The track of the hub faces is very wide both front and rear and so a small Front Space (Distance from rim outer edge to the wheel mounting face) is required for the wheels to fit under the guards.
All the usual after market wheel manufactures cant get to this offset without the centres sticking out past the JJ rim profile inner step, and the spinners stick out past the wheel & tyre which is illegal.
Don't like this look :(
When I bought the chassis and body kit, there was an Australian Manufacturer that did make a custom wheel for this spec, but they had ceased to make them and wouldn't consider to do a run even for a group buy.
The CR spec is 3" Front Space for the Front Wheels and 4.5" on the Rear Wheel.
Both Team 3 and Vintage Wheels in the US were great to deal with, and have great looking wheels, but unfortunately couldn't get the required spec,
Team 3s best effort was still a 1/2" off the front space requirement, mainly due to the cast center profile and my need to clear the calipers which stick out past the mounting face by 7mm.
The design of their cast centre prohibited further machining of the back face to clear the caliper and achieve the required offset.
A chance encounter with Racecraft Industries in Melbourne revealed a customers "Eleanor Mustang" Replica build, and while having a look over the car, I discovered some Halibrand Style rims that had a different profile.
While this was a 20" rim and I want 17", the rim design might give some option for the front space problem.
The fact that they are from a solid billet gave design options not available on other wheel centers.
These Wheels had a neat little cap that covers the 5 wheel studs replicating the Knock Off Spinner Style Wheels I was looking for.
Other brands have covers that do this but the key point of interest was the Rim Profile.
Contacting the owner established the wheels where custom CNC made for him by Dragway Wheels in King Lake Melbourne using billet aluminium for the centres and welded into a "Smooth Look" Rim from Specialty Rim Supply (SRS) in the US.
I contacted Dragway and organised a group visit with 3 other CR builders.
We spent several hours with Dragway's designer reviewing the possibilities and touring the facility and left confident we could meet the CR requirements.
Further direct contact as we neared purchase time developed a solution that maximized the visible rim and met the caliper clearance, front space requirements.
The aesthetics and legal requirements would be met with a redesigned flatter profiled billet spinner all within the rim.
First to order was Ben, you can catch Ben's build blog here. - Ben's CR Cobra Build
Here is the start of my wheel progress to date.
I finally decided on 17"x 8" rims for the front, and 17" x 10" rims for the rear.
Margie (Owner of Dragway) kindly sent me some progress pics this week of the wheel center machining so far.
Aluminium billet centre.
Rear of the centres have been profiled.
The left billet is a front wheel center with 9mm boss to clear the calipers, the middle billet is a rear with 27mm boss.
Machining a centre with the Halibrand style look.
The tyres I have purchased are Kumho Ecsta XS.
245/45ZR17 for the front and 285/40ZR17 for the rear.
More pics to follow.
