Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

Buzz Killington wrote:

so you're racing a 30-year old Fiat and the thing that scares you is wheel adapters?

Hey, it hasn't dissolved into a pile of red flakes or shot its brakes in flames out the rear yet. So we're good!

Josh Poage
Poage Ma Thoin Racing - 1981 Fiat Brava #09 - 2009 Yee-haw It's Texas
Prison Break Racing - 1986 325e #27 - 2010 Gator-o-Rama
Poage Ma Thoin Racing - 1981 Fiat Brava #09 - 2011 Heaps in the Heart of Texas

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

Yeah having custom wheels made to continue to race the spitfire will be our option after Buttonwillow.

I read somewhere that the MGF wheels bolt right on the spitfires but in the USA where are we going to find a set of those.

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Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

The TR7/8 used the same wheel pattern.  I think going to 15" is a more popular upgrade on those than Spits so you might poke around some of the TR7/8 forums looking for bigger wheels.

1990 RX7 "Mazdarita"  1964 Sunbeam Imp (IOE 2013 Sears Pointless) 2002 Jaguar x-type (Winner C-Class 2021 Sears Pointless)
Gone bye-bye
1994 Jaguar XJ12 (Winner C-Class 2013 Sears Pointless)  1980 Rover SD1 (I Got Screwed 2014 Return of Lemonites)

29 (edited by Junkyard Dog 2011-11-29 07:02 PM)

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

Hey, 1st gen RX7 guys: Easy fix. Get some wobble bolts. http://www.serpentautosport.com/wheel_a … s_lugs.htm

http://www.serpentautosport.com/varibolt1web.jpg

Now you can bolt on  any 4x108 bolt circle wheel, such as Mustang GT 10 holers or turbines, which are dirt cheap. Now you can run all kinds of 200 TW tires. big_smile BTW, they were originally made for 4x98mm Fiats to allow using 4x100 wheels.

Philosophy of life: old age and treachery will ALWAYS overcome youth, enthusiasm and cash. General smartass know it all beer swilling ne'er do well. Avoid eye contact with this person, best avoided completely. 2008 Animal House Racing CMP 'Most Likely To Leave In An Ambulance' 2009 Blind Rodent Racing CMP 2010 Team Galileo CMP 2011 Roundhouse Kick Racing CMP 2012 Road Kill Grill Racing CMP (x2)

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

A lot of the stamped steel wheel makers make wheels with 4x110mm bolt patterns just for first gen RX-7s. Get a set of 15x7s and run 205/50-15s.

http://www.diamondracingwheels.com/pro.html

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

socal.colin wrote:

Yeah having custom wheels made to continue to race the spitfire will be our option after Buttonwillow...

When I was a dumb kid I made a set of 13x6" wheels for Spitfire by taking a set of Chevy Vega rally wheels, machining steel buttons to drop into the bolt holes, welding the buttons in, and then using a milling machine to drill new bolt holes on the Spit's 4-on-3.75" (I think) circle. Seriously dumbass kid stuff, but it worked a treat. They spun true and balanced just fine. I wore out a couple sets of cheap 205/60-13 with them.

I still have those wheels. You'd be welcome to them, but you'd have to take the car as well.

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

Junkyard Dog wrote:

Hey, 1st gen RX7 guys: Easy fix. Get some wobble bolts. http://www.serpentautosport.com/wheel_a … s_lugs.htm

http://www.serpentautosport.com/varibolt1web.jpg

Now you can bolt on  any 4x108 bolt circle wheel, such as Mustang GT 10 holers or turbines, which are dirt cheap. Now you can run all kinds of 200 TW tires. big_smile BTW, they were originally made for 4x98mm Fiats to allow using 4x100 wheels.

My God that is frightening. We're totally going to use them.

Josh Poage
Poage Ma Thoin Racing - 1981 Fiat Brava #09 - 2009 Yee-haw It's Texas
Prison Break Racing - 1986 325e #27 - 2010 Gator-o-Rama
Poage Ma Thoin Racing - 1981 Fiat Brava #09 - 2011 Heaps in the Heart of Texas

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

Hey, they are TUV approved. What could go wrong?

Philosophy of life: old age and treachery will ALWAYS overcome youth, enthusiasm and cash. General smartass know it all beer swilling ne'er do well. Avoid eye contact with this person, best avoided completely. 2008 Animal House Racing CMP 'Most Likely To Leave In An Ambulance' 2009 Blind Rodent Racing CMP 2010 Team Galileo CMP 2011 Roundhouse Kick Racing CMP 2012 Road Kill Grill Racing CMP (x2)

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

We use DOT legal bias ply 13" tires from American Racer in our Sportsman midget club. Developed for dwarf car racing they are available in 4 different sizes for less than $100 each delivered to your house via UPS. In two years of racing [15 races per year, 10 pavement & 5 dirt, yes same tires] they have provided excellent results. Right rears have been lasting 12 shows, left rears 20, front tires over 30. Your results may vary but these things have been leaned on hard.
RR is 245P60x13 with passenger car thread pattern. LR is 235P60x13 with a nice performance thread pattern. Fronts are 215P60x13.

Previously we used Mickey Thompson Sportsman I block tires {DOT legal}[245P50x13, 235P50x13 & 215P50x13] which wore like iron but became unavailable. We just didn't buy enough of them because the fronts lasted 5+years and the rears 4+years. If you can find them they are worth trying; I gave away a bunch to local oval trackers since they too were limited to stock wheel sizes [13x6, 13x7, 13x8].
Ask for Dwarf car tires.

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

About Spitfire wheels: I've owned more than a few and had the suspension etc all apart. If you can get access to a milling machine it will be pretty simple to redrill the stock stud holes larger and offset so that a wheel stud with a larger knurl could be used. Thestock 4x3.750 bolt circle is actually 4x95.25mm, there's enough there to be able to go to a 4x100 bolt circle, if you do this now there's a bunch of cheap easily found wheels that will work. VW 'snowflakes' and the older Miata 'daisys' in 14x6 are cheap and Falken makes a 185 60 14 RT615 with a 200 TW.

Philosophy of life: old age and treachery will ALWAYS overcome youth, enthusiasm and cash. General smartass know it all beer swilling ne'er do well. Avoid eye contact with this person, best avoided completely. 2008 Animal House Racing CMP 'Most Likely To Leave In An Ambulance' 2009 Blind Rodent Racing CMP 2010 Team Galileo CMP 2011 Roundhouse Kick Racing CMP 2012 Road Kill Grill Racing CMP (x2)

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

gearguy wrote:

We use DOT legal bias ply 13" tires from American Racer *snip*

Previously we used Mickey Thompson Sportsman I block tires {DOT legal}*snip*

It isn't just a DOT tire that's required, it needs to have a treadwear (UTQG) of 190 or higher.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

37 (edited by socal.colin 2011-12-01 12:34 PM)

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

BoKu wrote:
socal.colin wrote:

Yeah having custom wheels made to continue to race the spitfire will be our option after Buttonwillow...

When I was a dumb kid I made a set of 13x6" wheels for Spitfire by taking a set of Chevy Vega rally wheels, machining steel buttons to drop into the bolt holes, welding the buttons in, and then using a milling machine to drill new bolt holes on the Spit's 4-on-3.75" (I think) circle. Seriously dumbass kid stuff, but it worked a treat. They spun true and balanced just fine. I wore out a couple sets of cheap 205/60-13 with them.

I still have those wheels. You'd be welcome to them, but you'd have to take the car as well.

We will be looking at going to a 15" wheel if we do, the point is to get away form the 13" market.  Going to 15" the cost of having wheels made will save us on tires enough to pay for themselves after 2 races.  Plus it will look differrent and we might have to mod the fenders! Low pros....

We also already have another complete spitfire 1500 that we sold to a friend of mine, but we maybe buying back for parts depending on what we need for 2012. He has not touched it and never even removed it from my dad's yard anyway.

Thanks though.

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38 (edited by socal.colin 2012-02-28 03:14 PM)

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

Looking at this problem again. We have tires to get through our next race (Sears Pointless) but will be looking for something to work after that.

There are these Nexen CP641 tires anyone know anything about them? We can get them in a 13" that will fit our wheels. (In comparison the Sumitomo HTR 200 were plenty good and we got multiple races out of them)

All I have seen about the CP 641 is they suck in the rain and are OK when they warm up. The Spitfire weighs very little and I do not think it will be raining at Buttonwillow in June-July.

Not looking to be stuck but rather just be OK..  just some tires that would last the 24hrs and not fall apart (6 mounted for 2 spares) so we can have some fun and do a real 24hr.

We otherwise would have to get custom wheels or custom adapters. Yes I know this would be ideal but I am wondering if it will fit in our budget now that we are going to be splitting our budget with a new build. The total to do the conversion would be a bit high for the first race.

-edit also not sure about modifying the hubs again, they were already drilled out to fit a larger stud.

Thanks

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Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

kalpol wrote:
Casper_Milquetoast wrote:

After 2010 or so the 13" options just crashed.  The Sumitomo HTR200s were the last reasonable option and they have disappeared from our shores.  None of the new "B" segment cars use 13 inchers either.

I've got six good wheels that aren't useful for Lemons.

We're in even worse shape - the Fist uses 4x98 wheels, and unless I get some Lancia Beta wheels (wrong offset) or wheel adapters (I am scared of them), we're kind of screwed without pouring forth large amounts of cash.

Hang out with the Alfa guys.  We throw away 14"x6" 4x98 wheels.  Those are the wheels that came on the Alfetta, the bastard stepshild of Alfa Romeo (but mighty cool cars!).  I threw a set of four into the trash last fall, couldn't give them away.

I think the early Maserati BiTrouble came with the same bolt pattern, and those wheels are just as worthless.

bs

Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

Not sure how reliable tire-easy.com is ... but they claim to have 8 of the 13" Sumitomo HTR 200s left...

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?d … p;dsco=135

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Re: Where to get performance tires for our 13 inch wheels!?!?!

I like 13"s and hopefully one day, the judges will decide that they deserve an exemption from "190+ treadwear" rules. til then, it's 14+ for race tires, and 13s for street/snow/etc. 155/85r13 ftw!

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