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| Joined: | 09-17-2007 |
| Location: | San Francisco, California USA |
| Posts: | 221 |
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Part of the reason this thing sat for so long was the wheels and tires. Started to think- oh, maybe something in my inset/backspace and width was available again, and started checking around from time to time to see on the internet. I became obsessed with trying to re-create the original wheels, one of which had been destroyed. scowered ebay periodically to try and find some western "turbine" wheels but could never find something that would work.
In early January I started the search again and was delighted to find tons of fairly wide rims available for the original Mini Coopers in 13" diameters. Started to notice they were also available in a deep inset (think negative numbers) that I needed. Maybe I just didn't notice earlier but this turned into a fad with original Mini's? Whatever the reason it started to look real good. Found this "new?" outfit called JBW (John Brown Wheels) in the UK that has some awesome designs. Started to wonder which would look good and make sense.
It sealed the deal when I found some matching tires. BF has a Radial T/A in P205/60R13. No luck with the Cooper Cobras, as they didn't have anything in 13". Despite a higher profile this comes to a smaller overall diameter and it's a great fit for these wells, and I am finally getting back to a really light weight setup- 12 lbs for the rim and 18 for the tire!
The rims I went with are the Revolite's from JBW. They are light and in the right inset of -7mm, which is workable for me. They also were very popular for Lotus's at the time as I understand, being on many Europa's and Elan's, etc. Oh, and of course they were on the Lotus 49's and 72's in some configs. The original company that made them is Revolution, which is still around and has some wheels at around twice the price of the JBW copies. Was considering them but they didn't seem to have the right inset. Ended up purchasing the wheels from Mini-Sport USA for a really good price. Shipping was only 2 weeks from the UK. Going to try and do some gold accents on them just like the Forumla 1 wheels. I figure Colin would have picked these at the time if he built a car for Jensen.
On a period Europa:
And the Formula 1 cars. Not sure if these were actual Revolution wheels but they sure have that look/design:
The John Brown Revolites:
