Tiger Sunbeam Wheel Suggestions/Help

[jimzilla]

43853
I am building a '66 Tiger Sunbeam and need some help/suggestions for the wheel/tire combo. The car has the stock frontend and a slightly narrowed 8" rearend. The owner likes the Cobra wheel look and is considering a 15" Wheel but I am leaning toward a 17" like the American Racing Shelby Cobra Wheel. The problem I have is the Front Track Width. The absolute maximum width would be 7" but it will require a 1.5" positive offset. Otherwise the tires will be wider than the fenders. The rear would be 8" with a 1" positive offset. With all of the experienced people on this sight I thought I would see what you could come up with.
One other thing. The owner would prefer NOT to spend a fortune, an upper mid priced wheel would be an option. Thanks Jim

Car is a resto mod - 302ci, T5, 8"

[sr73bu]

What color is the car?

I saw one last year at a show... don't remember the wheels but the car was a nice british green color.... I thought the wheels you have shown there but with a race gold center would look nice on it...
not sure if the owner is into the whole racing thing and depending on the color of the car the gold center may not work... I do like that style wheel though... in 17"

Sorry I can't help with the sizes... (no one chimed in, so I thought i'd give you something)

Good luck with the car

-Sean

[Bjkadron]

I'm thinking the 17" might look a little big. I know the 17's look stupid on the early mustangs, and the tiger is even smaller. Right?

Whatever these are are perfect. Probably 16s..

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

[jimzilla]

43892
Thanks for the input. Here is the car we have in mind. These are 18" Wheels but the car has been highly modified to accept them. You may be right about them being to big. With the offset problem I probably don't have a choice.

[jimzilla]

43894
No problem, I guess I'll figure it out. Here's what the car looks like now but I am headed toward the image above. It will be silver with Black Stripes when finished. Thanks Jim

[cspecken]

Wow, I am not sure how you could get a 17" wheel on this car without tire rub. I have a 1964 Sunbeam Alpine that I am going to put up for sale this week and it has stock 14" wheels (http://s1127.photobucket.com/albums/l623/alsgto/1964%20Sunbeam%20Alpine/). The Tiger uses the same body, but has the V8 installed. The black tiger above is sitting on Panasport wheels (http://www.panasport.com/).

Chris

[jimzilla]

The Rear end has 11" from the lip to the inner fender and 4" from the hub face to the fender lip so a 8" wheel tire combo should work. It's the front I am struggling with. I can't find the back space in need.
I don't really like the Panasport Wheels. Too British!

[vintageracer]

You are experiencing the same problem that "Tiger" people have had for years. There is just no good way to put any amount of rubber under these cars short of widening the fenders/quarters. That ended up being the only way the few guys that run vintage race Tigers have been able to get any decent amount of rubber under the car. The front track is really wide compared to the body. You can do a little in the rear but still not much.

If you not wanting to modify the body at all you pretty much stuck to a 6-7 inch rim on the front of the car.

[Roadbuster]

Check out PS engineering wheels. They make vintage style wheels in any offset.
http://psvintagewheels.com/products.html

[jerhofer]

I'm thinking the 17" might look a little big. I know the 17's look stupid on the early mustangs, and the tiger is even smaller. Right?

Whatever these are are perfect. Probably 16s..

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

I believe these are Panasport wheels and, I agree, these would not only look the best but also are appropriate for cars of this vintage. The Panasports are copies of the Minilite racing wheels that were used so often in racing when this car was new. I had these on a Miata that I bought back in '89 and they looked great on that car as well.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/01/1990miata12sm-1.jpg

www.jerryforthofer.wordpress.com

[jimzilla]

Check out PS engineering wheels. They make vintage style wheels in any offset.
http://psvintagewheels.com/products.html

Thanks for the site, this may work. - Jim

[JRouche]

WOW!! Sunbeam Tiger. I love the cars. Mainly cause they opened my eyes one day down in San Diego. I was a young kid (19) in the Navy in 1984, thought I had the fast car. It was a Mustang GT, right when they started putting some HP back into cars from the fuel efficient days, no HP cars from the late 70s. You know, when the corvette had 185hp (maybe a lil more) in what 84.

So I was at a stop light and this lil old looking convertible pulls up. I was young and dumb. Now Im just older and dumb. Big diff, I dont pay as much for auto insurance is all :)

I might have goosed the throttle, I dont know. But what I do remember is this Sunbeam taking off, I swear the front wheels lifted off the road for a second, and it screamed down the road. With me sitting there with my jaw dropped. It was love at second sight for me.

For wheel size. I think that car belongs in 15" wheels. Too large and it just ruins the car. 16s maybe? Its a small car, too large of a wheel just distracts and doesn't blend. JR