Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Post by **chequeredflag** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 11:20 am

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

Post by **MarkyB** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 12:48 pm

Almost certainly, I used to have a set of the early Rostyle rims from a sprite on my van.

Post by **mike.perry** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 3:10 pm

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

Post by **bmcecosse** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:34 pm

Only 13" - so will look 'silly' in the Minor arches.....

Post by **chequeredflag** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 7:47 pm

But aren't Marina rims 13 inch and they look ok ?

Post by **mike.perry** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:18 pm

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.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Sat Sep 10, 2011 8:22 pm

The Marina wheels certainly DO NOT look OK ........ They look terrible! Just my opinion - each to their own I suppose.....

Post by **chequeredflag** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:16 pm

Does anyone have any pics of a car on 13 inch wheels to help me make my mind up ?

Thanks

Post by **bmcecosse** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:40 pm

Seriously - it's a no-brainer....

Post by **chrisryder** » Sun Sep 11, 2011 10:33 pm

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

then very quickly came off again!

Post by **Fingolfin** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:25 am

Yeah, no good on a Minor. But they sure look nice on a Spridget!

Post by **Stig** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:34 am

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.

Post by **mike.perry** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:54 pm

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13 in wide wheels with 175/80/13 tyres. Almost the same rolling radius as 155/80/14 tyres

Post by **bmcecosse** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:18 pm

But you won't get fat tyres on Frogeye wheels......

Post by **MarkyB** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:22 pm

Early ones look like this;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-ESCORT-M ... 0632794508

Chrisryder, yours are the later ones.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:29 pm

We are told 'Frogeye' wheels - disc wheels with cooling holes, and only 3.5" wide...... Perfect on a Frogeye......

Post by **IslipMinor** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:59 pm

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.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:30 pm

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.

Post by **mike.perry** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:45 pm

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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?

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:15 am

How wide are they?

Morris Minor Owners Club

Austin Healey Sprite wheels

Austin Healey Sprite wheels

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