Vintage 190 aluminum wheels

Ooops. I meant Vintage Motor Cars, not Seduction.

I just spent my first season with them.

I switched to wide five and wanted to counter the weight add, it helped, but my car still gained 23 lbs :-/.

I had them black power-coated FWIW.

So far, they’ve been fine, except I took a right turn too quickly and kissed the curb taking out both wheels and tires of the right side. I’m getting the rear one repaired and scrapping the front one.

Would steel wheels have survived? I dunno.




> On Nov 3, 2017, at 11:55 AM, SpeedsterOwners.com <**************> wrote:
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What car do you have? I have a Vintage Speedster and wondering if the  4" back spacing works.

Scrapped one would make a great garage air hose reel - albeit an expensive one.  Are yours the flat or polished finished?  Are they raw or clear coated.  Curious about maintaining finish.

Mine have been black powder-coated.

I like the idea of the air hose reel. I replaced the wheels and tires immediately.

I’m still waiting on the third one. I will cost $75 to redo, so I’m just getting it to have as a backup. No law saying that it can serve as a air hose reel for now :-)
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You'll drop 8- 10 pounds per corner going from steel to aluminum wheels. Any other wheel that light will cost at least that much (and probably a fair amount more!). I'm guessing Tom's net weight gain is because of the heavy brake assemblies he went with; I believe there's lighter stuff out there (check out  http://www.airkewld.com/Brakes-s/2317.htm and http://www.coolrydescustoms.com/coolstop-brakes.html ) but its more expensive. And a hit hard enough to destroy an aluminum wheel probably would have wrecked a steel wheel as well.

Check out the wheels you have on the car now; there's probably 4" backspacing (or close) and if you look at the space between the wheel/rim and the shock mount and spring plate there's probably a little more room still. My opinion- put the lightest stuff on the car you can afford. This is a play thing, afterall, and lighter suspension/brake parts will just make it more fun! _{(think big, evil laugh here!)}.

@ Tom. You strafing apexes?!? LOL Sounds like a silly mistake, which could of done damage on your suspension components also. Hope your car is ok.

I can relate though, as years ago I thought I was Mario Andretti and blew a corner in my '66 Bug lol. Blew two front tires and trashed the rims. I've matured since then. ;-)

I had it looked over by the local Porsche/VW experts, and they saw no further damage, and BOY did they look. After giving me a laundry list of BS issues, they refused to do an alignment unless they did one of their BS issues first. The alignment is a little off, but she’s heading back to Bremen in a trailer next week for annual upgrades and maintenance. I actually consider myself lucky that I have aluminum wheels because they probably absorbed more of the impact.

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Last year when Vintage Speedster was building my version of a Speedster "Outlaw" without hubcaps, I had Kirk put a set of the silver power-coated "Vintage 190" wheels on the car because they look very similar to the original racing wheels that Porsche used back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. . . but to me I think they look even better than the originals. 

As an added bonus, being aluminum wheels they were being advertised by Vintage Motorcars to give significant performance gains in braking and acceleration by reducing a total of about 40lb of rotating mass.  That was another big plus for me and I have been very pleased with them.

         

Great looking wheels - I hope to have a set...

I love mine! (polished 4 1/2")

I have a 2014 VS and have no idea of the back-spacing but I've got tons of room (going outboard) with the 165/15 tires Kirk uses.

Just got a powder coated set. I only have two drives on them. So far it's been great. I did scrub the front right tire on the fender during a hard left hander with a bump in the turn, but not as bad as it would've been with the steelies. I have the 4.5s up front and 5.5s in the rear.

I do wish they would've supplied a template for the hubcap clip holes instead of drilling them. Anyway.

I'm still undecided about the color. I'll live with them for a while first.

The wheels don't come with the holes predrilled or a guide where to drill?

That's why they come predrilled with the screws and clips.

I'd rather have them plain, but that's me.

Here's the 4.5 with 185/65 P4s on it.

I do need to decorate that center cap area.

Wombat, they come drilled and with stainless screws and hubcap clips.

Carlos is just too cheap to buy hubcaps...

Damn, I've been found out.

Those wheels will be on my spyder.  Carlos.  Can't wait to chase you through the smokies next year.  My car is getting very close.

Tom Blankinship posted:

I switched to wide five and wanted to counter the weight add, it helped, but my car still gained 23 lbs :-/.

If I may ask (and I'm not trying to do anything but learn) how did your car gain so much weight? Is it all in the brakes?

If I'm not mistaken, you switched from 4 lug EMPI brakes with steel wheels, and switched to AL wide-5s and SoCal brakes. Was there some other change that contributed to the weight-gain?

I'm as big a fan of "the look" as the next guy, but if Al is right about there being an 8 lb/wheel weight savings with the Vintage wheels, that means the SoCal brakes weigh 50 lbs more than the EMPIs. That doesn't seem possible, but looking at those chunks o' iron, I wonder.

I've got CBs wide 5 discs, which I really like, but are not perfect. They've got a steel sleeve pressed into an AL hub on the back which separates over time (I've replaced one, and Cory Drake hated his enough he went back to drums). I've always thought they were significantly lighter than the SoCal iron brakes, but I'm wondering now how they compare to the smaller EMPI 4-lug brakes.

I'm sure somebody knows what the weights of the brakes are (@Anthony, @chines1)?

Yeah, it was the wide 5 hubs. I was torn between Carey’s standard choice and the ones from Airkewld. The Airkewld ones are lighter and significantly more expensive, plus they are noisier.

I’ve had issues with noise on mine two and have switched to Hawk pads in the front and, hopefully, if we can find them, in the rear this winter.

In hind-site, I should have gone with the Airkewld.
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