Gundy Bugeye tire question

[Trevor Jessie]

Hap mentioned that your current setup involves 15" knock off alloys attached via bolt on adapters. So what size tires are on the car?

I currently have 14x6" superlites on mine with 185/60-14 tires. The rear looks correct, but the front is too wide (sitting well proud of the fender).

So... looking at the superlite catalog, I think I could do the 15x6" wheel with +13mm offset for the rear, and the 15x6" wheel with +24mm offset on the front. This would be very tight assuming a tire size of 195/50-15 ... and this seems a little short for a street car. If I went 195/55-15 I think I'd foul the front tires on the inner fenders.

So much for my ramblings. Any thoughts on the matter?

 

[Gundy]

I'm not pleased with my set up. They are 185x55x15 Bridgestone tires. The wheels are 6 inches wide. The rears are fine and flush with the fender wells. The fronts stick out past the fender. The car is lowered about 1 1/2 inches and the suspension is pretty stiff. Two shocks per corner,1 lever and 1 tube.
Custom coils up front and custom leafs in rear. Sway bar
up front. No rub turning and "normal" spirited driving BUT...
big BUT...diving into a down hill hairpin causes a hit on the front tire. Driving me NUTS! I feel it in the steering wheel.
No sign of it on tire or fender but I know it's happening.
I'm working on a solution. I really love the 185x55x15s.
Sticky big foots. Nice cornering grip.
Several options are under consideration.
Different off sets for front vs rear wheels.
Switch to wire wheel front hubs. I'd keep the rear adapters
so I can keep the comp rear axles.
Ditch the whole shebang ( 5-15x6 spin ons UK made Minilites
with adapters I'd sell)and start over.
I'd love to get the dang car "square" and we know for whatever reason AH went with a wider front track.
I don't like having different off sets front vs rear either.
I'm working it out in my head and hope to make some move this fall.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Thanks, for the info. The real issue here is the wider track at the front. I'm sure they had a reason, but it is not necessarily for performance. And, if it was, remember they were running bias-ply tires.

Another option that I have considered is keeping the same offset rim, employing a spacer on the back. With 7/16" studs, I'd feel relatively OK about using spacers.

185/55x15. Those are about the same size as my 185/60x14. I guess I did not consider them since there is not a huge selection in that size.

 

[Trevor Jessie]

Oh... the other option for me (but probably not you) are fender flares, but that is the one bit of metal work I despise.

 

[Hap Waldrop]

Another option that I have considered is keeping the same offset rim, employing a spacer on the back. With 7/16" studs, I'd feel relatively OK about using spacers.

Yeah you could do that if you wanted the same offset all the way around, I can make you the wheels, and Winner circle has the studs and spacer, I ran 1" spacer all the way around on my race car before without any problems.

David wants rid oif his current set up, his 15x6 spline drive alloy wheels will work for alot of cars, MGB, Big healys, MGAs, Triumphs, lot of canidates for his wheels. The spoke adapters could look just fine on a Bugeye wanting a more traditonal spoke wheel, like a 5" rim for example. I told him, he should be able to sell all that stuff and it pay for his bolt on wheels, its all like brand new stuff.

 

[regularman]

Those wheels are huge but don't look bad on the car. I wondered what it did for the gearing.

 

[Gundy]

Those wheels are huge but don't look bad on the car. I wondered what it did for the gearing.

Surprisingly they have little effect on gearing. My speedo
is within about 3 mph at 60 mph now that I've slapped the 4.22
gear back there. The tires are very wide...I'd guess over 8 inches across the tread.
I've ordered a used set of wire wheel hubs to check if that
will help place the front tires in a more square aspect in reference to the rears.
Even if I wind up with bolt on wheels to get her square and use different off sets I'll be using 15 inch rims with the low profile tires. It corners like it's on rails and the beefed up
drivetrain seems up to the task of the extra grip.