wheel spacers

I think the short gusset wheel looks better then my full gusset wheel. The big gussets look like they should be on a '70s Disco van, jacked up, funny fir all over and strobe lights?

I just measured the offsets. They are both the same, 5-1/4 +/- about 1/8".

That does confirm that the 10" Campi wheels have the 2" additional added to the outside on the mounting flange, i.e., increasing the rear track by 4".

So that would take a 2" spacer to put the 8" and the 10" in +/- the same outside track.


On the gussets, I can only repeat what Gary Hall told me, "the original wheel is the one with the full gussets. The mold got damaged, repaired and the gussets got shortened as a result".

He also told me that he had purchased the mold from DT and that it was at the Shelby Wheel Company where they were going to cast wheels for Hall.

I personally don't know if that ever happened but doesn't look like it did?

So take anything Hall said with a "grain of salt".

No date codes in mine.


That discussion started because at the time Hall got $1500 for the NEW pair. Everything I needed on this car required throwing $100 bills at. I ran out of ink to print new ones.

So I asked if he had any USED ones. He said "sure, but I want $2,500 for those". I asked "why, they are used?". He said "because the original ones are rare and worth more".

He had an original "Detomaso" Weber manifold AND carbs too. Don't ask how much. You don't want to know.

Gotta luv Gary.



One other thing, these were just painted silver (Ford argent?) on the outer portion.

The inside of the wheel was painted the gold color like the Grp4 wheels were.

I have no idea if that matters at all? Just sayin'.


The current re-pops vary a little in that they are cast more smoothly and the very tip of the gussets aren't as radiused as these.

Who's going to notice that on the car?

Rocky's photos are of narrow body cars without GTS flares, imagine what the 8" wheels would like with a 2" GTS flare added! For GTS flares like Peter has you probably want 10" wheels and spacers!

Even more reason to get 10" wheels in the GTS case as it allows moving the 8" to the front, rather than spacing them out an affecting scrub radius.

If you look at the last of the 427 Cobra street cars, the CSX3300 series, they have the big "comp flares" with 7" wide "sunburst" knock off wheels.

Back in the day, no one liked them and the thing to do was to put on 11" GT40 Halibrands. Even so, the comp flare still had a lip.

They always struck me as looking like a "Batmobile" with three or four inches of fender overlap.

There are other cars of the era that are similar. In fact, if you look at the 68 Gulf GT40's, the race cars have that big overlap as well.

It all depends on what you want the car to look like. There is no requirement that every .001" of available fender spacing be filled.

In fact I personally have grown to like a big tire with "a little" clearance to the fender.


Here is my 68 GT350 rear with a 295-50-15. That's a 12" TREAD tire, 12.5" section. Look at the clearance to the fender lip. You can put your hand in there easily.

Notice how far the tread extends on the inside?

OK so some are going to say BFD. Fine. That tire has the same clearance as the original 70 series Goodyear Polyglas 235-70-15 tires. Better in fact. Those tires require the fender lips to be bent over to clear them.

Most SHELBY people walk right by not even noticing because it looks stock.

This car is also lowered which you won't notice unless it is parked next to a completely stock version.

CSX3300. This is the way they came new wheel wise. I think that is too much fender overlap but if you see these box stock they can kind of grow on you?

I'm not sure of it's CSX # Doug, but this beautiful Cobra at last weekend's Sonoma Show and Shine confirms your "as delivered" fender/tire overlap observation............

I think that car has 10"x15" reproduction Halibrands on the rear? Wait, 9-1/2" on the rear. The Halibrand knock offs are unusually dimensioned.

The original rear wheel was a 7" but the setbacks on the two are different.

This one looks nice. I'm going to take a guess and say that is probably a "continuation Cobra", i.e., the "originals" are CSX 2000-3000 cars.

The continuation cars bodies are "too good" to be originals.

If you ever look at the cars from the rear, the left fender rarely matches the right. The new cars are close to perfect.

People are getting away from that Incredible Hulk bustin' out look on the tires just a bit.


Aren't the Grp4 rear Campi's 13" wide? That's the way to go with a wide body Pantera, no?


This one is CSX3015. The sister car to the Cosby dual Paxton car. The 3001 to 3054 are the 427 "Comp Car" chassis' and bodies. Like Cosby's it's also automatic. "No need for those clutch dohickie things".

I think Jim Webb is the original owner of the car and here is a pic' of them together.

It's a full Comp body with the big rear fenders. Notice how the tire filled the wheel well even way back then?

To me, there's a difference in the Cobra front / rear wheel positioning, especially obvious in Doug's red Cobra picture.

The front wheel looks good.

The rear wheel is set too far into the fender.

Just my $.02.....

quote:

Originally posted by Rocky:
To me, there's a difference in the Cobra front / rear wheel positioning, especially obvious in Doug's red Cobra picture.

The front wheel looks good.

The rear wheel is set too far into the fender.

Just my $.02.....

Look at the rear spacing on these Stauffer cars. Very similar to the Webb cab.

Yep. It's pretty clear on Simon's white GT5-S, too. His car is on the front page of the forum.


On a different note: did anyone know that "Bristols" not only refer to a type of British car, but a prominent part of a woman's anatomy? It's from Bristol City, which rhymes with t...y!

I just learned this on the Jensen Interceptor board, and it seemed important enough to share. The Interceptors are having a "joint" event with the Bristols in London. I'd like to see that!

I wonder how well they fill their wheel-wells!


Rocky

quote:

Originally posted by Rocky:
Yep. It's pretty clear on Simon's white GT5-S, too. His car is on the front page of the forum.


On a different note: did anyone know that "Bristols" not only refer to a type of British car, but a prominent part of a woman's anatomy? It's from Bristol City, which rhymes with t...y!

I just learned this on the Jensen Interceptor board, and it seemed important enough to share. The Interceptors are having a "joint" event with the Bristols in London. I'd like to see that!

I wonder how well they fill their wheel-wells!


Rocky

Well if you hang out with the street rodders they will just say "check out the lights". Some can blind you?

FYI: SCC in Germany makes TUV/MOT approved wheel spacers. They come with an engineering report.
About 200$ the pair.