Help me please. Wheels.

When I was kid I had trouble reading. I was dyslexic.  A compassionate librarian took me under her wing and grabbed a book off the shelf called The Red Car  by Don Stanford 

For those who don't know it, please read it. It not only taught me how to read but motivated my love of sports cars. I digress 

It's about a young boy who restored a MGTC  

Later  when I got my first sports car ( at age 14 )  I painted it red and have kept it since. 
I digress I put wire wheels on it but they are only 15 inch wire wheels. Not the drop dead proportions of 19 inch wire wheels like a TC. 
 

For my MGuar I wanted 19 inch wires but found that Dayton doesn't make a 19 inch wire 18 - 20 inch sure but not 19. I've got 16 inch wires but they don't have that same drop dead look that makes the TC so beloved.  If I go to the 18 inch wire wheel it gets pretty spendy and then I'll need some very low profile tires something like 10 profile.   20 at the most. 
 

However I can't find anything like that at tire rack. I figure I can get like an 8&1/2 wide rim 18 diameter    
Am I doing something wrong?  Is there another way to get the look?  

I'm not familiar with any tires with an aspect ratio under 30 or 35... Not that I have a great catalog in my head.

Can you draw all this up to scale? I have to wonder whether the proportions are going to adhere to a literal scaling up of the TC. You may find you don't need a setup so severe it's off the scale of current offerings.

After all, aspect ratio is part of proportion, and the TC certainly isn't running ultra low profile tires.

I had a Jensen Interceptor convertible that had a dealer installed option - wire wheels made by Zenith.  Zenith are no longer around but they did a lot of custom work in California. A bunch of their former employees started up Wie Wheel King and carried on. I'd suggest that you contact them.

I'm sure you are aware that the longer the spokes the more the flex, so bigger is fine for looks but not performance (IMHO 15" is the optimal performance size)

http://www.wirewheelking.com/contact_us

Jesse Ransom (FFS) said:

I'm not familiar with any tires with an aspect ratio under 30 or 35... Not that I have a great catalog in my head.

Can you draw all this up to scale? I have to wonder whether the proportions are going to adhere to a literal scaling up of the TC. You may find you don't need a setup so severe it's off the scale of current offerings.

After all, aspect ratio is part of proportion, and the TC certainly isn't running ultra low profile tires.

Look at a MGTC on Wikipedia and you'll see how little rubber sticks past the rim. ( wish I could figure out how to do links)

They are tiny little tires width wise. Probably 85 profile or even higher but because they are small tires the look is definitely low profile. 
     I've figured out how to build the frame. But the starting point requires wheels first. 

Because it's V12 powered I'll need some rubber.  I'll roll my own fenders to get the right look. But a wide high profile tire will really lose what I'm trying for. 

TireRack,  search by Diameter

I reckon 205/40R18

or 215/35R18 are you best options.

So are you thinking about something like this?  It seems like with the horsepower your V12 will make, you will need at least 100 spoke wheels to keep from twisting the hubs out.

A 225/35/18 tire is the lowest profile I could find.  It is around 8.9" wide - an inch wider than your rim.  This tire is supposed to have a 24.2" diameter, which would give you 3.1" around the rim ( 24.2" -18")/2

You are right.  This would be expensive.

Rims

Tires

In reply to CJ (FS) :

Thank you. Great information.  I've been quoted over $2200 for Set of rims. So that price seems like a Really good one.  
     I'm guessing in the neighborhood of  400 horsepower if I keep it carbureted and maybe 550 if I use the supercharger. The supercharger will blind me directly in front of me so that's not likely.
I could drive it right off the crank but that would probably make everything too long. The engine starts out at 32 inches.  the supercharger would add another 31 inches  the stock hood is 44 inches  plus 5" for the radiator  it just won't work.  I'm trying for a weight between 1650-1800 pounds  so carbed I'm 4-4&1/2 pounds per horsepower. 

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

TireRack,  search by Diameter

I reckon 205/40R18

or 215/35R18 are you best options.

Relatively tall tire but I see I don't have a whole lot of options. I wonder what's available as a used race tire? Guess I'll make a couple of calls tomorrow. 

you could always look for specialty options....

dunno if they ship international?
https://www.vintagetyres.com/

or, it's an MG... so might as well go LucasAllTheWay?
https://www.lucasclassictires.com/

I'm not sure any of the coker stuff is what you're looking for.

maybe there's something else where in the universal?
https://www.universaltire.com/

frenchyd said:

Jesse Ransom (FFS) said:

I'm not familiar with any tires with an aspect ratio under 30 or 35... Not that I have a great catalog in my head.

Can you draw all this up to scale? I have to wonder whether the proportions are going to adhere to a literal scaling up of the TC. You may find you don't need a setup so severe it's off the scale of current offerings.

After all, aspect ratio is part of proportion, and the TC certainly isn't running ultra low profile tires.

Look at a MGTC on Wikipedia and you'll see how little rubber sticks past the rim. ( wish I could figure out how to do links)

They are tiny little tires width wise. Probably 85 profile or even higher but because they are small tires the look is definitely low profile. 
     I've figured out how to build the frame. But the starting point requires wheels first. 

Because it's V12 powered I'll need some rubber.  I'll roll my own fenders to get the right look. But a wide high profile tire will really lose what I'm trying for. 

How's these links?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_T-type#/media/File:MG_TC_(1947)_-_19816029560.jpg

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_T-type#TC_Midget

Jesse Ransom (FFS) said:

I'm not familiar with any tires with an aspect ratio under 30 or 35... Not that I have a great catalog in my head.

Can you draw all this up to scale? I have to wonder whether the proportions are going to adhere to a literal scaling up of the TC. You may find you don't need a setup so severe it's off the scale of current offerings.

After all, aspect ratio is part of proportion, and the TC certainly isn't running ultra low profile tires.

I've given a great deal of thought to trying to draw everything to scale.  Then I realized why I failed architectural drawing, I'm lousy at it. 
In my minds eye a side view would have the same proportions as a regular MGTC with the V12 peeking past the fender and under the bonnet minus the side panels.  
Only the top and front view would display the width of the tires as different from an actual MGTC ( yeh the fenders would be wider to cover those meats). 
For a whole lot less I think I can get a used set of 16's but they just won't look right. 

Looking at tiresize.com, it looks like the equivalent of a 4.5" tire on a TC's 19" wheel would probably be about a 115/70-19.

115/70 puts the sidewall at about 80mm (or a little over 3.1"). 18" isn't much smaller, so we're really looking for a sidewall right around 3", possibly a touch under.

On an 18" wheel, that gives you a diameter of about 24".

A 215/35-18 should be about what you want. It's filed under 23" tire sizes here (at 23.9"), on the 18" wheel tab: https://tiresize.com/chart/

The 23" chart just has this size; the 24" chart has a lot more options, but they're all 24.something closer to 25".

In reply to Jesse Ransom (FFS) :

That's really useful.  Thank you. Appears I've  got a bit of work ahead. 

In reply to frenchyd :

Cool! Also, reading more carefully, it looks like the 24" chart isn't entirely pushing 25", and the 225/35-18 is just over at 24.2", and probably has more tire options than 215...

In reply to Jesse Ransom (FFS) :

I'm an old Luddite. What I miss is a catalog that I can open to page whatever and find what I'm looking for. 
    I linked to what you showed me, read what size choices I had. Added  a little each way then pretended my car was a Corvette and went looking.  
 Foolish me I figured that since the early MG's used Dunlop tires  I would pay a homage and use them.   
So I go to Dunlop's site and I'm shocked to find out they are now sold by Goodyear!  Hey I like Goodyear's too. But try as hard as I could I couldn't make heads or tails of their site. Other than finding some tires that sound like they might work, I couldn't find if they actual made workable sizes in those versions  and what prices would be. Plus I just like technical details sizes, weights. Rim sizes used etc. 

Now I'm seriously trying to figure out what the dues are for that Luddite group I spoke of at the beginning. 

In reply to frenchyd :

I just head to tire rack and search by size.  You can also search by brand, but either way, once you get to a tire, you can look at the specifications sheet which tells you all the sizes of that particular tire.

What matthewmcl said! You can punch in a size, and it'll show you everything available from them, which tends to be a good selection.

Do you know how many times I've logged onto tire racks site in the last few months?  I'm willing to bet it's more than a hundred.  Today I think I clicked on it at least 10 times. 
 

 no it's not a particular car and going to the size list is what has me pulling my hair. 
Why can't I click on a size and see what tires are available in that size? 
Why do I have to pretend they are on a car before I can see if they are available?  

In reply to frenchyd :

You don't. You really can search by size alone.

1. Go to tirerack.com (it will forward you to a longer URL, but that's fine)
2. Click on Tires
3. In the thing that drops down, in the upper left area, under SHOP, click on By Size.
4. Choose your size, you'll have to enter your zip code, and away you go!

This link might work to show my results for 225/35-18.

You can also call Tire Rack.  I've found them to be easy to talk to and pretty knowledgeable.

Yeah, "search by size" lets you, well, search by size.

Alternately, you can get a list of every size available in 18". This requires a bit of understanding of how to estimate diameter, but it will tell you what options are out there. You get there by "search by tire diameter". Then you click on a size and it shows all the tires in that size.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/sizes/results.jsp?diameter=18

Don't know if the scale would work, but the outfit I listed also makes a 20" x 8" wheel with 150 spokes.  $1708 with spinners and a lead hammer.

With a 225/35R20 tire, it might give you the look you are after

Rims

Tires

Click here:

I've done that probably close to 100 times in the last few months.   

In reply to frenchyd :

Doing something incorrectly for 100 times, will not make it work any better than the first time. 

If you really need it, one of us could probably write a step be step with more detail, but I’m not sure how to make it more clear than what has been said/shown. Maybe call someone that could walk ya through it?