Fitting American Racing Alloys?

AshUK

Silver forum user
Messages
81
Hi all

Have any of you Tiger folk out there fitted 15 16 or 17" American Racing alloys to your cars as I am sure I have seen a few pictures supporting this on the world wide web?:confused:

I am about to start restoring a tiger and would like some cool rims but a bit bored with the popular choices:)
 

michael-king

Gold forum user
CAT Member
Messages
4,132
Hi all

Have any of you Tiger folk out there fitted 15 16 or 17" American Racing alloys to your cars as I am sure I have seen a few pictures supporting this on the world wide web?:confused:

I am about to start restoring a tiger and would like some cool rims but a bit bored with the popular choices:)

If the american racing rims are the ones that look like the minilites sort of but the spokes go all the way to the centre and were the "silverstone" model.. then i have only seen them in 13" and 14".

As for wheel sizes.. once you go beyond 15" you have to be very careful with offsets and widths.. and likely will have to massage the body.

Even at 15" you have to be careful...
 

cadreamn67

Platinum Forum Member
Messages
608
Not knowing how familiar you might be with some issues with fitting aftermarket wheels to our Tigers, I thought I would highlight a few, just in case. My apologies if you are already familiar with them.

Our wheel studs are 7/16 diameter, most aftermarket wheels are drilled for 1/2 inch studs.

The taper on our stock lug nuts is different from the taper drilled into most aftermarket wheels. You cannot/should not use those stock nuts with most aftermarket wheels because they will not engage in the wheel holes correctly.

The Tiger wheel hubs centers are not machined concentric with the center of the axle shafts and therefore cannot be relied upon to center the wheel on the hub. That would be a hubcentric wheel. The Tiger's stock wheels are centered on the studs. Lugcentric if you will. So you need to be sure the hub hole in the wheel is big enough to clear the center sections of the axle hubs.

I have sets of both 15 and 16 inch wheels for my car. Both are 7 inch rims. I recommend 15 inch wheels because you do get a little more comfortable ride. To my limited knowledge, I have never seen 17 inch wheels on a Tiger and many think the 16's are out of proportion.

I run 205/50's front and back on the 15 inch wheels. On the 16's I have 205/45's in front and 215/40's in the back. If you are willing to roll the fender lips in back, you can get 225's on. I did trim some of the excess flange off the back fender lips, back to a uniform 1 inch thickness. I also trimmed the inside edge of the front wheel well at the valence to avoid wheel rub at full steering lock.

As Michael says, you need to be careful about the offsets, especially with the larger wheels. My 16x7's are +25 mm offset front and back, but I run with a 3 mm spacer on the fronts. The key on the fronts is to have between 4.75 to 4.875 inches backspace, in order to get the wheel inside the fender line and still clear the upper arm. Thus your offset for a properly fitting 6 inch rim on the front is going to be different than it would be for a 7 inch rim. So the key constant is the backspace figure, regardless of the rim width. Unlike steel wheels, the center sections of alloy wheels are pretty thick. Our Tiger wheel studs are pretty short. You do not have a lot of extra length to play with spacers and still get enough thread grip with the wheel lug nuts.

I hope at least some of that is helpful. A lot of my information was found on the old Tigersunited.com website when I was looking for new tires and wheels. Highly recommended for all sorts of things!

Cheers, Gene
 
Last edited:

TigerBlue

Gold forum user
Messages
827
5 lugs

The current (and 60's vintage 5 spoke) "American Mags" all seem to be 5 lug. Note that the spokes extend between the studs and so the five spoke wheel cannot be fitted/drilled to four stud hubs.

Back in the day American made a 13" Libre wheel with four spokes cast in one piece of aluminum. These are fine looking wheels, gray or polished centers with a machined polished outer rim. They are period correct but not LAT. They have holes larger than the stud with an insert and shoulder nut. Not an acorn. I had a set once which I sold with the black Tiger. Unfortunately they were no longer part of the package when I bought it back.
 

AshUK

Silver forum user
Messages
81
Thanks for the detailed info guys.

I know some people have converted to 5 lug hubs to increase wheel choice.

I am familier with the minilite and libre style AR wheels but was more interested in the "Torque Thrust" and "Salt Flat" rims. Just wondered if any of you in the US had fitted them as you have alot more cars than we do in the UK.

Many thanks
 

Cal44

Gold forum user
Messages
428
Be careful with "giant wheels". Firstly "giant wheels" look.........well, not right. In this case I am referring to form over function. These are tiny cars, the eye should not be drawn to wheels that are to big for the design of the car.

Big wheel....little tire, rough ride and I bet the suspension takes a brutal beating as well as the driver. Over on the 911 forums the fellows make reference to using a 15" wheel over a 16" on the older 911's, you can put more tire in wheel well.

Careful................

I dig Minilites
 

AshUK

Silver forum user
Messages
81
Be careful with "giant wheels". Firstly "giant wheels" look.........well, not right. In this case I am referring to form over function. These are tiny cars, the eye should not be drawn to wheels that are to big for the design of the car.

Big wheel....little tire, rough ride and I bet the suspension takes a brutal beating as well as the driver. Over on the 911 forums the fellows make reference to using a 15" wheel over a 16" on the older 911's, you can put more tire in wheel well.

Careful................

I dig Minilites

Thanks for that and yes I know what you mean. I was looking at 15" rims but the green tiger in my last reply may have 17" wheels which is a little large for my taste (and UK roads).It would be interesting to find out how the owner got them to fit properly though?
 

Cal44

Gold forum user
Messages
428
You U.K guys are lucky. You have the Minilite Co. there. I have always wanted a set. I just went to their site............dang........they have a bunch of sizes for Tigers and Alpines.

I also like the poverty/dog dish caps and rings the cars came with.

So confusing.............
 

AshUK

Silver forum user
Messages
81
The current (and 60's vintage 5 spoke) "American Mags" all seem to be 5 lug. Note that the spokes extend between the studs and so the five spoke wheel cannot be fitted/drilled to four stud hubs.

Back in the day American made a 13" Libre wheel with four spokes cast in one piece of aluminum. These are fine looking wheels, gray or polished centers with a machined polished outer rim. They are period correct but not LAT. They have holes larger than the stud with an insert and shoulder nut. Not an acorn. I had a set once which I sold with the black Tiger. Unfortunately they were no longer part of the package when I bought it back.

If you like the AR Libre wheel check out VTO Performance doing repros in 14" and 15" 4 lug 108 PCD which might fit Tigers and look great!!
 

AshUK

Silver forum user
Messages
81
You U.K guys are lucky. You have the Minilite Co. there. I have always wanted a set. I just went to their site............dang........they have a bunch of sizes for Tigers and Alpines.

I also like the poverty/dog dish caps and rings the cars came with.

So confusing.............

The thing is over here most tigers wear minilites or replicas so it would be nice to fit something else and you have some great wheel manufacturers in the US.

You also have the Sunshine in San Diego so no rust! Do you know of any California cars needing resto which might be for sale?

Went to the Coronado Speed Festival when I was over in 2002 absolutely fantastic :D
 
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