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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Pictures of different size Minilites on Midgets

Hi,

I am undecided on what wheels to fit to my midget. Could some kind people post some pictures of there wheels on their midgets. I'm stuck deciding whether to fit 5.5x14" or 6x13" even maybe banded rostyles. It's an RWA too just for your info.

Much appreciated

Richard.
R J Price

What bodyshell do you have (RWA or SWA)? I doubt that a 6 inch wide rim would fit a SWA without serious work to widen the wheel arches at the rear. There can be other clearance problems with fouling the rear spring shackles too.
Chris H (1970 Midget 1275)

Chris - Richard states RWA.

I agree 6" wide would probably need rolled arches on a RWA (Depending on offset which then may cause backspace issues)

Attached is a photo of my car; 14x5.5" wheels shod with 175/65R14 UniRoyal Rainexpert tyres. No rubbing - excellent grip in wet and dry. H-rated tyres required since I have a K-Series engine.


Johnathan

you chaps have missed something in the OP same as I often do so you're in bad company


>>It's an RWA too just for your info.<<
Nigel Atkins

Nigel - read the first line of my post above ;-)
Johnathan

Jonathan,
that's stupid of me me I saw your reply and still missed your first line ! scary !

I blame Chris for distracting me :D

apologises to you, naughty corner for Chris and I
Nigel Atkins

5 x 13" with 185/60x13 Yokos


Dave O'Neill2

My use of the word agree didn't help. Chris is spot on with his SWA comment - 5.5" normally means pushing the wheel arch out on one side (Midget often being asymmetric in that regard). Lots of work to fit a 6" wide wheel to a SWA.

For RWA - 5.5" wide is easy (Most of the time...), 6" needs some work.

Worth noting that my bigger wheel and tyre combo is circa 1kg heavier than the slightly smaller rolling diameter of the 13x5" wheel/tyre combo it replaced (Also minilite).

Half of that excess 1kg is unsprung which is less than ideal. The payback is more room behind the wheel (Helps with some brake combo's) and a wider tyre selection. I will get the overall weight down again by switching to alloy hubs... Thus neatly negating the front wheel bearing issue which now mentioned will increase this thread to 300+ posts :D
Johnathan

Dave - perhaps never a problem but I don't think the arch covers the profile of those front tyres? I am not an expert but I understood that there was a requirement to cover 'x' % of the tyre when viewed from above? As I say - it may never be a problem.
Johnathan

Jonathan, it was marginal, probably, although I never did use it on the road, unfortunately.

Why was (only) half of the excess 1Kg unsprung?
Dave O'Neill2

Like you Richard I keep coming to look for pictures so I can see some great looking cars with smart 'boots'.

I wonder where all the fellers cameras have gone?
Dave Squire (1500)

Dave O'N,

'my bad'. Of course the whole wheel and tyre is hanging off the axle.
Johnathan

These were 5" rims too, with 165/70x13 tyres.


Dave O'Neill2

I think 5.5 x 13 with 185/60/13 might be the way to go. My dad had 6 x 13 on his caterham which looked pretty good. I saw some banded rostyles on a vauxhall which looked nice as well.
R J Price

Dave, your racing midget looks pretty impressive!
R J Price

I love this

15x6 Minilites



Pete Moreland-Moore

Peter, isnt that the Jaguar powerd american sprite?

Personaly I like to see a bit more rubber on the wheels.
This is great for track I guess but in rallying you want/need more rubber&air.

Do you have a full side photo of this car?
Arie de Best

175 70 13 on 5 inch wide minilite copies (KN)

If I was less tight I'd buy wider ones and get the sidewalls a bit more vertical




Rob Armstrong

Liking the look of these. They're 8.5x13 and obviously won't fit a midget. I wonder how they would look at 5.5x13 or 6x13.


R J Price

there are thread(s) about banding wheels in the Archive
Nigel Atkins

Probably seen this before. Parked next to a DAF 33 at some car show, IIRC.

175/70/13 on 6j rims but the arches are cut higher. Stick out too far for standard Spridget arches.

Tyres now flat due to it not moving for the last 2 years. :o(

Luv those hubcaps!


r thomas

Richard

I fitted some vintage Compomotive wheels 5.5Jx13 with 165/70x13 tyres on a SWA. They seemed to fit very well with clearance between the wheel and spring hanger at the rear and wheel arch as the front. Unfortunately the tyres rubbed on the wheelarches until I fitted a Panhard rod. Even with the Panhard rod the tyres were rubbing on track days where cornering was a lot harder (the word TOYO was completely shaved off!). Another limitation was that I could not lower the car as that reduced the wheelarch clearance even more.

They looked nice - see picture.

P.S. it took me about 10 attempts at resizing the picture to get this BB to accept it. Anyone know what the max acceptable resolution is for the BB.

Chris


Chris H (1970 Midget 1275)

Because of the problems with the 5.5x13 Compomotive wheels I changed to 5.0x13 Minilites with YOKOHAMA tyres (165/70x13) with no loss of grip and no clearance problems.

Only one recent picture of the fitted but you can get an impression.

Chris


Chris H (1970 Midget 1275)

This thread was discussed between 14/04/2013 and 17/04/2013

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.