vette54728702

A friend of mine has a '63 and is wanting to locate grand sport wheels for it. Are they available anywhere?

silverslashstreak

Try Team 3 or PS Engineering. I dont know if they have any narrow enough for a stock midyear fender.

Jeff

groovyjay

http://www.psvintagewheels.com/products.html

jim lockwood

There was a reason the Grand Sports grew flares!



Jim

Mr. Wizzard

Vintage Wheels and American Racing also have Halibrand look-alike wheels. The Superformance GS had American Racing wheels on it at SEMA (17's up front and 18's in the rear.
Larry

TheSaint

I have knock offs on my car but i really want those GS replica wheels in 17x7

They really looks greatAnd you dont have to think about the spinners getting loose

Mr. Wizzard

The spokes on the 17" Grand Sport wheels are so large that they look like they belong on one of the "brother's" cars here in Ft. Worth. At 15", they look great, but at 17", they're huge.

Lou64

I saw a (I think) kit built GS with rims that were "custom made." They looked almost like cast iron and I thought didn't add much nor look like the real GS.

TheSaint

I tried to find some pictures og a C2 with these wheels but i only found this one of a forum members car. The wheels is is 17x8
Must say i really like them

Sky65

Was this style wheel, but in a Halibrand, ever used on real Grand Sports? I thought they were all Halibrand like this or American Racing?
The style above, although Halibrand made, I thought was actually a Cobra and GT40 wheel?

http://www.grandsportcorvette.com/gs/wheels.htm

jim lockwood

I think you are almost right. The Cobra wheels I've seen which have an approximate Grand Sport appearance are 6 spoke, 15" wheels that look like this:



So the 17" wheel pictured previously isn't a "Grand Sport" wheel, nor is it a "Cobra" wheel.


Grand Sport wheels (knock off variety) are 5 spoke, magnesium Halibrands like this:



Jim

Mr. Wizzard

Here's a picture of a replica with the 17" PS Grand Sport wheels. The spokes are a bit large for my taste....and a reasonably authentic look.

jim lockwood

Ugh. Definitely NOT my cup of tea.

Vogie

It's amazing what a one inch radius increase does to the appearance of these wheels.

keystonefarm

Another thing about the 17'' variety of GS wheels is most do not have that much offset. The flat face approach makes the wheel look larger than it is. A 17'' wheel with more offset like the originals looks much better. The old style look of more offset rear wheels than fronts is lost with the standard width C-4 suspension version. A narrowed front and rear C4 suspension is the only way to get a GS that looks correct with wheel offset and where it sits in the wheelhouse. --------- Ken McCorry

Mr. Wizzard

Aside from the off-set issues, the main reason the 17's spokes look so large is that the depth of the rim portion of the wheel is so shallow. On a cast wheel, there's considerable depth and the spokes are much shorter...and better looking.

silverslashstreak

I agree Ken, a person has to look twice at the 17 GS wheel with the deep offset to decide if it is 15 or 17. The Tim Allen GS that was for sale on Ebay a few weeks ago is a good example of the 17 almost looking period correct.

Jeff

sub006

And of course the ORIGINAL GS wheels were Halis, probably 15 X 6 BF (Before Flares).

TheSaint

I suppose that with 17" wheels and lower profile tires the car handles better

keystonefarm

If you want to see what a 17'' GS wheel with offset on a narrowed C4 suspension looks like take a look at Larry's GS site . Look at the #50 car at his visit to Mongoose. Thats a D&D car with a narrowed C4 and 17'' K/O PS GS wheels. Same thing applies to the D&D 069 car that was on Ebay as Jeff mentioned. You have to look twice before realizing what size wheels you are looking at. On the 069 car another thing that helps is 45 series tires with a bit more sidewall. After seeing that I looked into the tire size mentioned but they are no longer available. ---------- Ken