Estoril sizes

[BilboTVR]

Morning Guys,

I'm in the process of figuring out what new wheels & tyres to put on for a "summer" set up and little pressie for the girl that aren't too different to the originals. Thinking 16" all round (allowing for potential minor brakes & calipers fiddling ).

But being a simpleton I'm having trouble figuring out/tracking down what the sizes/classification of the standard 15"& 16" Estorils are? 15" x 7 , & 16" x 7.5 ?? All the options boggle the mind.

Fancied something other than a spider , but what I've ended up looking at are these ....

http://www.performancealloys.com/wheel-details.asp...


too small/skinny for the rears ??

Oh and I'm sticking with the 4stud to be able to switch back to the originals if need be.

Thanks for any help and advice as always.

Dave.

[ChilliWhizz]

Estorils are Front: 15x7 ET25, and Rear: 16x7.5 ET32

Putting the 16x7.5 ET32's on the front will move the inner rim 13mm further in (with a risk of catching on the wishbones on full lock) and the outer rim 1mm further in (into the wheel arch). If they catch on the wishbones on full lock you can (if you don't want them catching) put stops on the rack, or fit spacers, which may require longer wheel studs. The last Griff 500's had the 16's on the front.

Chilli

[QBee]

5mm spacers will change the ET32 to ET27, which will probably be all you need and you won't need longer studs. 7mm spacers to give the exact correct ET25 will need longer studs fitting. Not a big deal, just a little extra expense. ETs work backwards - the bigger the ET, the further INWARDS the wheel will sit. So an ET40 wheel will sit 20 mm further in the wheel arch than an ET 20 wheel.

Then you will need to get the nose down stance by choosing the right tyre sizes. Have you got as far as thinking about that? 225/45 fronts and 245/45 rears will give you an 18mm height difference between front and rears [ (245-225) x 45% x 2 ]. The standard (205/55 15 and 225/50 16) gives a 24mm difference. The fronts will be correct, the rears 6mm low. So within the parameters I would say. Just get the rear ride height adjusted very slightly up if you are bothered.

[V8 GRF]

I have 16"s all round and run the tyre sizes mentioned above by Qbee. If the rack is properly centred you won't need stops and although mine did originally since the rack has been replaced it's fine. Nose down stance maintained and my car also runs a little lower than standard on Nitrons.

[QBee]

If those rather nice looking wheels are only 7J, they could be a little slim for 245 rears......you really need 7.5 or 8J, but they can be a bugger to find in 4 stud wheels. You could always go for slimmer tyres. 225 and 245 are standard on later Griffs, but I run 215/40 fronts and 235/40 rears on mine, and they are great on my 7J 17 inch wheels. To go for 215 and 235 on 16 inch 7J wheels, you will struggle a bit on tyre sizes, as the correct size is between available sizes. If you went for 205/50 16 fronts and 225/50 16 rears you would have a nice ride at about the correct ride heights.

By the way, you will need 4 x 108 stud pattern and 63.2 mm centre holes on your wheels.....

Don't go too wide on the front tyres - 245 fronts will not handle as well, even if they don't actually catch. TVR made them between 205 and 225 for a reason.

[gmw9666]

didn't the last Chimaera's off the line have 16" all round from the factory? (the cars with the cerb seats / covered headlamps)

[QBee]

gmw9666 said:

didn't the last Chimaera's off the line have 16" all round from the factory? (the cars with the cerb seats / covered headlamps)

Quite likely on the Mark 3s - the last Griffs did. They kept the nose down attitude by having different sized tyres front to rear.