WHEELY GOOD
MORLEY’S SO BESOTTED WITH HIS WHEELS THAT HE’S BOUND TO GIVE THE TYRE-FITTER HEAPS OF ‘BE CAREFUL’ GRIEF.
APPARENTLY unboxing videos are now a thing online. I’ve never watched one. Seems to me, if it’s not me getting t he presents, I’m not actually all that interested. And as for tuning in to watch some Trek k ie breathlessly unboxing t heir latest action figure, well, that’d just make me doubt the human race’s credentials even more. But if I was ever to do my own unboxing v id, it would have been last week when the wheels for the Brown Bomber turned up on a courier truck
I agonised for a few weeks a while ago over which direction to take when it came to wheels for t he hillclimber. Obviously, budget is a concern, so I was thinking maybe widened, stock 14- inch steelies. Till I worked out how heavy they’d be. Then, I mentally moved on to maybe a set of early HSV rims which would give me a better choice in rubber. Problem t here was that not all the wheels available had t he correct offset for a slightly lowered VC Commodore and it also seemed that the people who owned these wheels wanted real cash to part with them. We’ re talking enough real cash here to land a set of brand-new rims, any way.
So that’ s the direction I ultimately went in. Now, nothing says race-car to me more than Superlite wheels. Made by Performance Wheels Australia in 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16-inch fitments, these are the sexy, eight-spoke jobs t hat look like a grown-up Minilite from a Cooper S. You’ll see them on ever y thing from classic road cars, club-spec hillclimbers (like mine) all the way up to the Camaros, Firebirds and Mustangs battling it out in the Australian Trans Am Series. As well as strong and relatively light( less than 7 kg according to my bathroom
scales) the eight-spoke thing allows lots of air to get to the brakes.
I talked with the folks at Performance Wheels Australia and we agreed t hat going to a 15-inch rim would give me more choice in tyres( over a14-inc her) as well as not ruining t he VC’s gearing. And to be honest, I didn’t need togo bigger than 15 inches, because I’m not running monster brakes. So, t here are no caliper clearance issues and, as we all know, a 15- inch wheel and tyre combo is always going to be lighter than the equivalent 18- inch combo.
The other piece of advice, though, was not to go too crazy on width; going too wide would make the car tram-track a lot more and wouldn’t necessarily have given me more grip where and when I needed it. This is not a drag-car, after all. And besides, by messing about with off sets, I could still increase the track at each end without resorting to a nine-inch rim and then getting into trouble wit h guard or strut clearance. So, 15 X 7s with a 25mm offset, it was.
When you see these things in the flesh, you get an appreciation of the quality of them. The machined surfaces are gorgeous and t he casting is just lovely. Their lightness means
I’ll save a bit of unsprung weight. But it’s also true that, of all the things I’ve done to this old Commodore, bolting t he Superlites will make the biggest visual impact in terms of turning an elderly, brown road-car to a proper race-car.
For tyres, it’s going to come down to finding an R-spec hoop t hat isn’t going to break the bank. There are plenty of choices out there, but I’m starting by talking to the right people. And t his is where it pays to shop locally. For a couple of decades, my local tyre shop, Wide tread Tyres in Ferntree Gully, has been my go-to place for round, black things. And because I have a relationship with the guys that run the place, they were happy to ring around for me to find m ease to f225/5015s at t he best price. I’m waiting to hear back from them as I write t his. Thing is, I could spend t he next fortnight searching for tyres online not really knowing what I’m looking at and either not finding them, or paying too much. Think about it, and don’t just assume that the online deal is t he best one. I’ll let you k now which way I jump.