Custom Wheel Choices for TRs

As promised, I have written up my research into other wheel choices for the TR. All the usual legal disclaimers apply - make use this information solely at your own risk, it is supplied for discussion purposes only (besides, suing me would be a waste of time - I'm broke!). 

Currently, the choices for wheels for TRs are very limited. You have 30+-year-old original steel rims, wire wheels, several old magnesium or alloy rims and new offerings by Panasport(and variants), Compomotive, and Revolution (if you order from UK). For any/all of the above you can count on spending large sums of money ($1000 and up) unless you're very lucky.

I decided that I wanted to research modern wheel offerings to see what could be made to fit the TR and give more options, not only in wheel choice, but also in rim size and tire width as well - in addition to possibly being less of a major investment.

I believe that TRs are well designed sports cars that were great in their day, but are somewhat handicapped by the 30+ year old technology they were designed with. With discrete, well thought out applications of modern technology I think they can be improved without taking away any of attributes that draw us to these cars. Also, why should the boy racers be the only ones to benefit from the superior handling available with lightweight rims and low profile tires? I believe with a level playing field, a TR could still out-perform and out handle many a rice rocket. 

What I have worked out can fall into one of four categories:

1. Bolt on.
This category gives you very few choices, all of which have been mentioned above. Also, this category limits you to the 15-inch rim size, with the exception of Panasports - which do offer a 16-inch rim for the TR at over $300 per wheel. You could also use old Nissan Z-car or MG rims, but as these are 14 inch rims, would not be very useful except in certain race applications (or so I'm told) 

2. Spacers.
This opens up more possibilities. Because it shares the same 4 x 4.5 inch bolt pattern, the Honda Accord becomes an excellent possible donor source, though there are a large number of other modern import cars that also share this bolt pattern. This is good, because there are many possible rim size/tire choices - I think I remember from 15 inch to 22 inch (almost won't fit in the wheel well!). These rims are also much more affordable, with some under $100 per rim. The only drawback to these wheels is the offset is very different. This however, can be compensated for with a properly engineered spacer/adapter. You ABSOLUTELY would NOT want to use extra long studs and stack the commonly available spacer - the torque forces would almost certainly guarantee losing a wheel going down the road. Instead you need to get a spacer that bolts to the hub, and then the wheel bolts to the spacer. There are several places on the Internet that make spacers for the racing community that would work just fine. Two sites I have located are www.wheeladapters.com and www.weirdharoldscoolparts.com. A rough calculation shows that you need to compensate about 2 inches for the Accord rim to get a zero offset.  If you choose to go this route it would be best to measure the rims you plan to purchase, to insure that you get it spaced out correctly.

3. Redrill hubs.
The sky's almost the limit with this option, but it has the drawback of permanently altering the car - making it difficult to ever return it to stock condition if you later sell or want to restore to original. Most people who choose this route pick the Mustang's 5 x 4.5 inch bolt pattern, but there are others you could choose, limited only by the dimensions of the hubs.  If you choose this route, you will need to check and see if you will have a backspace issue since the modern Mustangs have a greater positive offset then the classic Mustang.

4. Adapters
This one theoretically offers the best of both worlds, allowing you to use a bolt pattern other than original, while retaining the ability to return to stock at a later date. In practice, this is the hardest to accomplish safely as going from a 4-bolt pattern to 5-bolt gives you interference issues that must be addressed. One solution is to go from the 4.5-inch bolt circle to a wider (or narrower) one that allows the studs to clear each other. Also, you can't forget the offset issue and must take into consideration how thick the adapter will have to be.