Steve,
The reason the new cars with wires or 16" alloys are quite a bit more pricey
than the standard 15" alloy cars is in no small part due to the fact that with
16"s, the track of the car is 1" wider at the front and 3" at the rear and the
body itself is 4" wider. It is my impression that your car would require a
total
rebuild to accept the 16" alloys. Also, I seem to remember hearing from
Mark Read at MMC shortly before his departure last year that the "Works"
had resisted wires from the start with the Plus 8 due to their inability to
deal with the torque. At the instigation of the German agents primarily
who seem attracted to wires, some time was required to find a supplier,
(in Bangladesh, I believe) capable of building the wheels with extra spokes
which could withstand the output without distortion.
Currently, I have a North American Spec. (NAS) Plus 8 allegedly due for
build momentarily on order with the 16" alloys and can't really understand the
fixation with wires. It is certainly a matter of personal taste, but I'm with
you on the practicality of the alloys, not to mention the "look" of 16's on
such an extremely wide Morgan. The wires just seem to be a bit out of place.
(Taste, again.) For anyone interested in viewing what I'm talking about, a
photo
I took last July of the red NAS prototype can be found on the Cantab Motors
site on the Q & A page at: http://www.cantab-motors.com/QandA.html
Regards,
William G. Lamb, III MailTo:lambroving@worldnet.att.net
Land Rover Specialist
At 08:36 AM 6/25/98 +1000, Steve Moore wrote:
>OK, OK. I forgot about the new Plus 8s with wire wheels. We don't see many
>of the newer cars here in Oz. Dealer markups make the prices ridiculous.
>The result is that my mindset is well and truley focused on the 70's rather
>than the 90's (when it comes to Morgans at least).
>
>This however raises a point. How strong are these new wheels and how prone
>to going out of true. Anyone owning an older car with wires is well aware
>of the problems these wheels can present. The new design seems different to
>the older style wheels in that all the spokes meet in the same plane on the
>rim. Does this result in the rim flexing?
>
>I really like the idea of alloy wheels that would fit on the centre lock
>(Rudge) hubs. Would the new 16" alloys fit onto the hubs on an older (70s)
>car?
>
>Cheers
>
>Steve
>
>Please Note new Phone and Fax numbers
>
>Dr. Stephen Moore
>CSIRO Tropical Agriculture
>Molecular Animal Genetics Centre
>Level 3, Gehrmann Laboratories
>University of Queensland
>St. Lucia, 4072
>Australia
>
>ph 61 7 3214 2476
>fax 61 7 3214 2480
>email Steve.Moore@tag.csiro.au
>
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