<VV> Wheels for early model

[Bill Elliott]

14's in appropriate sizes are now nearly as limited as 13's... no high 
performance options at all, but there are some H rated tires which do pretty 
well... and while base wheelcovers aren't available in 14's, stock appearing 
wires and simulated mag covers are.

Decent performance options are still available in 15's but you won't have a 
"stock" look.

One additional thought... Corvairs are extremely sensitive to unsprung 
weight. You simply wouldn't believe how much better even a stock Corvair 
drives with lightweight alloy rims instead of steel wheels and heavy stock 
wheelcovers. Add some sticky V or better rated tires and you'd swear you 
were driving a different car...

Yes, my wife's '67 vert has 14" steel wheels and heavy mag wheelcovers... 
her choice, not my preference...   I bought lightweight alloys for it and 
she told me to sell them.... still working on her since I likely have the 
last 205/65VR14's in the country and they are getting old.....

Bill

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Frank Ness" <aircoolvair at yahoo.com>
To: "Karl Clark" <61lakewood at gmail.com>; "Bryan Blackwell" 
<bryan at skiblack.com>
Cc: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 20:35
Subject: Re: <VV> Wheels for early model


Hey All,

I just wanted to thank everyone for their replies on the same subject. I 
realise that I hadn't quite phrased my question correctly. I was looking at 
possibly using 14" wheels with a lower profile tire. I wanted a stock look 
while having a wider selection of tires. I didn't even think of the wheel 
cover issue.

Thanks Again,
Frank

--- On Wed, 3/17/10, Bryan Blackwell <bryan at skiblack.com> wrote:


From: Bryan Blackwell <bryan at skiblack.com>
Subject: Re: <VV> Wheels for early model
To: "Karl Clark" <61lakewood at gmail.com>
Cc: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 12:12 AM


Hi Karl,

Yeah, we've talked about wheels once or twice :-)

Ok, short answer:

Wheels spec'd for 1970's Datsun Z cars are a popular swap. The backspace 
isn't quite right, so the wheels need to be 6" wide. IMHO, a better swap is 
early 80's "AE86" series Toyota Corrolas which have more backspace. I got a 
set of 15x7 wheels and 205/55-15 BFG tires last fall and today it was 
finally nice enough to start bolting them on! Driver's side photo attached. 
You could get 16x7 and 205/45-16 tires that should fit well.

Long answer:

http://autoxer.skiblack.com/tires.html

--Bryan