Topic: Volvo 740 Wheel Options
I am looking for advice/suggestions from the hivemind of the interwebs.
Situation: We campaign the Swedish Knievel 1990 Volvo 745 Wagon in Kalifornia. Currently, the car is fitted with 205/50-15 tires on 15"x7" wheels. I came up with a plan (with Trevor in Chicago's help) to go to 235/45-17 tires on 17"x8" wheels for mohr grip. Nearly simultaneously, I ordered a set of Zii's from TireRack.com and a set of 17x8 Voxx wheels with a 20mm offset (+/- 5.25" backspace) from SummitRacing.com. All is good in the world, right? Wrong.
That was a Thursday. TireRack, god bless them, delivered the tires Friday morning. Saturday afternoon I get an email from Summit indicating some sort of problem with the wheel order. After some song and dance about the wheels being stuck on a ship waiting for the Los Angeles dock workers' strike to be over, I get the real story from Voxx: they are no longer making the wheel, or any other wheel in that size for the somewhat obscure 5x108 Volvo bolt pattern. Well, that shouldn't be much of a problem, I will use my Google-Fu skills to find another set of wheels. Shouldn't be that difficult. I know exactly what I want: 17x8, 20mm offset, 5x108 bolt pattern.
Not so fast...
It seems that the market for Volvo bolt pattern wheels with a rear wheel drive offset has all but dried up. Nobody, that I can find, is making a wheel with these dimensions. OK, not the end of the road. I can solve this. What are my options:
1. Use a FWD 17x8 wheel with a wheel spacer to get enough clearance between the back of the wheel and the suspension. Not thrilled with this idea as I have seen more than one Lemons race car throw a shoe as a direct result of wheel spacers/adapters;
2. Find an appropriate sized wheel in a different bolt pattern and with a design that will allow drilling of 5 new lug bolt holes. After a somewhat lengthy search, I cannot find a shop that will do this. Particularly when I mention that we are talking about a race car. Most of the guys who talk about redrilling are associated with a less-performance-oriented approach to motoring. I am open to this option if anyone can point me to someone who can help me with this.
3. Custom wheels. Out. Too expensive. My original budget as $540 for the 4 wheels. I have some wiggle room but not 400% wiggle room.
4. Re-drill the hubs and rotors for a more popular bolt pattern. 5x120 perhaps. Press in some new (maybe racecar-ish extra long) wheel studs and Bob's your uncle. Maybe even have a 2nd set of rotors drilled to have in inventory. OK, except we loose the ability to use the 8 wheels we now own. Further, this wheel/tire package is sort of a science experiment. I guess that it wouldn't be that big of a deal to return the car to the 5x108 bolt pattern particularly if I had a 2nd set of hubs machined rather than machining the ones on the car. The other challenge with this option is that all of the rotors I have seen have a bunch of holes in the mounting surface leaving little room for 5 new holes. I think I have a machine shop that will do this work assuming I can find some rotors that will work. I would say this is the solution I am leaning toward.
5. Steel racin' wheels. Can't find anyone who makes 17x8s with a 5x108 bolt pattern. 15s? Sure. 17s not so much. If you know of a source for these, please share.
6. Shitcan the whole idea and sell the brand new Zii's I've got to a fellow race team? Feels like giving up. Not there yet.
7..n. Ideas I have not thought of.
OK, so you are me. What would you do?
Swedish Knievel Skycycle('90 Volvo 740 Wagon)