Minilites!

J

JC.

New Member
Have seen several photos of P6 V8's fitted with minilites.

I quite fancy a set in anthracite to go with my metalic wine red paint scheme.

-Who can supply them in a suitable config for my P6 V8S?
-What is the correct PCD and offset for a V8S?
-Would 15inch 6J sound an apropriate size?
-Could I get away with anything wider on the rear to get more rubber on the road?
 
There are a number of firms around making copies of Minilites, Superlight for one, which members here have had very bad quality experiences with. Why not buy the real thing - www.minilite.co.uk - who are extremely professional and will sort you out with the correct offsets etc.

15" is definietly a good idea - If the offset is correct you can run 205/65 X 15's which are readily available and fit in the arches. Anything less than exactly correct offset though and you will have a real problem with grounding the sidewall on the D post extension beneath the rear wing, just next to the rear door opening.

Short of buying new wheels, the existing steels will just about stand 195's. For alloys the wheel of choice has to be the SD1 Vtesse wheel. If you skim about 31/2mm from the rear seating area it is an exact match on offset and will run the 205/65 X 15's. But you'll either need to get special nuts made up or fit SD1 wheel studs and you may need to use SD1 grease caps on the front hubs and /or relieve a little metal from the centre hole of the wheel.

Many people also use P5 Rostyles, but these are slightly wrong on offset and at 5J are pushing it even with 195's. NO problem with 185's though.

For an easy to use tyre size / gearing calculator go to http://www.roversd1.nl/sd1web/ and look uder bodyshell for the driveline calculator.

To make more room under the rear wheel arch area it is possible to alter the D post somewhat. First (fairly) easy step is to cut back the double skin are leaving only the outer skin (which carries the rear door closure rubber seals). If you want to be really radical you can have the whole thing away, but you then have a real problem with rear door sealing/wind noise. If that doesn't bother you the next problem is actually getting your fat tyres under the wing arch to fit the wheels. The P6 racer in the classic saloon series solves this by hinging the entire rear wing along the top edge so that it can simply be propped out of the way to change the wheels!

Chris
 
Thankyou for that. Most informative.
When I went to look at my 3500S I read the size specs on the tyres and imediately my heart sank as I discovered it had 14inch wheels. I know from experience that getting tyres for 14 inch wheels is very hard work.
Running 15" means that I need a slightly lower profile tyre to keep the rolling radius the same. However, there is a much more diverse selection of tyres avaliable in 15 inch compared to 14.

I understand that the PCD on the P6 is a bit unusual? Although, it must obviously be the same as an SD1 (since the alloys are, as you say, a direct fit) so that information is useful.

I was not planning on buying new alloys for my car. I am a 2nd year university student now trying to feed myself AND keep two classic cars on the road on just the grant I recieve from Tony B. Im sure you can apriciate thats quite a challenge!

I thought I would do my shopping on ebay and restore what ever I can find to the finish I require. I am no stranger to alloy wheel refurbishment. If I could work out how to upload images on here I could show you the wheels i restored and pollished in my stepdads workshop for my MG.

Hang on... heres a link to a pic of my BGT with the new wheels fitted...

http://www.mgcars.org.uk/cgi-bin....1_17763

Rim is chromed steel but the squares are hand pollished aluminium. There is around 14 hours work in each wheel!
 
So, I got some 15" 6 1/2" wide minilites. Will that run 195/70 tyre with correct radius? Does this mean that I need to get SD1 studs and nuts or have some special nuts made? God, where can I get some studs then? Brakers? Any other models fit P6 hubs? HELP, I am confused.
 
I've got 15" P5 Rostyles on mine, using 195/65 R15 tyres. The correct rolling radius should be 195/70 R15, but the 65 profile tyres are really easy to get hold of :)
 
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