Spiders or not to Spiders

[Fire99]

Greetings All,

I've decided to take the plunge and upgrade the wheels on my 450.
I would like to go down the 5-stud Spider 18's route but they seem pretty rare at a reasonable price.. (unless some can correct me on this)

Can anyone recommend any smart alternatives or reasonable sources for the illustrious Spider wheels?

As ever, all answers appreciated...

cheers,

Nick

[neejah]

The spiders aren't particularly "rare" or "expensive", they use the rears on a Chim, leaving the front's free for our Cerbie owning pals......all you need to do is find a couple of people willing to separate a set, or a Cerbie owner that has bought a full set from a Tuscan.......

[afrofish]

Can you get 17" spiders?

The 16's look great, but slightly too small if I was being critical.

The 18's look a bit silly and it sounds like the ride is compromised too much.

[tvron]

I fitted brake upgrade and 16 spiders. Very pleased and ride and handling still very good

[Fire99]

Horses for courses and all that..
But i saw the odd chim with 18" spiders at GP-M yesterday and they are definitely up my alley.

18" are all aftermarket as far as i know?

[neejah]

afrofish said:

Can you get 17" spiders?

The 16's look great, but slightly too small if I was being critical.

The 18's look a bit silly and it sounds like the ride is compromised too much.

You can't get 17" Spiders.....But I don't think mine look silly.......nor is the ride compromised too much! Horses for courses, it doesn't wallow like it used to with the standard wheels, but it does tramline slightly more. I looked at a car with the 16's on before I went the upgrade route, and TBH I thought that they looked too small.....all IMHO.

[IM]

neejah said:

...it doesn't wallow like it used to with the standard wheels, but it does tramline slightly more.

Excuse my newbieness, but whats tramline? I'm also interested in a set of spiders but am now worried I'll be turning my 'baby' into bus.

Ian


Update:

OK, did a web search on this, here's the definition I assume you mean:

motoringfile.com said:

"Tramlining is when your tires are following the seams and ridges in the road, making one constantly correct minutely while driving. Especially common on concrete surfaces that have been heavily grooved in a linear manner to control light rain run-off, while seeming “smoother” to the driver. More prevalent in short, wide chassis cars….like a MINI."

Hmmmm, cant say I've ever noticed this effect whilst driving any car...I'll have to pay more attention.

Edited by IM on Monday 14th August 22:07

[Fire99]

IM said:

Hmmmm, cant say I've ever noticed this effect whilst driving any car...I'll have to pay more attention.

My Early M5 BMW had a nice set of aftermarket wheels on it with super low-profile tires and it used to tramline a bit..

You feel the car move sideways a bit with the grooves in the road or if you drop into the indented parts of roads where Lorries have been driving..

Never really bothered me too much though..

I think 18's on a Chim look the B*llox.

[snorky]

I like the look of spiders but plan to go the 17" Kahn RSV route to save cost and time they look fairly similar to spiders but a lot less hassle to do and can always go back to standard if reqd...

[incognit-O]

Fire99 said:

Can anyone recommend any smart alternatives

Spiders on a Chim look wrong - too modern. Why not just get a set of 500 / griff wheels...?

[tvrbob]

IM said:

Excuse my newbieness, but whats tramline?

Tramlining is when the tyres follow grooves in the road, tyres are also known to favour white lines. Cars overcome this by having side to side flex in the tyres that allows the tread to follow the groove without dragging the wheel with it. If you reduce the tyre wall height you decrease the side to side flex and therefore transmit more tramlining to the rim. Once tramlining turns the rim it also turns the other wheel effectively doubling the effect. Basically the car tries to steer itself randomly.

The key is to ask yourself whether you are willing to give up drivability for the sake of bad boy looks.

[IM]

tvrbob said:

The key is to ask yourself whether you are willing to give up drivability for the sake of bad boy looks.

Hmmm...thanks for the heads-up on tramlining...Your 'key' (above) is indeed the dilemma. Form over Function?

Again...cheers.

[Fire99]

incognit-O said:

Fire99 said:

Can anyone recommend any smart alternatives

Spiders on a Chim look wrong - too modern. Why not just get a set of 500 / griff wheels...?

The 500 wheels are too small and plain in my eyes.. Plus there are about a hundred million (perhaps the slightest exaggeration! ) Chims with them on already...

I like things to look different.. (i guess that explains TVR ownership in general..)

[Fire99]

neejah said:

I don't think mine look silly.......

You're Chim looks wicked!! Very impressed

[andy jb]

"Plus there are about a hundred million (perhaps the slightest exaggeration! ) Chims with them on already... "

I beleive there were approx 400 Chims produced with optional 500 engine produced presumably all fitted with Estorils per the Griff, so not quite a hundred million but getting there.

Just be careful you don't cheapen teh appearance of teh car on teh basis you may think it looks more modern. Compared to modern cars they do have relatively smaller wheels and larger tyre profiles but not significantly so, and of course you can fit different sized tyres & profiles to the Estorils not necessarily 55/60 profiles.

Mine runs on estorils stnd 235x50 at the rear & look okay without sacrificing ride quality partciluly on track - but i have seen 45 profiles fitted.

Converseley I have orderd a company VW passat estate which has 235x45 as standard all round... with a diesel engine... WAY OTT & completely unecessary despite it being 'modern'. A trend set to reverse i feel in future

[incognit-O]

Fire99 said:

I like things to look different.. (i guess that explains TVR ownership in general..)

You're not kidding; your 450 is barely recognisable - nice mods

[Tunnelmeister]

incognit-O said:

Spiders on a Chim look wrong - too modern. Why not just get a set of 500 / griff wheels...?

i have to agree with the new boy on this one, the imola's are by far the best wheels (imho) for the chimaera, though having said that i did like the look of Sp's new spider replacements on a griff last week...

So much so that i'm thinking of speccing them up on the saggy in smoked chrome

[No1bassmonkey]

I think the spiders look great, couldnt justify the price myself so went with the Kahn RSS, one word of advise if using 18's would be to check and doubble check the clearance on the rear arches, get a nasty scrape on mine each time I hit a rather large pothole.

[Fire99]

incognit-O said:

Fire99 said:

I like things to look different.. (i guess that explains TVR ownership in general..)

You're not kidding; your 450 is barely recognisable - nice mods

Haha..

Yeah i bought it with 'Slight Cosmetic Alteration'... The V8 engine seems to poke out a bit more than other Chim's i've seen..