What new rims for my Vixen?

[Sonus]

My Vixen has 6" wide center laced spline drive wire wheels shod with 205/60/15.

IN the rear they look good, but at the front the stick out approx 1" outside the bonnet. The car also twitches/pulls side to side if the road isn't perfectly flat. I believe this is due to a too small backspacing.

To cure this I am looking at converting back to bolt on wheels with better backspacing (ET). Problem is I am having a hard time deciding on which rim to go for.

Minilite style



or Revolution Modular style



I'm considering fitting 185/65/15 at the front.

What width and backspacing should I get? Considering 6 or 7" at tthe front and 7 or 8" in the rear as I'd like to have the rim as wide as the 205/60/15 tire and not ballooning as they are on the 6" wire wheel rim.

Edited by Sonus on Thursday 3rd April 12:10

[vixen1700]

Always liked those Revolutions meself.

[Sonus]

Anyone know who's car this is?

[Sonus]

[Hansoplast]

Hy Sonus,

Never heard that the ET of the wheel makes the car steering badly.
It must the the condition of the wires. Probably lose wires or unequal tension.


Of course changing to other wheels and the proces of buying new stuff can be a feast.


Hans

[Sonus]

[quote=Hansoplast]Hy Sonus,

Never heard that the ET of the wheel makes the car steering badly.
It must the the condition of the wires. Probably lose wires or unequal tension.


Of course changing to other wheels and the proces of buying new stuff can be a feast.


The problem with wrong ET is that the king pin axis and ET measurement which creates the the scrub radius gets too large. If you then hit an undulation on one side or ride on roads with uneven bitumen wear the car will start to hunt from side to side. The current rims with their spline drive adapters bolted to the hub pushes the wheel out resulting in a large positive scrub radius. It makes for easy low speed maneuvering, but in my opinion a car that needs to be held by the neck at speed if the road surface isn't dead flat and level.

[prideaux]

Sonus said:

My Vixen has 6" wide center laced spline drive wire wheels shod with 205/60/15.

Edited by Sonus on Thursday 3rd April 12:10

Hi Niels
The thing that stands out there is the tyre size this should have 205/70 tyres on those wheels as that's the correct size 60s will greatly effect the ride height a lot fit 60s as the difference between 60s and classic 70s is a large cost difference
As the car has the V8 engine 6 inch is correct for the Tuscan V8 cars Vixens and V6 tuscans had 5 inch fins with the wires as an optional extra I believe.
The wires I love but if you keep them they should be checked and tightened however whatever 6 inch wheels you fit they should be the same offset as Cobra wheels but the tyres should also be the correct ratio

[status]

Sonus said:

My Vixen has 6" wide center laced spline drive wire wheels shod with 205/60/15.

IN the rear they look good, but at the front the stick out approx 1" outside the bonnet. The car also twitches/pulls side to side if the road isn't perfectly flat. I believe this is due to a too small backspacing.
<snip>

Twitchy-ness can be caused by the wrong offset (as well as other things) ie where the centre of the tyre contact patch lies a long way outside the point on the road made by a line through top and bottom ball joints. IIRC you need a small amount of offset or the steering feels vague, but too much, eg putting big spacers behind standard wheels, makes it twitchy (not that I ever did this on a Mini, many years ago, honest ).

Nick

[the other tim]

Some useful info here http://www.pistonheads.com/Gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[62GRANTIII]

Sinus
I built the yellow vixen in late 90's, a cracking car !
Wheels are revo 3 piece, 6.5"
4" inner, 2" outer + 0.5" for centre. Fit a treat & fill arches just right. Building another at Mo, has same spec wheels. Cheers. Ian

[Sonus]

the other tim said:

Some useful info here http://www.pistonheads.com/Gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Thanks

[Sonus]

62GRANTIII said:

Sinus
I built the yellow vixen in late 90's, a cracking car !
Wheels are revo 3 piece, 6.5"
4" inner, 2" outer + 0.5" for centre. Fit a treat & fill arches just right. Building another at Mo, has same spec wheels. Cheers. Ian

Thank you Ian! That car looks really nice!

Did you need to do any mods to the rear uprights to use a 4" inner barrel? What tire dimensions did you use?

I might consider going 4" inner front and rear, but would be interested in going maybe 2,5" outer in the front and 3" outer in the rear - or would that be too much?

Where did you purchase them?

Edited by Sonus on Friday 4th April 07:27

[Sonus]

Adrian@ said:

Weird...I think you will find that BOTH pictures you chose as examples, have modified rear uprights on! I might be wrong about the ex Simon Bridge car BUT the (ex Ian's) Neil Hastle car has extra offset as it is running my uprights.
Adrian@

That makes sense as the thread linked to earlier by the other tim indicates that a backspacing of 98mm (3,858") creates contact between tire and upright. Looks like a set of staggered offset rims is what's needed where the backspacing at the rear is kept less than 95mm and the fronts at 95mm or more depending on the wanted scrub measurement.

Edited by Sonus on Friday 4th April 13:08