looking for alloys like this....

Yes - don't bother, they're awful !!!

Kev

I quite like them, not as utterly naff as I've seen on most pratmobiles, more understated.

Also sprach "Stuffed" :-

Very 70s.

TR7 innit tho!

Tim..

pratmobiles,

Ah, that'd be why I like them then! :)

So the same stud pattern as a Dolomite. Wonder if they ever turn up dirt cheap, might be tempted many months from now. Can't be much harder to find for sensible price than the MG Montego wheels I quite like the look of. Then again, I'm not much of an alloyaholic, so long as my wheels are round, and the tyres likewise, I'm content.

I've got some 14 inch alloys off a triumph 2.5 you could have cheap.

mrcheerful

Understated? - Didn't Aston Martins have something like this fitted to them at one stage?

When did this fad for alloy wheels start? What was the first high-volume production car to be fitted with alloy wheels as an option? My Transit has factory-fitted alloy wheels. I wish Ford had spent the money on proper rust-proofing of the wheel-arches instead... I was amazed to see alloy wheels (4, with tyres) for sale at £575 in my local accessory shop. I'll bet many here are running decent cars bought for little more than half that!

Also sprach "DB." :-

Dunno - but I certainly don't want a set.

Quite - my £250 Montego's just shuttled me 460 miles from Teflon to Kent and back in comfort and without fuss.

First high volume car was, I think, the Mk1 RS2000 Escort to have them as options. First car in the UK with standard fit alloys was the Dolomite Sprint.

So both around 1973 then.

Pete M ( snipped-for-privacy@blue-nopressedmeat-yonder.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

LOOOOONG while before that. Bugatti used cast alloy wheels back in the

But - yep - you're probably not far wrong on the "mass production" era - although Minilites and the like were popular in the 60s.

Then there was the carbon-fibre rims available on the Cit SM in the early

I'm ambivalent about alloys. On the one hand, they're far heavier than steels, they can look *REALLY* horrible once they start to peel the lacquer, and they can go porous.

On the other, my XM's on the third set of wheels this year - started with the standard steels and plastic trims, then a set of the fake-minilites off a top-spec one, then a set of the lovely optional "Wobbly-Web" ones.

On balance, I think I hate standard plastic wheeltrims more...

Also sprach Adrian :-

Are they? I thought the whole point was that they're lighter to reduce unsprung weight.

What's the point if they're not?

Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Definitely.

At least, both of the standard Citroen alloy designs I put on in place of the steels were WAAY heavier.

They *can* be. Or they can be thick enough to withstand ham-fisted muppets bouncing 'em off the kerb. But not both.

"Style"

Or at least lighter for a given strength, maybe more rigid too?

Sadly, they seem to be a means of showing your Nova/ Corsa/ Saxo/ Dorf is really really fast, and the best car ever made. Most alloys seem to have very little to do with actual function :(

That's the point of them - that can be made to do the job of connecting the tyre to the hub and be a lot lighter than the stell equivalent. However, they are more rigid and smash and chip easily if rammed into the kerb, or at the hands of the saturday boy in Kwik-Fit.

So they get beefed up to cope with the demands of normal use by f*****ts, and are suddenly heavier than steel wheels and still have weaknesses (like in an impact a steel wheel will bend, and you can still get home, an alloy will crack and the tyre will go down).

Also sprach Adrian :-

Ah. I'm fat and fortyish - I don't do style.

They won't fit - different PCD Triumph saloons / stag / mgb = 4 on 4.5" TR7 / dolly / marina et al = 4 on 3.75"

Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Nor do most buyers of chavtastic aftermarket alloys...

Also sprach Adrian :-

There's hope for me yet. All I need is a Burberry hat and some hair to keep under it.