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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - 10' Mini Wheels

It's a slow afternoon and my mind is wandering...

Anyone ever fitted, or know if you could fit 10" (Mini) wheels to a midget?

Asking for a friend ;-)

Malc.
Malcolm

Why would you? Sprinting/ hill climb/ autotest??

and the answer is no anyway!
GuyW

Yeah, availability of sticky tyres. Most for 13" wheels start at 185/60 profile. A bit of a squeeze on a SWA and won't fit on the rims I currently have.

One of the tyres on MSA List 1B is the Yokohama A032R, but it's only available in 165/70-10, for Minis.

In my mind the pros of this would be:
1. It's one of the softest, therefore potentially grippiest tyres.
2. The smaller overall diameter would be advantageous as it would get the car lower and slightly geared down, then swap back to "normal" sized tyres for easier road driving.
3. The overall wheel/tyre should be lighter (lower unsprung mass).
4. They are "about right" width wise (165) and reasonably tall sidewall that should suit the characteristics of the car.

But if the rims won't fit the idea is dead in the water anyway.

Malcolm

PCD should be the same but would they clear the brake calipers?...
GuyW

Actually thinking about it again... nah, they don't stand a chance of fitting. With 13" rims you have to be careful where you put the balance weights as they foul the TRE. A 10" rim wouldn't stand a chance.

Forget I mentioned it, I must have been temporarily been possessed by the spirit of Prop!

Malc.
Malcolm

You could always just put a 10" pair on the back and 13s on the front! 😂
GuyW

I like your thinking Guy! It would improve the acceleration no end, but you'd end up with the engine screaming its nuts off but going nowhere fast in top with that new gearing, especially if you've got a 4.55 diff or lower in!

Malcolm. Is your question MSUK competition related? If so, which class are you thinking of entering? I dropped out of Class 1A (Roadgoing Production) after my Yokohamas were deleted. I wasn't going to bin a perfectly good set of tyres so I switched to the pre-1971 class where tyres just have to be road legal. It was a bit of a shame as my times were just becoming competitive in 1A and now I'm regularly up against a C type Jag and some hot Minis so I don't stand a chance normally; I won the class las time but only because there were only two of us and the Mini went home early with a duff clutch!

Colin
C Mee

There are a couple of 175/60x13 track tyres you could use, they fit under SWA with minimal mods. Easier to find are 175/50x13 which are used on Minis and should fit with no problems. This is on a 5” rim with the usual offset for Spridgets.

I’m just about to buy some of the 175/60’s, the choice is Kumho V70 and Yokohama A048’s. The Yokohama’s are in race size of 160/540/13 (I think that’s right) and probably won’t be available until June due to some problems at the factory.
John Payne

Funny you should ask this Malcolm, and i can't get the grin off my face thinking about it-
years ago, actually many years ago a mate had a racer morry minor with a Mazengarb head on it and it went like the stinkers--he was going to run it in a hillclimb and needed to drop the gearing, his brother had a racer mini on 10" wheels and old Dunlop racing tyres so we fitted the mini wheels to the Morry---what a laugh, it went quite a lot better the best improvement was the steering feel, it sharpened right up, but compared to the 14" morry wheels it sat super low and the front brackets of the track rods were only about an inch off the deck. Anyway on to the funny bit, we'd been squirting around all over the place and decided it'd be a goer with the track rod brackets lifted up and headed home- on the way there was a railway crossing that was slightly raised above road level, bang, hit the first rail and bounced over it then didn't clear the second and got stuck between the two tracks and couldn't get out---The cops came and helped us lift it out and gave us a monster lecture about road safety and all that--I'm still laughing now writing this, it was really funny going back and forward trying to get off the railway--lol
willy
William Revit

Hi Colin, sticking to list 1B as that keeps me in spec for various road going classes and championships - if and when I ever get round to properly competing again! Well done on your win, you can only beat whoever turns up on the day! :-)

John, yeah, that was the plan before the mind wandered. My second set of wheels are a set of 13 x 5 Minilites that have 175/50 Yoko A539s on. They fit and work well, but the A539 is a harder road going type tyre so looking for something better. Nankang NS-2R or AR-1 come in that size and are a bit more racey.

Great story Willy :-D Bloody hooligan! You must have been lucky there were no trains due through.
Malcolm

I like the thinking :D

I run Extreme VR2 in the R5a flavour; these are 1c but the R7a are 1b. They do a 175 50 R13. They'll overheat on a track day but will be great at a sprint. The R5a is softer, mine started struggling at the end of a two lap Anglesey sprint (138 seconds) but are brilliant on the shorter events.

They are not marvellous for the road though, very slippery until you get some heat into them, which normally means driving a bit too quickly for comfort.

I use an NS2R as track day tyre, not as grippy but they last a lot better (bottom pic)






Rob Armstrong

This thread was discussed between 05/05/2022 and 06/05/2022

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