wheels for Abarth relica

[parrish]

Guidance needed:
Im looking to fit some wheels that will fill my arches and look good on the car.
15 x 8 or 10 i think.
ET will need to be large, i recon around 30 - 35mm!
Who can suggest what?
any advice please.
Steve

[djape1977]

i don't know what did you have in mind about tyre width, but you san alwazs have some wheelspacers

[alan.acs]

What width and diameter are the wheels at present .
is the rear axle standard width.

[parrish]

Standard width rear axle.
I put 35mm spacers on (not shown in the above photo) however as you know the wheels are located centrally by slipping over the centre of the Hub hence the 58.1mm bore in the centre of Fiat wheels, with the wheels spacers i currently have that centre part is not extended, ive had no problems with vibrations but would prefer wheels that bolt up against the hubs.
I do have some 17" x 10" and 16" x 8" wheels with 100mm PCD, and a set of wobble bolts! however ive decided not to go that route and to have spacers with extended centres made for the wheels looks as if its going to cost half as much as some proper wheels.
Im thining tyres of around 285 x 295? ?35s or 40s.
Current wheels are 15 x 8, and car has been lowered 25-30mm

[chris131]

Hi steve, Your car should be the same as mine. So the distance from the hub to the arch on the front should be about 4inches, and on the back around 6 inches.

Therefore you need different offsets for the fronts and rears or else use spacers on the rear. I have new compomotive ML wheels 15X8 which you could use. Would fit perfectly on the front, but you would need a spacer on the back.

Or alternatively I have 2 new Compomotive ML wheels which are 13X9. These would fit the rears perfectly and you could get 2 13X7 or 13X8 for the fronts.

Anyway you can let me know - and if you need anymore advice just let me know - I've had all these things to work out my car.

[parrish]

Hi Chris,
any chance of any photos of the wheels?
What offset are they (hub face to inner rim measurement is what, i can probably work the offset out from that).
13" may leave the arches looking a little empty, those are 15" that you already see on the car and i dont really want to fill the arches with tyre (aspect ratio)
Steve

[alan.acs]

Your car is group four wide arch kit and Chris has a stradle arched car and therefore you need
a lot wider wheels i would say around 11x15 rear and 9x15 or possibly 10x15 front with an ET of 0 .
if you use an ET with a plus this can give a weird feeling on the steering on very wide wheels.
the issue with this width of wheels is getting the correct tyres .

[parrish]

Thanks Alan,

ive been looking at these:    http://www.minilitewheels.com/

or these:   http://www.superlite-wheels.com/wheelpage.asp?cat=3

I still think i need an offset in order to fill the arches.

15 x 10 and 15 x 8 should do it, with a 25mm offset.

Ill let you know how i get on.
Regards
Steve

[Testament]

These should all be negative offset i.e. more of the wheel on the outer side the centreline. If you just goto a shop and say 38 offset they will probably give you FWD wheels which will look terrible if they even fit. You should be looking for at least 0 offset and probably way negative would be better, especially on the rear.
 

[parrish]

OK getting their!
Need someone to do me a favour now, im here at work (Qatar) and cannot get to my car which is in Spain and i need a dimension.
I need to know the dimension from the hub face to the inner wheel arch, i need this to make sure that when fitted with tyres the wheels i order dont catch the inside wheel arch face.
So negative offset puts the wheel outover and should end up giving what looks like a dished wheel? is that correct?
Regards
Steve

[Testament]

OK getting their!
Need someone to do me a favour now, im here at work (Qatar) and cannot get to my car which is in Spain and i need a dimension.
I need to know the dimension from the hub face to the inner wheel arch, i need this to make sure that when fitted with tyres the wheels i order dont catch the inside wheel arch face.
So negative offset puts the wheel outover and should end up giving what looks like a dished wheel? is that correct?
Regards
Steve

yeah negative = more dish (looks good also   )

Assuming your inner guards are the same as a regular 131R (I don't see why they wouldn't)

Tts hard to get an accurate measurement, and my car has a 132 rear axle so the track may be a little different - but after playing with a tape measure and feeling how much space there is behind my rims (14x8 with around 0 offset) i get the feeling much more than about 100mm, maybe 125mm and you would be very close to rubbing on bump unless you have very stiff springs.

 Also at the moment I have quite small tyres with some stretch on the wheels as well 195/45/15 - this means the sidewalls dont buldge out at all - 285/295 will be buldging out unless you have an 11" or 12" wide rim.

I dont know how easy it is to get tyres that wide in a low enough profile to keep them away from the wheelarch as well, since I would say you probably want to keep under about 600mm overall diameter. (taller tyres raise the car too).

Anyone know what the original tyre size was on a gp4 131 abarth?

[parrish]

Thanks for that, clears my mind, seems i dont have to worry about that inner face of the rear wheel arch.
Tyres available for my current wheels are:
Front = 225/40/16   Diameter = 586mm
Rear 285/35/17 Diameter 631mm
Im not sure if having 2 diffferent aspect ratios would look silly? wheels are obviously differing diameters. Without actually seeing the tyres i cant decide, this is why im contemplating just buying a new set of wheels. Incidently the wheels i have at the moment have a -50mm offset Rear and -8mm front.
Steve