Nope, not yet. I've just started getting some bits together. Changed the wheels for some 15" OZ Superleggeras. I'll post some pics shortly. New turbo manifold has arrived. Will give the man in the shed a call shortly, as well as take advantage of the $ weakness and order some bits from the States soon. Most urgent is a set of brakes that work! The AP Racing link didn't pan out, so no track day yet. Plus holidays got in the way.
I sent over some possible results for the car on your other email Alex. Assume they came through fine.
Thanks Chris. I saw the email, but haven't had a chance to look at it yet. Some pics: I think the chassis might be a little stiffer than standard! I jacked up the car at the front, and the rear wheel lifted first. Makes changing both wheels much easier. Rear wheel studs (front doesn't have): With new wheels and mirrors (forgot to post other mirror pics): New exhaust manifold: Much happier with the way it looks now. Those other wheels looked so wrong.
you can fit Brembo fourpots behind a 15" compomotive mo wheel if you space them slightly or get a smaller neg offset. Or you can fit four pots on 280s. Ultimately I should think that 280s with four pots and decent pads will give decent braking since the car is no heavyweight
I think small bumpers are lighter and in keeping with the age of the car, so you ought to bin / ebay the big bumpers and get your self some sleek (light weight) small bumpers. PS - those wheels look soo much better!
bigger wheels with lower profile tyres (ignoring any weight difference) won't automatically make the handling better - but they will make the suspension have to work harder. The sidewall of the tyre plays an important part is absorbing bumps and uneven surfaces. The smaller and stiffer the sidewall the less movement there will be in the tyre. That means that for a given suspension setup there will be less tolerance to bumps etc. The wheels will have greater travel needed to keep the tyre in contact with the track. By lowering the car you are likely to reduce the available suspension travel - while the lower profile tyres increases the need for suspension travel. There is a happy compromise when you have *just enough* suspension travel to keep the contact patch of the tyre on the track - once you've gone past this the car will *skip* under braking, acceleration and cornering. The handling will go to **** along with the roadholding. Lower profile tyres will also means that there is less flex in the sidewall to allow for traction from low speeds, less ability to allow the tyre to mould itself to the surface when driving over white lines, ruts, overbanding etc. The upshot of this is that to run very low profile tyres you will need to get the suspension spot on. There will be far less margin for error that the tyre can take up. If you do get it right it will handle on rails. If you don't it will handle on skis 15" wheels allow some fearsome brakes - with the weight of a mk2 you shouldn't have a problem as long as you are running good pads (EBC Yellow, or those lovely evil things gary had) decent fluid etc.
The flip side to that is that suspension changes are more obvious as there is less interference from the tires (tyres? - too tired after work). What are the options for 4-pot calipers under 15" wheels? Ignoring AP, they're too expensive. Do Bembo make some that fit under 15s, and Wilwood? Anyone else. EBC will also probably be stupid money.
a wilwood 4pot 280 kit is available. i have the wilwood 310x32mm kit with superlite calipers (purchased from Rob T) which fits under a couple of different 15" wheels (compomotive MOs and Team Dynamics pro race 1.2 both with standard 35mm ET).
i've only used them briefly and all seems positive. will know how they respond to track use later in the year, from what rob said when he had them they were a pretty good setup with the right pads in (the reeves cars now have 310x32mm wilwoods!). i believe Altern8 has a set of wilwoods with 280s. not sure if anyone else has though
Thanks for that. Been doing some research on wheel weights: OZ Superleggera 15" 5.2kg Compomotive MO 15" 8.5kg OZ Superleggera 17" 6.9kg Toyo R888 205/15 9.0kg Toyo R888 205/17 8.8kg Therefore 17 OZs with Toyos weigh 15.7kg, while 15" Compomotives with Toyos 17.5kg. Obviously the best bet is 15" OZs, as with R888s they only weigh 14.2kg, but I don't know of any 4-pot brakes that will fit under them. Fortunately I have a set of 15" OZs, so I can try and find some Mk2s with bigger brakes and see if they fit before making any final decisions.
Team Dynamics Pro Race 1 15" 6.0kg (15.0kg with R888s) Team Dynamics Pro Race 2 15" 6.4kg (15.4kg with R888s) Dub20vt, do you know which ones fit over the Wilwoods? EDIT: Never mind, I found the 1.2s. They seem to be about 100 a wheel, and also weigh 6.9kg. And they actually look OK, and it seems that they fit over the Wilwoods. Might just have found a combination I like.
yea it's the 1.2s that i'm looking at. they seem to accept very large brakes... 310s behind a 15" wheel. i'll have a definite answer and pictures hopefully next weekend when a borrow a friends set before taking the plunge and buying my own.
i got a used set as he was swapping to widetrack 5stud. Will let you know how it goes on the wheel front.
Thanks again. Of course, seeing as I already have OZs, a far more sensible question would have been: a) Do you have a 15" OZ you could test at the same time, or b) I travel through Somerset quite often. Can I test fit an OZ on your car the next time I'm passing through?
