In light of recent discussion, and in case any of you haven't heard the
story yet, I thought I'd drop it in here (again). When I switched from
street tires to race tires for autocrossing I imediately started getting
stress cracks in the STEEL wheels on my MGA, like one cracked wheel for
every 20-30 minutes of track time. After replacing 5 cracked wheels over a
year or so, the 6th one finally parted company from the car in a rather
dramatic manner. No other harm done, put the street tires on and drove
home. I have since procured a nice set of aluminum wheels, so no more
breakage.
I have the impression that the stock steel wheels are rather thin and
flexible. They seem to hold up just fine to the original bias ply tires,
and even to modern radial tires of a similar size. But race tires driven
hard will definitely tear up the steel wheels. I also have the impression
(totally unfounded) that a nice set of 72-spoke wire wheels may well be
stronger than the stock steel wheels, but I be danged if I be the one to
find out the hard way.
Incidentally, the aluminum wheels are very stiff, and as a result provide a
much improved feel of firmness to the handling of the car, no more hop-skid
from a little bump in a turn. Find info about my aluminum wheels here:
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg/picmg/magwhl.htm
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
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