Wilwood Brakes, Panasports, and Wheel Hub Bores

[NedD]

Seeking advice from those who have installed Wilwood brake kit on your Tiger or Alpine.
I'm selecting new wheels and upgrading to 15" partly to allow upgrade to bigger brakes in the future. Looking at the Wilwood fitment diagram (attached) it appears the wheels need a hub bore greater than 3.06"

I'm staying pretty traditional with the wheels - Minlite/Panasport or LAT70 style. Most wheels I've found (VTO wheels, for example) have hub bore that is less than 3.06". I won't machine the wheels to enlarge the bore at the risk of weakening the wheel although I will if all I have to do is round over the edge of the bore a little.

This presents a challenge with any upgrade to the Wilwood brakes, yet lots of Tigers have them and I've never seen this question of hub bore size pop up. Many have Panasport wheels. In fact Wilwood's installation guide for the Tiger uses a car with Panasport wheels.

I'm on the verge of purchasing Panasport Z-Light wheels and am trying to confirm the hub bore is large enough before plunking down the money. My call to Panasport today was surprising as they said "no the hub bore is smaller than 3 inches". I don't think they really understood my question (English was a 2nd language for the person I spoke with). A Panasport vendor told me the Z-Light wheel, and in fact 90% of Panasports, have a hub bore of 66mm/2.6". So I'm perplexed. Either Wilwood's diagram for the Tiger is wrong (I've contacted them for clarification), or Panasport and the vendor gave me incorrect answers, or I'm missing something. Hopefully I'm worrying about a problem that doesn't exist.

Does anyone out there have experience with Wilwood's brake kit and Panasport's Z-Light wheel on a Tiger/Alpine with the stock 4x4.25" stud pattern?

 

[seriesIIIgt]

I am running both the wilwood Tiger big brake system and the Panasport 15” Z-Lite wheel on a series III alpine

 

[NedD]

I am running both the wilwood Tiger big brake system and the Panasport 15” Z-Lite wheel on a series III alpine

That's good to hear. By your lack of further detail can I assume you had no issue with the Panasports fitting with the Wildwood hubs?

 

[alpine_64]

I've not heard of issues with fitment of VTO or the Passport wheels with the Willowood kits and I am not aware of people making special orders or adjustments to the wheels that they list for Tigers.

As a side note, while the SAOCA is a great forum and a few Tiger guys are here and there is lots of cross over between Alpine and Tiger info you may want to join some of the Tiger specific forums

 

[Warren]

There's knowledge in a lot of places. No place has a monopoly on Tiger content, plus there's lots of Tiger guys that post here. Just like if you have a Tier or a MK2 some may think that the car ownership creates more disposable income so maybe we can be a little quiet....

Never heard of the hub problem. But several of the available wheels in the past have odd sizes for their caps. Some like the bitty Pannasports are hard to find and the aggravating plastic caps are held on with breakable clips. I sold on a set at one United out of 50 cars this oddball set they had only fit one car in the group. He got a sweet deal as the Tiger stickers cost that much.


An organized forum is a great place to find information when you need it. I was once told that we didn't need a forum because there's the Tiger email list. I replied that is another reason for a sectioned organized forum because it's so hard to search the email list .The information is scattered in places and the questions and responses are often duplicated in every posting.

The first consideration my . 02 cents is do you want to track the car or do repeatedly heavy braking. If so get a ride or a test drive in a 15" or bigger wheeled car on a holy Cali. highway. I usually bring a shirt change as coffee often ends up on my shirt.
I still have a 450 lb and 15''s konis etc. I can say the MK2 with cushy LAT 13" stock springs was a much more comfortable car to drive, and the slower stock steering rack doesn't bother you.

All that said much time was poured into forums too make them searchable. But to requote them same here earlier... "guys in the know get tired of answering the same old questions. One old guy like me could say that some are set in their ways, can ask a question rather than searching as they want the latest and greatest response and they want to connect with others.

But back on track... a local who resto modded his car has the big wheels and big brakes and he is on the edge of a no return to stock . But alas that's the bigger question are you that caretaker. I can still hear the grumbling of Norm Miller looking at a really modified car. I don't agree with his taste but do subscribe to the do whatever you want and keep the bits if you want to provide for the next caretaker.

Good question and I personally know what it is like to loose one of those plastic caps walk into the wheel distributor and get a sorry NLA response.


I wrote this and didn't hit send reply.
So the latest is a pal has a IFS that is for a Tiger he tried to put his Wildwood hubs on some 14" wheels and had the hole be too small on the wheel. We have only been texting but I'd guess it's a shared problem with 13" wheels and not 15" or larger.

I'm trying to retro fit Cosmic 13" x 6" on to the same IFS and am running out of hair to pull out
But I have a Doctor involved