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Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 11:20 am
by chequeredflag
I've been offered a set of 'Frogeye' 13 inch steel rims, will these fit a 1970 Traveller in terms of offset and PCD ?

Thanks

Nick

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 12:48 pm
by MarkyB
Almost certainly, I used to have a set of the early Rostyle rims from a sprite on my van.

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 3:10 pm
by mike.perry
Same PCD but unless they are wider than Minor wheels then no point. I have 13 x 5.5 wheels so they will take 175/80/13 tyres

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:34 pm
by bmcecosse
Only 13" - so will look 'silly' in the Minor arches.....

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:47 pm
by chequeredflag
But aren't Marina rims 13 inch and they look ok ?

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:18 pm
by mike.perry
That is a matter of opinion. If you are going to fit 175/80 tyres then the tyres will fill the wheel arches but if you fit standard width or low profile tyres then they do not look right in empty wheel arches.
Purely my personal opinion.

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:22 pm
by bmcecosse
The Marina wheels certainly DO NOT look OK ........ They look terrible! Just my opinion - each to their own I suppose.....

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:16 pm
by chequeredflag
Does anyone have any pics of a car on 13 inch wheels to help me make my mind up ?

Thanks

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:40 pm
by bmcecosse
Seriously - it's a no-brainer....

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:33 pm
by chrisryder
[frame]Image[/frame]

:oops:

i put them on just to see what they'd look like...

then very quickly came off again!

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:25 am
by Fingolfin
Yeah, no good on a Minor. But they sure look nice on a Spridget! 8)

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:34 am
by Stig
mike.perry wrote:Same PCD but unless they are wider than Minor wheels then no point. I have 13 x 5.5 wheels so they will take 175/80/13 tyres
Genuine Frogeye wheels are just as narrow as Minor wheels, Rostyles are a bit wider. That's why I've only got 145 tyres on my Frog.

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:54 pm
by mike.perry
[frame]Image[/frame]
13 in wide wheels with 175/80/13 tyres. Almost the same rolling radius as 155/80/14 tyres

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:18 pm
by bmcecosse
But you won't get fat tyres on Frogeye wheels......

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:22 pm
by MarkyB
Early ones look like this;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-ESCORT-M ... 0632794508

Chrisryder, yours are the later ones.

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:29 pm
by bmcecosse
We are told 'Frogeye' wheels - disc wheels with cooling holes, and only 3.5" wide...... Perfect on a Frogeye......

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:59 pm
by IslipMinor
You do need to get wider rims to fill the arches, and lower the car at the same time - then they can look pretty good!

But a cautionary tale. We fitted these 5.5" x 13" wheels 41 years ago, and a few years ago had one of the centres crack so had to replace it and thought no more about it. We are currently in France having just completed the MSA Euroclassic down to Rome, where we have had 2 wheel centre failures during the 8 day event. One could be welded as a temporary fix, but the second was much more serious, so we have the narrow spare on.

2 of our spare wheels are being courieried out to arrive tomorrow, so that we can proceed with our return journey.

I suppose a combination of 40+ year old wheels, rough Italian roads and very high temperatures that made the Yokohama A021R tyres stick even more than usual on the 4 circuits that formed part of the run, all together stressed the wheels to a point of failure. Not unheard of at the time in the 50's and 60's, and hence the move to alloys for competition use.

Problem is that we like the look of the steel wheels, but 2 failures in a week, with one being potentially very dangerous, means that we now have to consider going away from steel wheels.

Mike,

Where did your wheels come from? Ours do not take the standard hub cap, we use an MG Midget plain one.

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:30 pm
by bmcecosse
The first Mini wheels suffered terrible cracking under stress - my Autocross car lost one on the track (my mate driving at the time!) and we lost several on the trailer carrying the car to events. BMC had to increase the centre thickness quite a bit. And this is why I wonder about the wisdom of either 'banding' standard wheels to make them wider - or of using standard Minor centres inside more modern car wheel rims to get wider wheels. I do believe(but haven't measured) that the centres used on the LP917 wide van rims are made with thicker steel.

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:45 pm
by mike.perry
[frame]Image[/frame]
Not sure what they are off, bought them at a National Rally a few years ago. They fit the Series MM hubcaps.
Can anyone identify them?

Re: Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:15 am
by bmcecosse
How wide are they?