15" wheels; an alternative?

[Westfield 129]

Thank you so much.

Now, I wish it would stop raining so I could drive my W11... Have to wait for the canyons to dry out and the mud and rocks to be swept away. Funny, as it had not rained in a few years here in Sunny Southern California. And now, maybe it will dry out sometime in April. Meanwile, the clouds roll in and my 2 year old daughter wants out...

So, I am going to watch Daytona, and have some popcorn. Sorta' like watching the freeway, but with more crashes.

Besides the wire wheels, I am working on test fitting some 5.5" alloy bolt on front wheels (5.5" seems to be the minimum width available for vintage type cast alloy wheels) in magnesium with a 6" rear wheel, using the usual Dunlop 4.50 fronts and 5.00 rears. The backside spacing (probably around 4.25~4.7"") will be critical to the fit, but there should be no clearance problems up front, as the rim width is stlll less than the cross section of my current 185/70/13s. The trick to all this is finding a period looking wheel, like an American "Silverstone" 8 spoke, or an early Lola type wheel with the right backside space. So far, no joy. Wobbly webs would be wonderful, but so far, I have not found one that fit without new hubs, and the cost is a bit too dear.

Failing to find the right looking wheel, I always have a fresh set of wire wheel hubs...

[Custardbadger]

Why don't you plan a trip to the UK Jan? Come over for the Goodwood Festival of Speed or the Revival Meet, I'm sure there are a few owners who would like to meet you. I'm happy to put you up. If we could get a few XIs together for a trip to Goodwood in the glorious South Downs that would be a lot of fun.

[Westfield 129]

It all sounds like fun I have not been to the UK since the early 90s...

[Splat]

Thanks David! Just the info and photos I needed. I hadn't seen that black plastic bowl on the back of the headlamp before, so I looked at the photos on Jan's site and it's clearly visible on the Denver car, and just visible on Jan's customer build.

Instead, my car has an integral fibreglass moulding on the back of the main bowl. It's angled and the rubber dustcap on the back of the headlight pokes through. As such, I think that, short of moving the whole headlight forward a few mil (possible), the clearance in the wheel well is as great as it possibly can be already. Good news for me, but I'll know more when I can arrange a trial fitting.

Meanwhile, I've a -15% voucher from eBay for vehicle spares and accessories that expires today. I'm going to take a gamble and buy the remaining tyres!!

[Westfield 129]

The headlight bowls on the late chassis cars is a Wipac part that comes with the kit, along with the headlights. With the 4.50 tires, there is no clearance problem. With the XZX tires, there is. You cacn cut away the bowl if necessary to make more clearance. Just keep the wires out of the way.

You could also make a ring to move the bucket forward, and cut the aft secton of the bucket for more clearance.

The earlier cars have a bowl behind the headlight which is cut away for the wiring to pass through. The actual headlight mounting is a metal mount, likely from the donor car. With this setup, you can space the headlight buckets forward a little, making a little more tire clearance. Trim the bowl behind the headlights as much as necessary.

Again, side wire connectors are best.

[Custardbadger]

Gents here is a photo of my MWS invoice for details of the wheels and tyres I ordered

[Redmax]

That's a lovely car CustardBadger, mine will look like that one day..!

Just to confirm, it was IVA'd on the 15s? And you had Westfield put it through the IVA?

Thanks

Jason

[Splat]

Again, many thanks. All good info!

Jon sent me these (thanks, Jon!) and asked me to post them. Again, the Wipac plastic shrouds, but cut down and reclosed with ally sheet.

[Custardbadger]

Hi Jason and thanks for your comments.

Yes it went through the IVA on 15s. Westfield did the IVA and associated paperwork for me for about £2k from memory. Felt expensive at the time but it took them a couple of attempts so probably worth it in the end.

They had to remove the spinners for the IVA and replace them with a set of the hexagonal type.

Thanks
David

[Redmax]

Thanks David. It's tempting to just hand the IVA problem to Westfield but I suspect I'm a few months away from that being a decision I need to make..!

Great to know it can be made legal on 15's too - presumably you had to have the speed recalibrated to suit what I assume is a larger rolling radius?