Factory Alloy wheels

[John G]

I'm new to the world of Alpines and I was reading "The Alpine Guide" which came with the car and it mentions an original Rootes Alloy wheel.
Is this correct?
Can some one supply pictures and sizes that suit a Jan '68 SV?

 

[alpine_64]

John,

The alpines were never offered from the factory with alloy wheels, indeed there were no dedicated alpine/tiger alloys in the UK.

In the states they had 2 types of wheel for the alpines and Tigers, known as the LAT 9 (pie cutter) and LAT 70' (which were the same pattern as a corvair alloy wheel)

I would assume the wheels mentioned in the guide might be the "rostyle" type wheels used on the later fastback alpines and H120's which share the same bolt pattern.

Rostyle:

LAT 9:

LAT 70

 

[sunbeam74]

I'd include the American Racing Silverstone wheels if you were listing dealer options Alloys. The dealerships would offer them in the US for the Alpine but the wheels are pretty rare in general. Somewhere I have a dealer price list and these were on the list as options. Seems like they were more popular on the early Alpines than later.

BMC dealers in the states offered these wheels as options for the Spitfire and TR's, too, from what I have read in Sports Car Graphic and Road and Track.

BTW, the Silverstones were offered in Aluminum and Magnesium. In the brochure from American racing you could order the magnesium with different offsets which kept you SCCA legal and equalized the front an rear tracks. Recall, alloy wheels weren't an SCCA legal as an option till 1964.


Steve

 

[John G]

Alloy Wheels

Thanks for the input into this subject. Down here in Australia we generally follow the UK. Our car was a UK import so alloy wheels seem out of the picture if origonallity is what I want to achieve. I now need to look at wire wheels as the option to dress up the car.

 

[alpine_64]

Thanks for the input into this subject. Down here in Australia we generally follow the UK. Our car was a UK import so alloy wheels seem out of the picture if origonallity is what I want to achieve. I now need to look at wire wheels as the option to dress up the car.

John,

Didnt realise you were in OZ, are you a member of the SA Sunbeam club? The factory ran minilite wheels on the Tiger rally cars, and Dunlop alloys on the LeMans Tigers. Performance Superlites made in SA are a copy of these wheels.

There are many period correct alloys for the cars, but no "factory" rootes supplied ones.

 

[John G]

Minilites

Hi Michael thanks for your reply. Officially the car is my wife Debbie's car. She doesn't like Mini/ Superlite wheels so that's the reason I wanted to find something else.
The Dunlop wheels you mention are they the same basic look as the mini/superlites?
There are a few places on the net that I've seen new chrome wire wheels for sale. This seems to be the best option so the splines would be in good condition. Are there any traps that I need to know about if we go down that road?
Historic registration (90 days driving) here will allow maximum width at 5.5" and 13" diameter.
We have joined the Sunbeam club here in South Australia, I've attended 2 meetings and we just went on our first club run.

Thanks John G

 

[alpine_64]

Hi Michael thanks for your reply. Officially the car is my wife Debbie's car. She doesn't like Mini/ Superlite wheels so that's the reason I wanted to find something else.
The Dunlop wheels you mention are they the same basic look as the mini/superlites?
There are a few places on the net that I've seen new chrome wire wheels for sale. This seems to be the best option so the splines would be in good condition. Are there any traps that I need to know about if we go down that road?
Historic registration (90 days driving) here will allow maximum width at 5.5" and 13" diameter.
We have joined the Sunbeam club here in South Australia, I've attended 2 meetings and we just went on our first club run.

Thanks John G

John,

the dunlops i mentioned on the LM Tigers are 15x6 and a different design. there were dunlops in period in 13 and 14 that were used on the alpines and tigers, Dunlop D1's,there wer many period wheels available that will pass the historic rego in SA, and you will be able to get 14's and get the club to sign them off.

Look on ebay and gumtree for escort/cortina and capri wheels with 4 x 108 pattern and you will see many options.

As for wires.. if you have bolt on wheels it means you need new splines and hub wheels... new ones are very expensive.. and second hand ones are not very good as they often have worn teeth on the splines making them "clunk" try and contact Andy or Chris Ford or andrew tindal, they will be able to offer you some good guidance.

 

[RandeBell]

pix of Dunlop alloy wheel

Encloses is a Tiger IA with a Dunlop alloy wheel, same bolt pattern as Alpine, this photo is from 1988.

Rande

 

[alpine_64]

Those wheels are the Dunlop D1's, they were available n period for alpine and tiger in 13x5.5 and 6. JBW in the UK makes replicas of those that share the same bolt pattern as the escort/cortina, they also do the cosmic alloy wheels.

http://www.midlandwheels.com/

these are the LM Tiger dunlop wheels:

 

[John G]

Thanks to both Rande and Michael

As my wife (Alpine is her car) didn't really like any of the Alloy wheels, through our club we found some bolt on wires and that is the way we decided to go. We appreciate your taking the time to reply to the thread. Thank you.

Deb and John