Roger Garnett asks >
> Here's another question:
> Most later Midgets got 13" Rostyle wheels, like the MGB 14" wheels.
> A friend has a '72ish Midget with 13" steel wheels that have a pattern
> similar to the MGB V8 (Square cutouts around the perimeter) rather than the
> "4 spoke" Rostyles. Was this the European factory wheel?
Had them on my '66. They came off a '71, I think. They were the stock
steel wheel in the USA as well as home after the upgrade of 1970 or so.
They later switched to the ones that closely resemble the MGB Rostyle.
They were called various things in literature I read, including
"two-piece", although I assure you, they did not bolt apart.
They were alleged by some to resemble alloy wheels designed by Paddy
Hopkirk, so I called them "fake Paddy Hopkirks". We went all through this
on british-cars back in '89 when I was trying to run in the Stock class on
local autocrosses and could use any USA factory-option wheel specs and was
trying to document any wheel wider than 4.5". Never did.
BTW, the Fake Paddy Hopkirk wheel with the 8 square cutouts around the
perimeter and the later Rostyle wheel were identical in specification.
They each were 13" diameter, 4.5" wide and I measured the backspace (and
therefore offset) on examples of each and determined them to be identical.
The were also both heavy. The 5.5" wheels which I used when I went Street
Prepared (and that was FUN) with Yokos mounted weighed less than the fake
Paddy Hopkirk wheels bare.
Real Paddy Hopkirk mags may have been another story entirely, but I have
never seen one to my knowledge.
Phil Ethier, THE RIGHT LINE, 672 Orleans St, Saint Paul, MN 55107-2676 USA
h (612)224-3105 w (612)266-6244 phile@stpaul.gov
It's still hip to be octagonal. Whaddaya call the Lotus emblem shape, anyway?
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