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After having Minilights on my Min for 11 years I thought it was time for a change, so I bought some Compomotive cross-spokes off eBay - next thing you know I`m getting an e-mail from one of the mags saying they`d like to feature my car ;D Before and after img.photobucket.com/albums/v120/Grahamini/Beforeandafter.jpg [/img]
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I'm confused why some of you say there are better wheels than minilites. Its all down to personal choice, its not a case of one thing being better than another. Personally i love em, the dished ones especially. They have been used on SO many cars and nearly always look the part. I know someone with them on a porsche and they look the part on that too!
Grahammini - the mini looks sweet on the cross spokes! I'm a big fan of Mambas on mini's too.
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I'm confused why some of you say there are better wheels than minilites. I don't think its a "better" thing,.. more a "not lazy" thing,.. like sticking Empi 5 spokes or BRMs on a VW,.. just a bit unimaginative. You only need to look through Kinky Mick's Wheel Shack stock to see how many other great looking wheels are available.
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After having Minilights on my Min for 11 years I thought it was time for a change, so I bought some Compomotive cross-spokes off eBay - next thing you know I`m getting an e-mail from one of the mags saying they`d like to feature my car ;D Good work!,.. looks great with the BBS rims,.. when did you do this??
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Jan 13, 2005 10:11:59 GMT
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I don't think its a "better" thing,.. more a "not lazy" thing,.. like sticking Empi 5 spokes or BRMs on a VW,.. just a bit unimaginative. You only need to look through Kinky Mick's Wheel Shack stock to see how many other great looking wheels are available. i only made the 'better' comment because people earlier in the thread said there were better wheels. I agree with what you say to a degree. But the wheels people go for depend upon the look they are going for and what they personally like. Empi 5's, minilites etc look SO right on so many cars, and also covering many influences. For my own cars i always go for something a little different if i can. My bug originally ran wheels i have never seen on another beetle. I still own them and I'm sure one day i'll use them. I had my existing wheels on the bug made for me in the US (Budnik).
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Jan 13, 2005 10:23:29 GMT
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Cheers for the nice comments chaps The wheels are Compomotive, not BBS but they do look very similar. I got them off eBay at the end of last summer as I was a bit bored of my Minilites as every Mini at every show seemed to have them. I`ve never seen them before, but they are a Mini fitment as I e-mailed Compomotive to check on them and find what wheel nuts I needed - they were very helpful as well BTW, I only paid £150 for the wheels (all in very good condition with 4 as new tyres) and sold my old Minilites (clean but with a few chips and 2 barely legal tyres) for £100
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Last Edit: Jan 13, 2005 11:15:11 GMT by Grahamini
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Jan 13, 2005 10:35:07 GMT
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Those cross-spokes look so right on your mini. Nice find (bargainous too)! *n
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Top grammar tips! Bought = purchased. Brought = relocated Lose = misplace/opposite of win. Loose = your mum
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Jan 13, 2005 13:10:52 GMT
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I think the reason you see so many is because there are so many different manufacturer's that produce that same 8-spoked style. RS-Watanabe RS8's (my fav.) Black Racing Bridgestone Enkei Konig Rewinds Mini-lites Superlites Compomotive ML's Panasports They all have subtle differences in design. I had a set of RS-Watantabe Type-B's on my C110 earlier this year (edit: it's a new year, make that... earlier.. LAST year ;D), I would have kept them on except I had to run spacers, luckily enough I came across some SSR Longchamp XR4's to take their place until I find some dished (Type-A or Type-R) Watanabe's. I personally don't like the particular style of the UK Minilites but I adore the RS-Watanabe's, I also don't really like the Konig Rewinds, the Superlites or the Panasports, the Compomotive ML's are alright though. As has been said, it's down to personally preference, I personally despise what we over here refer to as "Tridents" but you guys call 'em Slot Mags, they're common as dog fecal matter over here and have been plastered on just about everything, I would compare them to Minilites for some of you guys, there will also be a loyal fan base for 'em but I just think they're boring. You can buy a 6 hole style of them brand new over here, they're called Spitfires I believe, made in Australia by Performance Wheels, the same people who make "Superlites". Website here for those interested; www.performancewheels.com.au/
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Last Edit: Jan 13, 2005 13:11:57 GMT by kyteler
Skyline: 1963 - 1973 - 1983 Sunny: 1982 450SLC: 1973 Navara: 1992 Gloria: 1992
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Jan 13, 2005 13:27:37 GMT
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i actually think those spitfires, on the right car, would look awesome! but i love slot-mags - i've just never come across a car i want to put them on lol
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Jan 13, 2005 13:34:10 GMT
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I REALLY like their industrial wheels !
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Minilites...DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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Jan 13, 2005 15:08:08 GMT
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Those cross-spokes look so right on your mini. Nice find (bargainous too)! *n ANyone else see teh irony in this: ;D ;D
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Jan 13, 2005 15:16:06 GMT
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I was waiting for someone to pick up on that or the wheel/revolution pun... Hardly ironic though *n
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Top grammar tips! Bought = purchased. Brought = relocated Lose = misplace/opposite of win. Loose = your mum
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Minilites...DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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Jan 13, 2005 15:21:17 GMT
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I was waiting for someone to pick up on that or the wheel/revolution pun... Hardly ironic though *n I find irony in the fact that Revolutions are perhaps the second most commonly bought aftermarket rims ;D
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Last Edit: Jan 13, 2005 15:21:41 GMT by DarrenW
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Jan 13, 2005 17:04:18 GMT
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I haven't actually seen a pair of Revolutions in the flesh (as it were) in about 2 years :/
I see minilites on a daily basis...
Ah well...
*n
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Top grammar tips! Bought = purchased. Brought = relocated Lose = misplace/opposite of win. Loose = your mum
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Jan 13, 2005 17:43:37 GMT
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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Jan 13, 2005 21:27:01 GMT
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It seems that a lot of people are more concerned with the look of a wheel than it's physical properties. I find this deeply worrying.
There's the obvious weight thing that I've mentioned before. There are manufacturers who don't know how to make an aluminium alloy wheel both stong and light, so they make the casting thick and end up with a wheel that's heavier than the original steel. Fitting these is totally pointless. Unless of course you are just like all the Corsa Kevs out there who only care about the way their cars look, rather than how they perform.
Then there's the quality issue. If a new wheel is cheap then the manufacturer has cut corners somewhere. Maybe they used a cheap alloy with all sorts of impurities, maybe they used the wrong alloy altogether, maybe their casting process was poor so they ended up with porous castings or nasty inclusions or cracks. Somewhere along the line these will be of poor quality and you shouldn't consider buying them. I got some cheap fake revos once and the quality was awful, on two of them I found obvious pinholes indicating dangerous porosity, the weights were markedly different two indicating either variations in alloys used or serious porosity in the lighter wheels.
Thirdly there is the idea of buying used alloys. If the wheels have any dents, chips, scuffing or other marks, walk away, there could be potentially dangerous cracking below the surface. Similarly if they show any signs of refinishing, that paint could be hiding damage. Cracks in aluminium alloy don't heal they only ever get worse and I've seen the results of a collapsed alloy wheel - not nice.
If you think that you could buy used alloys and get them crack tested then believe me it isn't easy or cheap. The easy way of crack testing (dye and powder) means a lot of work, you can't strip the finish by media blasting because this tends to mask cracks on the surface. And X-ray and ultrasonic testing are both specialized and therefore expensive processes.
I've worked in a non-ferrous foundry where one of my jobs was in QA crack testing castings and billets and also cutting open castings to check for porosity, so I know what I'm talking about here.
I don't want to sound like a killjoy here, but trust me, if you can't afford good quality alloy wheels stick with steels they will be safer and they're not automatically heavier than alloys.
Personally I think a set of matt black Weller eight spokes can look amazing on the right car, and somehow they manage to look much more high tech and race oriented in some applications.
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Jan 13, 2005 22:15:46 GMT
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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I'm a Weller man as well (though I'd hardly say obsessed) but in white if you please (well white looks better with the car).
And yes steel wheels can be about the same as alloys, I compared some RS alloys against some Wellers at a well known Ford parts supplier in Middlesex (well almost) and the Wellers were lighter (not by much but by enough), and yes same width/diameter were compared.
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Steels are quite often lighter, yes.
The intricate designs used by alloy wheel manufacturers often lead them to using very thick castings...which means added weight.
*n
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Top grammar tips! Bought = purchased. Brought = relocated Lose = misplace/opposite of win. Loose = your mum
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Jan 15, 2005 11:20:47 GMT
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Steels are quite often lighter, yes. The intricate designs used by alloy wheel manufacturers often lead them to using very thick castings...which means added weight. *n It's not a lot to do with "intricate designs" I've come across some very simple designs that were very very heavy. Remember aluminium may be about one third the weight of steel but it's also got about one third the strength. So getting a wheel that's any lighter than a steel wheel means some clever design and/or expensive alloys. One of the problems is that competition wheels tend to be magnesium alloy and many road wheels are simple copies of these, going right back to the minilite. Given that the materials are totally different you can't simply change from magnesium to LM6 or whatever and get the same strength and weight. Also a track wheel can be more delicate than a road wheel it doesn't have to last for thousands of miles and years of abuse without ever being checked for structural inegrity. So road wheels are made chunky to survive.
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