Wheel Fitment

[davidbolam]

My car has Minilite style wheels on it. its a 1996 k series car. and i really want to change over to the 13" anthracite style ones that were on the R500. failing that a new set of Apollo ones from Caterham.

My question is will they fit on my car. I've seen people talk about 6 and 8 inch width ones.

Are the rear meant to be wider than the fronts or can they be the same?

Apologies if this is a question that has been asked many times before.

[Tazio]

They will fit your car, you'll see things written about Ford pcd, this is the type of hubs your car has.

People put the larger 8 inch wheels on the rear, for two reasons, 1, aesthetic, they look better, fill the rear arches makes the cars stance a bit more aggressive. 2. Their engines produce more than 200-220bhp, and therefore prefer more grip from the rear.

With a standard 1600k, 6 inch wheels all around will be fine for your power levels.

Alan

[Graham King]

David, assuming you mean the anthracites that Caterham used to sell then yes they’re a direct swap. On the R500 they would have fitted 6” fronts and 8” rears, but that was down to the power of the R500. Unless you have 200BHP+ then you don’t need 8” although some fit for aesthetic purposes. Caterham don’t sell the anthracites any more so you’ll need to look out secondhand. I have the Apollo wheels on my k-series (6” front & 8” rear) they fit fine, but I did have to have the rear drop link turned the other way round as it fouled the 8” wheels, would have had no problem with 6” rears.

Graham.

[Wrightpayne]

David,

the other thing to consider is ground clearance. If your car is on 14s and runs a wet sump then going to 13s puts the sump 1/2” closer to the road.

It doesnt sound much but can make a catastrophic difference when you pass over a raised cats eye on a heavily cambered road. 

I run a dry sump so have a shallower sump so 13’s are fine.

If you really want 13s then running 70 series tyres might be the compromise.

Regards

Ian