On Wed, 3 Feb 1999 VANDECARR@aol.com wrote:
> Thanks for answering my questions.
I cc'd this reply to the Triumphs list... it's netter to debate
this stuff there, as opposed to making snide comments about other stuff...
;-)
Hope you don't mind.
> The car I am building will be only for
> autocrossing and I'll be running in A production. I have only been
> autocrossing for a year but I've had a great time and have beaten up my street
> TR 6.
Me too. A Prepared...
> I called a company today (Comp Wheel I think) and they have several wheels
> designed for autocrossing/road racing. The 5 spoke wheels I like are about
> $185 each and weigh 18.7 pounds each. The models that look like the Panasports
> are 20.9 pounds. Do you know how much the Panasports weigh? He is checking
> with their supplier form England and is getting back to me.
For that kind of money, you should look into Keizers. They are a lot
lighter, although I have no idea the actual weight. Drop a line to Mark
Bradakis (mjb@autox.team.net) and ask for a quote, as he's a reseller...
I think they should cost about the same and they will be lighter than the
others.
There's two Panasport wheels you can use, the regular and the light.
There might even be a "super light" (or is it Ultra Light??) now... the
regulars are around 20 pounds, the lights are something like 16 or 17
pounds and the super lights are less than that.
I don't have any actual data - I'm going by educated guesses, as I've
actually lifted each of these, although the super lights that I lifted
were much smaller Spitfire wheels - they were something like 12 pounds...
really light.
Cost goes up as a function of weight - that's why the Keizers ar a good
deal. You can't get a lighter wheel for the money.
And if you're only using the car for AUtoX, Keizers would be a good
choice. Note: don't drive any of the "light wheels" on the street. I have
a set of Revolutions that need to be straightened a bit becuase the
previous owner drove them on the street...
> What size tires are you using and do you have adequate clearance? I saw one
> AP TR 6 that was running 205/50s (I think) BFGs. I saw a stock TR 6 running
> 225/55s and they looked rather large. I am leaning toward the Hoosier tires
> mostly because I know a dealer and can easily get them. Any advice is greatly
> appreciated.
Two things... prepared class lets you run slicks and if you were building
for street prepared, you have to use DOT tires.
That being said, Goodyear or Hoooooosier 23 X 9 X 15's are the proper
tire of choice. Get the softest compound... Now, if you intend to time
trial, the super-duper soft tires will probably be too soft, but most of
the AutoXers I know use the Goodyear 210 compound or the Hoosier R25 (or
possibly R30).
Now 9 inch slicks are a tad narrower than 225 tires... I've run
225/55-15's on my DSP TR6 for the last three Autox seasons... they fit, but
you need to be careful of two things. At full lock, it is possible that
your inner sidewall will rub on the front sway bar. The other problem is
that the rears can possibly rub on the "bump stop bracket", but you have
to mount the tires and check this. I fixed the rear problem by using
small spacers, about .5 inch - but bear in mind that I run 225/55's on
5.5 inch rims... really. While it's not anywhere near an ideal setup, it
does work, and I can be described as a cheap person - I didn't want to go
out and buy 7 inch wheels like I should have had for the 225 tires...
Some folks wind up hammering the bump stop in a bit to get some
clearance. If you get creative and remove the bump stop altogether - be
warned that you'll create more problems than you fix - you need some sort
of bump stops unless you really want to replace axles alot - not to
mention the possibility of transitioning into a completely uncontrollable
car! Read a suspension book to understand what I mean by that. I'm using
the hammer approach for now.
Also note that the 23 inch tires are fully three inches shorted overall
diameter than the stock tires, this moves you closer to the ground by
around 1.5 inches, so if you've played with the suspension much in terms
of lowering, you might actually have problems bottoming out...
Last thing - be careful of where you set your track width. The AP rules
specify 60 inches of maximum track. I have yet to measure this because I
have no slicks yet and I have no tires mounted on my Revolutions, but
with the 23 X 9's, the seven inch wheels and the spacers that you'll
probably need, it is possible to get more than 60 inches of track. So be
careful here. And note that the rules limit you to 7 inch wide rims!!!
> Thanks again for your reponse. I notice your email address is MIT.EDU. I'm
> from New York about 3 hrs from MIT.
New york, I've heard of that - it's somewhere west of Worcester, MA, right?
Sorry - couldn't resist.
So - maybe we'll meet at an SCCA autocross??? There's a "national tour"
event about 30 miles from my house in June, the 12th and 13th, if memory
serves. I hope to have my car ready for that one. And there's a McKamey
driver school that should be part of that event. Kool!
If not, and if your car is ready - we'd love to see you at the VTR
National in Portland, ME from July 28th - August 1st. We'll be having an
autocross there!!! And we love people that _drive_ thier Triumphs.
So, you're three hours from the SCCA National Tour and about 5 hours from
the VTR national... you have to make at least one of them!
See ya.
> Dean VanDeCarr
rml
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