Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Which Wheels for my Next Morgan?

Heinz I think the white roundel increases the harmonising effect with the white lamps on the front of the car and ties it all together somehow it just works very well.

Alloys for me every time although all my trads are on wires 😫

after reading your opinions and advice, I will definitely keep the alloy wheels. 👍🏼

to improve the look, I will add:

- blue-white-red union jacks 🇬🇧
- a brown hood belt to contrast with the paint and the black interior,
- my wooden motolita steering wheel from my 4/4 sport
- an aluminum rear pannel spare wheel cover to replace the spare wheel

I can answer this Heinz from homologation documents. The Roadster 3.7 (and maybe earlier Roadsters) shows the aluminium wheel option had 6.5 x 15" rims shod with 205/60 R15 tyres. Same tyres/rim size for standard spec black wires although 18mm less offset. The optional stainless wires I have by comparison had 7 x 16" rims shod with slightly lower profile 205/55 R16 tyres to maintain similar rolling radius. Rim offset was the same 170mm as Jon's.

Richard, I found absolutely nothing on the net (except my own posts on TM from 2018). There is no reference to tyre dimensions in any Morgan brochure. I know that my 2010 Roadster Sport new from the factory had 205/65/15 tires on black painted wire wheels. It rode very well and it gave more ground clearance. So far I have not seen anyone have 65 tires on the nice alloy wheels but it would be worth a try. It might look good on that nice black roadster of Nestor.

Here you can see the 2010 Roadster with her arc filling tyres.

https://www.auto-brochures.com/makes/morgan/morgan_int-classic_2010.pdf

The only other model that had 205/65/15 was the Plus4SS with her Minilite wheels. I have no idea if only the Roadster Sports were fitted with 65 tyres or if other S3 Roadsters had followed as well or if MMC went back to 60 tyres.

My 3.0 litre Roadster brochure shows the wheel/tyre sizes

Sorry, Peter, I was inaccurate. I meant that no brochure on the Roadster Sport gives any information on tyre dimensions.

I personally much prefer the alloys although I can't comment on the relative driving merits. I don't understand why so many Roadsters seem to have wires. What is involved in swapping from wires to alloys and are centrelocks an option (if a set of alloys or centrelocks could be found)?

Thanks Heinz, finally managed to shake off Sunday family duties. I'm still running the OE factory tyres Avon ZV7 in 205 / 60 x 15"

Not only is the ride so much better on alloys , but the handling is also a vast improvement.

All of the extra weight of a wire (wrt an alloy) is unsprung, and the lighter the unsprung weight the better.

Many owners prefer the look of wires, and for period racing they are almost mandatory, but the extra time spent cleaning , the trouble with balancing , not to mention the extra cost make the decision an easy one for me

There is one reason to go for the wires , and that is the 16 inch rims . There is a wider selection of tyres available for this size , 15 " is rather restricted and very few ~"sticky" options.

PS I have had one steel wheeled car , two on wires , and finally my current +8 on alloys, and the last one is the best.