13 inch wheels

[Monkeyzak]

I have 13 inch compomotive alloys. I was planning on replacing them with mgf but going to keep them and get them refinished

They have been finished at some point with a rattle can and don't look great. What colour would they have been originally? Any suggestions on a colour?

The tyres aren't great and were advisory on the mot. Really struggling to get tyres locally and only ever used black circles but don't recognize the brand's. Are there any decent tyres in the budget end. £40??

I really struggled to decide what to do size wise on the wheels. I like the look of 15 inch and it would improve the handling but the only ones I've seen I really like are Revolution and I can't afford them. I've seen some with mgf that look great and some not so. The colour of the car seems to make a big difference.

I'd appreciate any opinions and advice on wheels for my car.

See attached the current wheels. They look ok in the pic but aren't

[BenTen]

Agree. Wheels look very different depending on car colour. Also love revolutions but not much else gets me excited. A lot of '80's style look bad so I'm keeping my standard 13" alloys. Handling still fun if not optimal.

[stevie_a]

just a quick one

[Monkeyzak]

I have zero Photoshop skills

I quite like that!! Maybe I should change them!!

[Beans]

I'd say stick with the 13" Compomotives. As for the colour , in your case i'd say either silver or gold.
The more I look at my DHC the more I like the 70's look of the 13" (in my case Wolfrace) alloys



15" indeed improves handling, but you really have to push the car to its limits to really notice it.
And the larger the wheels, the slimmer the tyre wall, thus the harsher the ride. Don't ask me how I know



So you'll have to ask yourself the question what do you really want

[Monkeyzak]

And there lies the problem. I can't decide. Do I blow a couple of hundred pounds restoring them and same again for tyres or get some mgf. And there's loads of different ones.

[Hasbeen]

I disagree totally that changing wheel diameter will have any advantageous effect on handling of a 7.

Most of my driving is on moderately good country roads, definitely not billiard table, but not rough either. I have the 8 with 15" & the 7 with 13", a just changing wheels has no good effect on my driving.

If I were only driving on A+ roads, with the slightly better rubber available in 15" size, there may be some improvement. This was the case a few years back, but today, the really good compounds are no longer available in 15" either. In fact they are no longer available in 16" size of my Honda S2000.

On real world country roads, the fatter bag on the 13" wheels gives better control than the lower profile 15" & the way they can absorb road irregularities more than make up for the slightly better rubber.

Unless you are going to tub the rear, & fit large flares to accommodate wider wheels than the stock car can handle, the only advantage of fitting MG 15s for example, is that it should eliminate your 60 MPH wheel wobble.

Hasbeen

[Monkeyzak]

Getting rid of the wheel wobble would be good

My mini had 17 inch alloys and a smear of rubber. The road I commute on isn't great and I split an alloy on an exposed manhole cover last year. Damaged a shock and a few other bits leaving me with a £1k bill. I find the 7 just bounces along where the mini crashed from rut to bump

As I tend to stay on A and B roads it might be smart to keep them. If I came across a cheap set of tyres and wheels I will try them. If not I'll most likely restore and replace tyres. There is a real lack of 13'inch tyres too.

I actually have no issues with the handling of my 7. I drive it quite hard and it's better than I expected!!

[FI Spyder]

I don't like the look of 98% modern alloy designs whereas the 70's/80's seem to be a better look for the car. The larger the tire/the thinner the thickness/the higher the tire pressure (as you don't have the cushion)/the rougher the ride. I prefer a higher tire pressure anyways on all my cars (which I suspect was to give a softer N/A ride) which gives my a more evenly wearing tire, more in touch with road surface, more car control. This does give a rougher ride at slow speeds but not noticeable on highways and highway speeds. 13" tires are increasingly difficult to find as new cars come with larger tires and as older cars get taken off the road, it becomes a smaller market and the common brands we grew up with drop that size. Kumho still makes that size and I've been using them for the last 15 years or so. As for tire colour, any wheel paint that is marked silver/argent etc. will be pretty close and without placing them side by side, no one will notice.

As far as handling on 13" wheels, I couldn't be happier with them (I operate them at 32 psi all around). The turn in are sharp with only a little understeer on slow speed corners (roundabouts), on high speed corners and curves it ask me if that's all I got. If pressed to the limit of tire traction the car will give a controlled 4 wheel drift that is perfectly balanced. This is on our rural curvy roads, Pacific coast #1 and #101 highways and on our local F1 quality (Hermann Tilke designed) track. Of course tire/wheels are only part of the formula. The car has stock springs, KYB front shocks, hard black poly up front, soft blue poly in back with Koni shocks. Not that there was any secret knowledgeable design, that's just the way things worked out.

[Cobber]

Modern wheels tend to have a positive offset, this is because transverse engine front wheel drive cars need it to fit all the stuff between the wheels, this has become the de-facto fashionable look for nearly all modern cars whether the are fwd or rwd.
Whereas our cars are of the 70s, when the deep dish negative offset ruled which explains why our cars sometimes look a bit silly with modern wheels, but look correct with negative or neutral offset wheels.

[UKPhilTR7]

I spent some time thinking about this before embarking on my search for some new wheels. There were a number of factors for me thinking of moving from the new 13” alloy wheels that I had just brought. The guys I had brought them of had them refurbished and they did look good and with the new tyres that I had on them, they looked good on my girl. However, for me in the back of my mind was the fact that I wanted to upgrade. So in the end I brought a set of 6 spoke 15” mgf wheels from Robsport. I will have to get them sorted and new tyres, but hopefully it will be worth it. I did see some on a 7 and like the picture that Stevie posted, I think the look good.

The main factors for me buying the 15” mgf wheels were:

I wanted to get shot of the 60mph wheel wobble and heard that changing the wheels would help. Before I know that our cars suffered from this, I took my girl to a number of garages and paid out in the hope of sorting out.

The factor of not being able to get the tyres these days was big consideration. The last thing I want is to start having issues getting things for the car that I intend to use more and more.

However, the main consideration in changing from my 13” alloys was that I want to change over the breaks on my car and for most of the kits these days you need something >14”. So going to 15” hopefully will address all the bits above. I have not had chance to put them on yet, but hope to soon.

[Roger27TBB]

Hallo guys,

i can get 6x13" wolfrace alloy-wheels like Beans wheels.
The problem is that the seller doesn`t have the wheel nuts.
On his pictures i can`t see if the nuts have to be cone or spheric.
Does anyone has official documents for the use of the wheels on a TR7
for the MOT ?
Do i need to put a spacer between the hub and the wheel ?
I hope to get some help from Beans.
Which tyre size is normal used for the 6x13" wheels ?

regards
Roger27TBB

[Beans]

The Wolfrace wheels have special wheel nuts with a long shank to centre the wheel on the hub.
They also have special slightly conical shaped rings/inserts to aid the wheel's centring. See also link below ...
https://tr7beans.blogspot.com/2013/11/new-wheels-for-dhc.html

[Roger27TBB]

Hallo Beans,

vielen Dank für die Antwort. Die speziellen Unterlegscheiben für die Radmuttern sind vorhanden.
Lange Radmuttern M12x1,5 gibt es von verschiedenen Herstellern.
Für den TÜV in Deutschland braucht man für nicht originale Teile bei Rädern oder Fahrwerken
oder z.b. Auspuffanlagen immer ein spezielles Dokument, eine ABE (Allgemeine Betriebserlaubnis) des Kraftfahrtbundesamtes, in der die Fahrzeuge für die Verwendung aufgelistet sind.
Wie ist das bei eurem TÜV (MOT) geregelt ?

Grüße
Roger27TBB

[stevie_a]

Hallo Beans,

vielen Dank für die Antwort. Die speziellen Unterlegscheiben für die Radmuttern sind vorhanden.
Lange Radmuttern M12x1,5 gibt es von verschiedenen Herstellern.
Für den TÜV in Deutschland braucht man für nicht originale Teile bei Rädern oder Fahrwerken
oder z.b. Auspuffanlagen immer ein spezielles Dokument, eine ABE (Allgemeine Betriebserlaubnis) des Kraftfahrtbundesamtes, in der die Fahrzeuge für die Verwendung aufgelistet sind.
Wie ist das bei eurem TÜV (MOT) geregelt ?

Grüße
Roger27TBB

many thanks for the answer. The special washers for the wheel nuts are available.
Long wheel nuts M12x1,5 are available from various manufacturers.
For the TÜV in Germany you need for non-original parts on wheels or chassis
or z.b. Exhaust systems always a special document, an ABE (General Operating Permit) of the Federal Motor Transport Authority, in which the vehicles are listed for use.
How is this regulated by your TÜV (MOT)?

greetings