weller wheels

[robalway]

urm will weller 13 inch 8j wheels fit over a mk1a's brakes as im thinkin on doing the wide deep wheels with wide flared archs

[aw11rally]

I fancy 13s too so let me know when you find out.

I was looking at minilite or allycat. Everything is very easy to get hold of in 4x108 not as much choice in 4x100.

[PW@Woodsport]

Even if they fit over the brakes the problem you face is ride height. If you get the 13's to fit there will be a huge wheel arch gap (unless you fit high profile tyres which would look silly and handle badly) , so you would need to lower the car to within an inch of its life.

Considering you will have already knocked 0.5" off the ride height by just fitting the 13" rim over a 14" rim and by a full inch over a 15" rim, that could equate to needing a 2" drop all round to get rid of the big wheel arch gaps.

Over lowering a Mk1 can have some serious handling implications too, once you start to take the lower control arm and steering arm past the horizontal it will suffer bad bump steer among other things.

I have 15" wheels on mine with a 195/45 tyre and i've had to lower it by 30mm to get it looking and handling right, but the car cannot sit any lower than this or it would be undriveable.

This is your big problem with a 13" rim, according to my calcs you would need a 65 or minimum 60 profile tyre (195 width) with a 30mm suspension drop to get it right and a 65 profile tyre on a 13" rim is going to look awful.

EDIT: i should add you could probably bring the arches down to the wheel instead of lowering the car if you wanted to go that far.

[aw11rally]

I'm under no illusions that there will be a huge arch gap and 13s will look shocking! I just want to try them on the back of the rally car to improve the final drive ratio some what. ALSO 13in rally slicks are half the price of 16in, same story with R888s.

[kaiowas]

Must be something in the water as I've recently been weighing up the feasibility been of going 13x8 with 225/45 R888 on the sprint car.

The thinking behind it is that I want more rubber on the road but I don't want to increase the overall diameter of the wheel/tyre combo (for sprinting the standard setup is overgeared anyway plus bigger wheels=more rotating mass). The only R888 tyre size that offers a wider tyre than stock without going taller is a 225/45/13.

Dropping the ride height is a bonus (smaller tyres is a good way to lower the CG without altering the suspension geometry) and being a track car there's no such thing as too low.

Even if they wont fit over the front brakes I've even considered just running this setup at the rear, sure it'll look ridiculous but it'll give me the gearing benefits plus the rear is where I really need the extra grip atm.

I was looking at Rota RBs earlier in the week, they're available in 13x8 4x100 +4ET and I even found a pic of some on a mk1 (http://forums.club4ag.com/zerothread?id=24527) however seems noone in this country lists them.

[aw11rally]

Same as him.

[elbon50]

I have a set of 15" Mk3 MR2 wheels on my Mk1 with 205 50s on the rear (same rolling circumferance as the original wheels with 185 60s)

In sprints, I am usually fastest in my class over the first 5 metres but slow lap time. Most other class members have 2.0 engines

On the 400 yd finish straight I can only get to 68 mph, using 2nd gear out of the hairpin & then third

Am I too low geared ? What do you think chaps ? Perhaps the replacement g'box I put in has the wrong ratio ?


Car runs great on the road. Has only done 61K miles from new

Peter

[kaiowas]

What are the other cars in your class? If you're up against hatches and the like then the mid-engined/RWD layout of an MR2 gives you a huge advantage off the line which will make your 5m times look disproportionately good.

[jimi]

I have a set of 15" Mk3 MR2 wheels on my Mk1 with 205 50s on the rear (same rolling circumferance as the original wheels with 185 60s)

In sprints, I am usually fastest in my class over the first 5 metres but slow lap time. Most other class members have 2.0 engines

On the 400 yd finish straight I can only get to 68 mph, using 2nd gear out of the hairpin & then third

Is that at Cudborough ?

[MartG]

urm will weller 13 inch 8j wheels fit over a mk1a's brakes

Not a chance - there's only about 5mm or so clearance between the caliper and the inside of the standard 14" rim, so no way would they fit under a 13" one

[Jim-SR]

you could do it with aftermarket calipers though. the stock ones are beefy, but if you had say a WMS caliper on there but with stock sized discs, you'd still have plenty enough braking power for an MR2, and the 13's should fit over easily.

there are some significant advantages, the main ones being lower CofG without altering suspension geometry, lower rotational mass, effectively closer gearing, etc.

[cartledge_uk]

you could do it with aftermarket calipers though. the stock ones are beefy, but if you had say a WMS caliper on there but with stock sized discs, you'd still have plenty enough braking power for an MR2, and the 13's should fit over easily.

there are some significant advantages, the main ones being lower CofG without altering suspension geometry, lower rotational mass, effectively closer gearing, etc.

Also with the driveshafts being where they are, you could go inboard brakes

[brawr]

^ I was thinking this too. Also, as wellers are steels (and therefore generally thinner walled than alloys) there might be that little bit extra clearance.
Have some photos of MR2s with small rolling radii:

[robalway]

well im going to give them a go over the mk1a brakes this weekend i want the low CG for track use and wellers are a cheap wheel where i can put alot of rubber contact down

[elbon50]

What are the other cars in your class? If you're up against hatches and the like then the mid-engined/RWD layout of an MR2 gives you a huge advantage off the line which will make your 5m times look disproportionately good.

Yes think you've got the answer there Kaiowas. Mostly hatches. The one faster than me was a very good MG TF

Peter

[elbon50]

I have a set of 15" Mk3 MR2 wheels on my Mk1 with 205 50s on the rear (same rolling circumferance as the original wheels with 185 60s)

In sprints, I am usually fastest in my class over the first 5 metres but slow lap time. Most other class members have 2.0 engines

On the 400 yd finish straight I can only get to 68 mph, using 2nd gear out of the hairpin & then third

Is that at Cudborough ?

Yes Curborough near Lichfield

Peter

[kaiowas]

urm will weller 13 inch 8j wheels fit over a mk1a's brakes

Not a chance - there's only about 5mm or so clearance between the caliper and the inside of the standard 14" rim, so no way would they fit under a 13" one

Are you not thinking of mk1b brakes? just been out to our car to check, we've currently got mk1a front discs with aftermarket 14" wheels and I can comfortably get my hand in between the caliper and rim.

[aw11rally]

That's nice to know, the rally car has mk1a fronts on the back.

[robalway]

i have mk1a brakes all round

[aw11rally]

Mk1a fronts all round? Standard bias valve or something different? How do you find it?