Eric:
New condition wire wheels and splines will take pretty much any
abuse you can throw at them. This was evidenced in their fitment to the
Pirelli Rally challenge MGBs raced by Sterling Moss et al a few years ago.
The 5 1/2" racing wheels are stronger than the stock ones and less
prone to spoke tension problems under extreme load, yet have the same spline
design as stock.
The important thing is to make sure that your drive splines are in
excellent condition. Usually you will find that the R Rear spline is really
iffy. Under hard acceleration this can fail causing a loss of traction and
braking. Iffy front splines can fail under braking causing inadvertant off
course excursions with associated rearranging of planar surfaces.
Ok. The statement is that with 5 1/2" wire wheels on new hubs you
can rule the world. Now the reality is that you don't have new hubs, and
you don't have new wheels. What you have are some worn out 48 spoke 4 1/2"
wheels on iffy splines.
Based on your interest in reducing racing costs and increasing
safety. And the fact that you have a Saulsbury axle assembly I would
suggest swapping to steel wheel hubs and throwing a set of used Datsun 240Z
rims on the car. The conversion can be made for less than $150 if you shop
around and is a reversible bolt on. The rear wheelbase will be a little
narrower than stock, but can be spaced out a bit if necessary with spacers.
Get some time on the track without having to worry about spoke
tension or spline inspection. If you want to go with the
historical/classical look, once you have experiencel save up for some good
wheels and install new spline drives.
Kelvin
65 MGB works replica running 5 1/2" wire wheels
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Erickson [mailto:eric@erickson.on.net]
> Sent: Monday, July 26, 1999 7:47 PM
> To: mgs@autox.team.net
> Subject: Racing Wires
>
>
> To open up a little 'private' conversation that Mr Cotty and
> I have just
> been having I would like to gather some informed comment or even wild
> speculation.
>
> I am planning on getting into some club racing or more specifically
> Super Sprints. Just four laps around a little mile or so long track
> with a few curves - it has a reputation for being hard on
> brakes that I
> can attest to as my 'street' brake pads turned to cardboard
> after a few
> sets of practice laps at lower than 'really-trying' speed.
>
> Now the question isn't about brakes but rather WIRE WHEELS
> (the braking
> description just lets you know that the twisting and turning is
> marginally hard on the car).
>
> One school of thought says that I will kill myself if I leave the wire
> wheels on. The wires will collapse.
>
> Another school of thought says that for the little distance and
> effort... just four laps... I should not worry about the wires
> collapsing unless there are some pre-existing weaknesses or damage to
> the spokes.
>
> The rest of the arguments fall in between those two extremes.
>
> Has anyone any thoughts or experience, good or bad, with
> racing on wire
> wheels?
>
> Basically I am trying to apportion my meagre funds and to
> prioritise my
> spending on my little car. My primary aim is to be able to get around
> the track without killing myself or anyone else. Then I need to make
> sure the car doesn't fall to pieces along the way. Next is
> making it go
> and stop safely and as quickly as possible for a vanilla engine.
>
> THEN comes the go-fast stuff on the engine (in the meantime I
> will have
> got myself some decent track time under my belt).
>
> Can I leave the wheels until later?
> Do I need to ever change the wheels?
>
>
> Eric
> '68MGB MkII
>
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