I haven't been following this thread (I frankly find it a little boring -
let's go back to the towing/driveshaft thread!).
Being by nature a sh-t disturber, I thought that I would throw in another
item of information to further fuel the discussion, assuming no one else
popped up with it earlier on and I missed it.
I can't offer an cite for it, as I am frankly too busy to search my library,
but I think you will find that some of the early English racers that ran
Austin Healeys (big, not little, although we had a rotary powered Sprite
locally that slalomed, and I agree - a heck of a lot of fun. We also had a
Lotus 7 with an RX2 in it, known as a 'Rotus'), that turned them into mutant
modsports creations. Bizarre things with bloated great glass fenders looking
like regular sports cars in some post-apocalyptic radiation born nightmare.
They ran very wide wheels, usually in the range of 8-10" width, and while
they weren't normally using wires, as wires of such width were both
unavailable and unsafe (ask me about all the guys running wires I have seen
come in on 3 wheels in my 3 decades of racing old cars), they did often
retain the centre lock system, as the factory steel wheel hubs were hard to
find, or they just liked the knockoff style.
In any case, the guys with really wide wheels (I seem to recall some ran
Pierce wheels) noted a tendency for the knockoffs to come loose under
braking, so they swapped hubs side for side. Go figure! Something else to
work into the theory!
You might be able to get more info from the AH guys on other groups
(www.Austin -Lorry.com?)
No idea where the cross over point from regular behaviour to opposite
behaviour is, in terms of wheel width.
I have gone back to knockoff wheels on my MG race car, BTW, with no problems
with nuts undoing themselves, but then I use appropriately narrow (5.5")
period wheels (steel not wire - remember, all REAL MGs have 2 cams!)
We did have one year down at Laguna Seca when Steve Earle had tech require
everyone to wire their knockoffs on, I expect because some twit had lost a
wheel the year before (net result, the wire came loose and whipped the crap
out of the paint on a couple of fenders - you could walk on the track after
racing was over and pick up all the lost 'safety' wire). They dropped that
idea the next year, though.
Cheers,
Bill Spohn
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