Thanks to everyone that wrote back and let me know the stock lug nuts would
work with my new (to me) Panasports. I like the fact that there are steel
conical inserts, so I know the whels are centered and tight, without going
through a lot of hassle. I had to use a pretty thin-walled socket to get
them into the countersunk holes.
The wheels look nice and fit well. They still don't look quite as nice to
me as the orginal Minilites or other closer copies - the face of the wheel
isn't as recessed, looks more like a FWD wheel with a huge spacer would (in
fact, that's pretty much how these wheels are constructed). Handling has
improved immensely - I'm sure it's due to a combination of having round,
balanced wheels and tires that aren't the rock-hard Michelin redlines I
have on the stock wheels. The used Panasports came with 195-70-15 Goodyear
Eagle GT4's mounted (and well balanced). Unless I calculated wrong, that
puts the tire diameter at 654mm, versus 670mm (assuming 78 aspect ratio) or
677mm (assuming 80 aspect ratio) for the redlines.
For those that are curious, I paid $300 for the 4 wheels, tires and center
caps <gloat>.
---
Ted Stevens stevens@erols.com
74 TR6 Gaithersburg, MD
|