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You are right regarding the sva and age related ect.
In the matter of the wheels, your main concern is to be sure the overall distance at which one revolution takes the car is the same as was on the original. In simple terms the wheels have to be the same overal size, otherwise the speedo may read wrong, over rather than correct or under.
I thought that the speedo must read correct or above the actual speed with in a certain % or am i wrong
As for 17" wheels you may have to mod the wheel arces as marlin turbo's 16" with slicks for track use were rubbing on the wheel arces when he was as Llandow allthough that may have been the suspention set up
I'd put on standard rover wheels. they will fit correctly, with wheel nut thread engagament OK, and won't protrude outside the arches (although it is bloody close!)...
17" wheels..........hmmmmmmmmm........you would need quite a high ride height for those. i may be wrong...but 16" wheels look right....
my 16" wheels with track tyres on did rub the arches but that was more a problem with ride height and spring settings (need to go a bit harder again)...
As long as you reduce the tyre profile when you put bigger wheels on the speedo will read correctly. Its only if the overall tyre diameter changes you get problems.
There will be minor variations but nothing significant, here's a nice little form you can use for calculating sizes: http://www.tyresave.co.uk/tyresize.html
I may get 16" wheels am not 100% decided yet, but does anyone know how wide you can go on the rubber esp on the back?
but regarding the speedo I think I will have problems anyway as I am using the type r engine with a Rover speedo so I think that when the car is complete I will have to try and get it calibrated somewhere....the same goes for the rev counter as the rover one redlines a couple of thousand earlier than the type r engine
Just like to add that from some of the press road tests, they all seem to indicate that the 15" wheeled cars have the better handling. I seem to recall that they were refering to Dan's Silver ex-Marlin demo car.
But never used it due to me converting the gearbox speedo. Converts vertually anything to anything using electronic speedo signal. Let me know if it's any use to you.
just my 2ps worth on the subject of wheels and tires..
Go for 15" as 16" will make the car very 'bouncy' with low profile tires..
Careful when you buy your alloy wheels as the offset needs to be the same as rover's (if I remember correctly its offest 45 - otherwise wheel will stick out of the wheelarch)
Even with 195 width, you will almost definitely need to cut out some of the GRP under the wheelarches in the front as your wheels will rub when suspension is compressed.. So forget about anything wider - the car really doesn't need it.. (we race with 195 width rubber!)
