[Peter D]

2. Wheel Spacers, Etc

I was not all that happy with the DRB factory-recommended wheel offsets - there was way too much "overhang" of the guards over the wheels - the tyres just did not fill the guards & look "right".

After much help from you guys in a separate thread on this subject, I finally decided that "correctly engineered" wheel spacers were going to be the only viable solution. So I had a chat with Jim C (Forum member) & he was happy to make up a set from billet aly. After lots of measurements, we settled on 3/4" spacers front & rear, & Jim did a brilliant job - perfect recesses on the inside to accept the boss on the hubs, & perfect bosses on the outside to mate with the recesses in the wheels. Longer wheel studs were fitted, & we ended up with a setup that was indistinguishable from a wider hub - all vertical plane loads are carried by the bosses/recesses, & rotational loads are carried by the studs which are virtually an interference fit thru the spacers. Talk about precision engineering !!

I reckon that the car looks much better with the wheels stepped out so that the tyres fill the guards, BUT, there was a problem !!!

On almost full right lock, the left front tyre hit the front lip of the LH guard, & the right front tyre hit the lip at the front edge of the RH tank cover !! So, some f/glass work went to the top of the project list - but I'll cover that (& a whole other bunch of glasswork !) in a later report titled "Disaster" !!

Kind Regards,

Peter D.