 33mm offset, ie the same as TVR.
3. Standard Chimaera wheels are ET25 front and ET33 rear. If you want to buy wheels that don't require spacers but stick out 10 mm futher than standard, you need to buy ET15 and ET23 wheels.
4. 17 inch wheels will always seem to fill the arches better than 15 inch. You just need to do the maths on tyre sizes to get the same roilling diameter. Ask and I will tell you how the calculation works - I am not going to bore you with it now, suffice it to say that 215/45/17 is a 215mm wide tyre, with a 45% ratio between tyre wall height and tyre width, and a 17 inch wheel.

I am not asking you to like these wheels, but they illustrate my point. They are are 17 inch Ford fit wheels ET38, with 5mm spacers. Front tyres are 215/45 17, rears are 235/45 17. Centre caps are on order,

[phazed]

QBee said:

phazed has it wrong

Ridiculous! I don’t make mistakes!

You misunderstood my ins and outs........

[Dominic TVRetto]

MisterT said:

I would be concerned about the effect adding 12mm to the scrub radius of the suspension/steering geometry will have on the straight line stability (especially under braking), and the feel of the steering. This assumes you are spacing the standard 7" rim and not fitting wider wheels. With increased 'positive' scrub radius, under braking conditions, the car will tend to veer to the side with most grip

Sorry - to clarify:

I run 12mm at the rear as that's where you notice the wheel inset the most, then 5mm at the front to even them up slightly without affecting steering unduly as you describe...

And yes Peter, longer studs

[Classic Chim]

MisterT said:

I would be concerned about the effect adding 12mm to the scrub radius of the suspension/steering geometry will have on the straight line stability (especially under braking), and the feel of the steering. This assumes you are spacing the standard 7" rim and not fitting wider wheels. With increased 'positive' scrub radius, under braking conditions, the car will tend to veer to the side with most grip

This is known to be correct. Just spacing a wheel out rather than getting wheels/ tyres can that compensate the offset you create by widening the track you will likely have less grip when turning tight corners such as roundabouts.

In my case and using exactly the same size tyres as in Qbee picture I have maintained the offsets just about and increased track width with 5mm spacers. the tyres are so much more compliant and grip filled it is a big improvement.
There is a big downside to widening the track and probably why Tvr sold the cars with the track as is,,, stones and road crud will be whipping down the slide of the car and damaging paintwork, not so bad on an old Tvr but new painted cars couldn’t have that going on!

I’m as vain as I the next man so I can live with a dirty car as long as it looks more aggressive and sexy, which it does so that’s ok then,,,,,!

Steering geometry will be effected if offsets are not maintained but if your tyres are modern sticky buggers they do compensate quite a bit.

I

[dantvrgriff]

Thanks for all the feedback.

I think I will start by adding 12mm spacers in the back - 5 mm front. How do I change the studs in the back though. Are they simply screwed in and I can change them by using 2 nuts ?

Any supplier you could recommend for the spacers / studs ?

Cheers

Dan