June 13, 2011 - The new wheels are here!
The selection was pretty tough, actually. I'm allowed to use a total of 8 tires during the race, so I need 8 wheels. Given that I'm going to run a 225/45-15 (more on the tire selection later), I wanted something wider than the 15x7 wheels I have now. That's a shame, because I have a full set of 8 of those. Oh well.
So I wanted either a 15x8 or 15x9. At Flyin' Miata, we have a collection of both. I decided to go with the narrower of the two because it'll give me a bit more sidewall flexibility for following the rough surface. That narrowed it down to three basic choices: the TR Motorsport C1, 949Racing 6UL and the new Konig Wideopen. The C1 is the least expensive of the lot, but the heaviest by several pounds. The Konig is a brand new wheel and looks to be a pretty good value, but it's unproven. More importantly, we didn't have any I could borrow so I'd need a full set of 8 of either.
Meanwhile, the 6UL is both the most expensive and the lightest at 12.0 lbs on our scale. It also seems to be pretty strong. But we have a set of 4 of them at FM, so I only needed 4 new ones to get my full complement. That makes them the least expensive option really.
The black is a satin sheen. With polished lips, they'd look pretty killer. Better than other black/polished 6ULs I've seen that had a glossy center. They're not going to stay black, though. The car needs white wheels, and Emilio at 949 says the black is the best base color for paint. I just have to decide if I'm going to use proper car paint or use Duplicolor wheel paint. The advantage of the latter is that it's easy to touch up should the need arise.
I can hear howls of protest now about my painting plans. I'm okay with that.
tags: wheels |
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