New wheels

Hi all to our American cousins
We are new to Tiger Ownership this year (2009) and we have a 1965 Mk1A that is a rolling resto.
Have done a few things, shocks, altenator conversion,cooling system overhaul, steering wheel change, and general cleaning and checking. This winter I am half way through overhalling the front suspension with uprated springs 380lbs new ball joints and have lowered the top wishbone location and beefed up the cross member.
What I would like is a new set of wheels and I am favoring Panasports. Have you any thoughts on sizes? I would like 7x16 on the front and 8x16 on the rears currently we have stock fenders although I would be happy to reduce the return lip I would not like to have flairs.

your experiences and thoughts would be very welcome

Thanks Jay

Hello. And welcome to our little corner of the classical sports car enthusiasts world!
I went from stock 13 inch wheel rims to 16's is the past 12 months or so. I have 16 x 7 inch wheels front and back. Given the fairly unique bolt circle pattern and 7/16 wheel studs, we are a bit limited in our choice of after market wheels. One of the key things I ran up against is finding the correct backside measurement (or offset if you prefer to use one of the other rim measurements) necessary to center the wheels in the wheel wells. A lot has been written about needing about 4.75 to 4.85 inches of back side measurement (or something like that) on the fronts and having to trim the lower corners of the front valence to avoid wheel rub at full lock with tires on 6 inch rims. I ended up buying Australian made Superlites which have a +25 mm offset. The more ideal front offset is I believe said to be +23 mm and I understand that Panasports have been made in that size. I put a 3mm spacer on the fronts to reduce the offset to +22mm, which seems to have gotten me close enough. A word about spacers. Our standard wheel studs are relatively short which is not much of a problem with steel wheels. With cast aluminum wheels the centers are much thicker and you do not have much room to play with spacers and still get enough full nut turns for a proper grip (The minimum is seven as I understand it for our 7/16 studs...). I mounted 205 X 16 tires on the front and could only get 215 x 16 tires on the back, and that was with some trimming of the rear fender lips back to the spot weld points. I know some guys run 225 x 16's on the back, but my 215s are pretty close to the rear leaf spring. Remember that the cross section of your tires is going to be at least a little wider than your rims so all of that needs to be considered. Maybe with a more ideal offset/backside measurement rear wheel than the +25 mm I have would push the wheel out a bit more and I could squeeze in a bit wider tire with some more trimming. But I would probably have to roll the fender lips up in the back, which was more than I was willing to take on at the time. That would give the maximum wheel well space and retain the stock look, which I know some owners have done.
I hope at least some of my experience is helpful. And again, a very warm welcome!
Cheers, Gene

Hi guys,
As a fellow Brit Tiger fan I am looking for another Tiger to restore and have also been looking at 16" wheels.
Minilite UK are currently tooling-up to make 16"classic style aluminium wheels in 7,8 and 9" primerily for the USA market and will be availible next spring.
I have been advised they will be producing a 7" with 116.5mm back spacing which might fit fronts ok?
Rears will be availible to suit in 7 and 8" with deeper dish.

Panasports look fantastic on Tigers but it maybe worth hanging on to see the minilites as they will be a much cheaper option than importing wheels from America?

Regards

i would advise you think otherwise about 16"s. i have 16" panasports for my tiger with 225/45 tires/tyres. it might break ribs when cornering and set great lap times but the car feels so much better to drive on 13" 185/70s and i'm pretty sure its quicker off the track. 13" tyres are easy to find in the uk so i'm not sure why you'd want bigger wheels on a road car.

also think of the extra strain on wheel studs and bearings with wide, sticky rubber. neither last long if you exploit all that new found grip (ask me how i know...).

probably 14 or 15 inch would be fine too but there just isn't enough sidewall on 16" wheels to get the car to handle properly on a normal english road. the suspension was not designed for that sort of tyre.

also consider even stiffer front springs (at least 450) and a stiffer anti roll bar.

the tiger's SO much more fun to drive with less tyre!