American Racing wheel question....

Hi all,

I'm researching wheels at this point and I've come to a juncture where I need to decide if I want to go with modern rims and fitment or vintage.

I was hoping that someone could help me figure out an issue with American Racing's Torq series rims? The issue is this:

I read in another thread that the correct rim for the '66 era Trans-Am cars is the American Racing R-Model rims. I've also found out that it's hard to come by a reproduction of this rim. I contacted PS Vintage Wheels PS Vintage Wheels Home Page but I have a feeling those will be prohibitively expensive.

I've also read that one of the current American Racing wheels is very close to the actual R-Model rims, but here's where my real problem is coming in: Which one? I've seen the Torq Thrust Original and the Torq Thrust D.... Both of them have a similar look, the machined lip with the magnesium-looking spokes... but which of those two would get me as close to the vintage trans-am look as possible?

Also, another issue I seem to be running into: Summit and TireRack.... neither one seems to carry American Racing wheels that fit a '66 5-bolt Mustang.... Am I missing something here or are they just an incomplete listing?

Any help sorting this all out would be greatly appreciated!

JonK said:

Here are a load of pics to stare at, this is my favorite site for TransAm reference as I'm doing a similar car:
66 Mustang notchback racer

I can't tell you if the original rims were more rounded on the spokes (TTD) or more pointed(T):


Sizes - more choices in the TTD: 14" x 6" / 15" x 10" / 15" x 4.5" / 15" x 6" / 15" x 7" / 15" x 8" / 15" x 8.5" / 16" x 8"


Sizes: 15" x 5" / 15" x 7" / 15" x 8.5" / 17" x 8"

I went with the D's, but I'm not doing an exact replica and $ kept me from going with the 8 spoke style.
According to CobraAutomotive the TTD's are a replica of the GT350R wheel, see pg. 37:
http://www.cobraautomotive.com/cobra_cat.pdf

I used 15X7" 3.75" bs on all 4 so I could rotate as these will be my street DD tires. I had to roll the fender lips with 225/60/15 tires as the bulge of the tire scraped barely, if I could have found 4.25" bs that would have been perfect or I would have had to step down to 215 tire (didn't want to).


Jon

Click to expand...

Actually, that's the website that started me on this obsession/quest/mania.... (Notchback T/A that is).

Yeah, I'm still trying to reach PSE regarding replicas of the original R-Models but I'm betting they'll be cost prohibitive as they're all made to order etc. I'll have to see if I can find any closeups of old T/A cars and see if I can figure out if they're round or edged (the spokes that is).

Another thing that got me on this path was Gran Tourisimo 5 for the PS3. There are a few vintage cars in there that you can purchase from the new car dealers that you can then do Race Modifications to which turns them into their T/A variants. The ones I know of are the 1969 Z28 and a Challenger R/T (there are a couple others but those two in particular wind up wearing the wheels I'm looking to replicate). I'll post pictures of these as I can find them on the .net...


Camaro Z28 wearing either R-Model or one of the Torq series rims without the center caps...


This one of the Z28 has the rims being more "edged" spoke than rounded.... so maybe those are closer to the originals?



This one of the Challenger R/T RM shows the rims the best. They definitely have the 'edged' type spoke instead of the 'rounded' ones...