Mr. Wizzard

I loved the look of the #50 car at Mongoose. One reason it looks so good is the narrow chassis with the tires under the fenders. The other reason is because it has Goodyear tires that are properly sized. Unfortunately, you can't buy a 315 x 40 x 17" tire anymore from any manufacturer. Goodyear stopped making the tires (like on the rear of the #50) about 3 years ago. I've searched low and high for some that may have been stashed away in a warehouse, but you just can't find them anywhere......

tyoneal

Another wheel question:

Regarding Back Space, as a general rule isn't it suppose to be better for suspension geometry if you run width of the wheel divided by two + one inch?

10 inches wide/ 2 = 5 inches + 1 inch + optimum Backspace for a wheel.
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15 Diameter, 10 inches wide with 6 inch Back space.
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I spoke with Jeff at Mid America and he mentioned that his GS car work best with a 10 inch rear wheel, and a 8 inch front wheel both with a 4 inch Backspace. These measurements help give the car a nice period look. 275 mm rear tire and a 235 mm front tire.

Not sure how much actual width you can run, (I'm open for suggestions), but he mentioned that these sizes would be very close to period correct.

Thoughts?

Also, there is an option to have the rear end narrowed. Is this something that you would recommend, or just run the standard width.

Please give opinions either way.

Thanks a million.

Best Regards,

Ty O'Neal

groovyjay

I use techniques similar to this to determine the correct wheel/tire size:

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...sway_bars.html

vstol

Team III spokes are smaller and that is what I had on my GS.

break Jim L is your email up?

keystonefarm

Ty you are opening a huge can of worms asking about what size wheels/tires to use on a GS replica. First you need to determine what you want the car to look like . Old style deep dish rears with tire inside the wheelhouse . Very little dish ( offset ) and tire out at the edge of wheelhouse. What suspension on whose frame ? What brakes will you be running ? Early C4, late C4, C5 Wildwood ? Suspensions can be narrowed but at the rear you then must provide a new upper mount location for the coil over. The front end can be narrowed but then a custom rack will be needed. Once you figure out what look you want then the options can be laid out. Been there and currently doing that myself !!! It can be a very very deep hole !!!!!------------Ken McCorry

jim lockwood

Roger that.

Mr. Wizzard

If the ID of the rim itself was only smaller, the spokes could look more "correct" on 17's....

Moto One

Spotted this wonderful 64 and just fell in love with the look (wheels are PS eng).

The owner was very informative about the wheels.


I want a set for mine.

Mark.

tyoneal

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Ken:

Thanks for the message.
I agree a very deep hole indeed. In all my questioning the issues I have asked about are based on products that do exist or options that are currently available.

The Grand Sports are a curious bunch. They are a anachronism of sorts. On one hand about 70% of the parts are readily available, on the other hand, to complete a car, a percentage of parts MUST be used that are modern in origin.

The mating or blending of these parts to complete a car with an as-semblance of visual originality, is a challenging task.

Correct tires for instance are a terrible nuisance to find, if you want a 15 inch tire with the right height and width, AND a reasonable speed rating your options become very slim. What I am finding is if you are willing to spend $500+ per tire your options open up a bit, but I want to really drive the car and on an active month, I would like not to have to spend a couple thousand dollars just for tires to enjoy taking a couple two day driving classes.

The fact is NONE of the Grand Sports being made are going to be completely period correct. (Unless you want a practically one off car) This leaves someone with some very challenging obstacles to negotiate.

It seems you have to start with the most difficult items to find, and then design the car around them, then hope that the manufacturers continue producing the scarce parts that you commented you project on. For a risk adverse personality, its not a position you particularly want to be in.

I have been looking at the tire options off of tirerack.com, for our cars. I will post what I have found. The rear tires are going to be the most difficult to find.

IF I can't find a proper source of the Correct Tires, I just need to abandon that aspect of the cars appearance and do the best I can with what I can find.

With regards to the suspension being narrowed or not, these are two choices that are possible and being offered. My query is based on the geometric handling differences between the two, and how they will affect the final product. Perhaps from my past experiences I'm approaching the project from the position of micro management to the point of silliness.

That said, I can change that position, but until I know it to be the wrong approach, I tend to proceed in the manner I have used in the past. (I spent the first part of my career in the Aerospace industry working on military projects, in a Production Engineering capacity. Engineers on one hand, part manufacturers on the other. Specifically attempting to pulling ideas off a blue print or CAD program and bringing these ideas into the real world of production.)

Anyway, I appreciate your time and am open to any opinions or recommendation you have.

Thanks again for writing.

Best regards,

Ty O'Neal

tyoneal

To All:

I was studying the wheels that are offered on the PS Vintage wheels website, and saw the ones below. Look at the lower left example.

I don't know what the wheel diameter is, but if that example is a 17 inch wheel, it might be close enough for the Grand Sport, AND by playing with the offsets, AND the actual design of the wheel itself, might be able to pull off a reasonable Vintage look with 17 inch wheels.

I have already emailed Phil, and left a message to call, about our dilemma.

Opinions are welcome.

Ty

jim lockwood

Ty,

The wheel you pointed out looks like a 6 spoke Cobra wheel. If you are determined to have a 17" wheel, Phil does offer one in a pseudo-Grand Sport configuration:



Just scroll a little farther down to see his description of this wheel.

Jim

TheSaint

Any here knows the price for the wheels pictured below?

American Racing 17" Shelby Cobra


17 inch 6 spoke

Mr. Wizzard

It's a shame that the inside diameter of the 17" rim isn't smaller. This would allow the cast portion of the wheel to be a smaller diameter, reducing the size (both length and width) of the spokes.

tyoneal

I wonder if Phil could take the Cast portion of the 15 inch wheel and mount it into some 17 in wheels. The Cast piece could be painted or powder coated a specific color to draw ones eyes to it. The spokes might be recognizable as the correct size thus masking the size of the wheel being 2 inched wider.

What do you think about this?

When we built our house it was a very narrow lot we were forced to use to be where we wanted to live. We used a number of visual illusions to make the entry hall and front rooms appear to be broader than they actually were.

Unless it was actually measured, 90% of everyone thought the areas were several feet broader than they were. The eyes assume a certain fixed sizes when they see particular items in relationship to others.

I look forward to peoples ideas.

Take care,

Ty

n1kon

Here is an example of that.

tyoneal

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Wow! That was fast.

N1kon:

Is this your car?

How tall are your tires?

This would be my second choice for color. I like it!

I'm interested, does anyone think about the idea?

Good, Bad?

What would make them better? (if anything)

N1Kon Thanks for the great picture post.

I really appreciate you being involved.

Thanks,

'Ty

n1kon

It's not my car.

You can out more information about this car here.
http://www.mcsmk8.com/63-GS/63-GS.html

I didn't see anywhere on the site where he mentions tire size but just going by the looks of it I would say he is using 275/40-17 on the front and 315/35-17 rear. The same as what Mongoose regularly uses. These sizes are approx. 25.7 inches in height. If you get a 335/35-17 it is approx 26.2 inches high.

Glad I can help

tyoneal

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This site is interesting. I love the '60 Cadillac, and the GS is somewhere near me in Dallas.

Thanks,

Ty

BTW: How did you query for 15 inch cast centers with 17 inch wheels?

n1kon

I didn't. I just knew what you were talking about and remembered that I saw a red GS that matched that description. I just searched GS and clicked the red color button and there it was