31 replies to this topic

[THE ANORAK]

i recently stumbled across a letter in an old issue of mini world that made an attempt to explain the change of design of the Rover minilite-style alloy wheels.

there is a common myth in the mini community that the wheels fitted to the RSP cooper are unique to the model and some how special. well the letter mentioned above puts a very different view on the story so lets have a look at the facts....

this is the life and times of the rover Minilite style Alloy.



OK, here's the letter (cut and paste for clarity).....



it clearly states in the letter that the stud holes were moved from the "in-line with the spokes" position to the "between the spokes" position due to them failing the UK oblique impact tests which caused slight cracking around the bolt holes.
the later design was also a little larger around the hub area and carried a JWL logo on the rim.

here are the two wheels types together. the early style is on the left and the later style on the right....



and this is the JWL logo on the rim..



I'm finding it very hard to believe that only 500 wheels were made to the original design as these were standard fitment on the Mini 30 (3000 cars), the second generation racing/flame models (2500 cars), and the RSP cooper (1650 cars).

this gives a total of 7150 cars. each with four wheels which makes at least 28.600 wheels of the original design. 35,750 if these models had an alloy spare !!!!

so already we can see that the early style wheels is not unique to the RSP, is not particulally rare and due to the fact that it has a possibility of cracking, certainly not worth any more than the later style !!!

Edited by THE ANORAK, 29 March 2008 - 01:04 PM.

[THE ANORAK]

OK, lets look at the cars they were fitted too...

the early design was first fitted to the 1989 mini 30 limited edition...



at the same time john cooper was also offering his conversion pack for the mini and the styling kit had white minilite style alloys. at the moment I'm not sure if these are the same wheels as the rover ones but i will be looking into this further...



this kit was aimed at the first generation of Mini flame and Mini racing cars that were launched in January 1989 alongside the mini rose and sky.
these did NOT feature the minilite alloys as standard...





in February 1990 the Mini flame red and Mini racing green were re-launched along side the Mini Check mate and these were fitted with the alloys, still using the early "in-line with the spoke" design...







In September 1990 the RSP cooper was launched, again with "early" type alloys as standard...



but it would seem that the "later" type wheel was in production as this RSP seems to be fitted with them, probably because it's sitting in the John Cooper garages showroom and would potentially be viewed by Japanese customers ???
this is actually a G-plate registered press car.



so it would seem that some "special" RSP's were being fitted with the safer wheels.

[THE ANORAK]

now this is where it gets confusing.

its at this point that the early style wheels were supposed to give way to the later style. RSP cooper has early style, Mainstream production cooper has later style.

but if you look at the brochures for the mainstream cooper you can see that they have got the early style fitted !!!!!



this can be explained by the fact that the mainstream cars used for the photo shoots were in-fact pre-production cars made at the same time as the RSPs and in-fact one of the cars (a Green one) started life as an RSP and was re-dressed for the photos.

this is a production mainstream with the correct later "between spoke" wheels...



in October 1991 the Injection cooper was launched, again with the later style wheel...



from 1992 the alloys were available as an option on the mini Mayfair.

from here on the wheels would be fitted to some of the limited edition models, for example.

the British open classic...



the Italian job had white wheels....



but not all limited editions would be so lucky...



there were three models fitted with black versions of the wheels.

the 1994 mini cooper Monte Carlo...



the 1996 Cooper 35...



and the 1998 Paul smith, although i wouldn't be surprised if these were some rare shade of black.



its worth pointing out that right from as far back as the re-launched flame/racing/checkmate cars, some cars actually left the factory with the early style of wheel on one side of the car and the later style on the other side. a practice than seems to have lasted for quite some time

Edited by THE ANORAK, 29 March 2008 - 01:13 PM.

[THE ANORAK]

both styles of wheel are 12 inches diameter and 4.5 inches wide.

inside the standard arches they do look a little thin but you can make them look better by fitting 165 tyres instead of the standard 145 wide factory fitted ones.

you can see in this picture the difference in width and also the difference in the height of the tyres....



to fit the wider tyres you should also fit 5mm spacers and longer studs on the rear hubs.



the difference is well worth the effort

145 tyres...



165 tyres...



and so ends the lecture on the rover minilite style alloy. there are a few holes in the research so please feel free to comment and add anything else you may know.

Edited by THE ANORAK, 25 January 2009 - 08:31 AM.

[Natalie]

My head hurts now but I did enjoy looking at the pictures Thank you Anorak
I'm going to read it properly now and try to understand it

[Bungle]

time for jammy to put this in FAQ section

[THE ANORAK]

My head hurts now but I did enjoy looking at the pictures Thank you Anorak
I'm going to read it properly now and try to understand it

its easy...

early type: stud holes in line with spoke, not unique to the RSP, not really rare, not worth more money.

later type: stud holes between spokes, standard fitment from mainstream cooper onwards, re-designed to prevent possibility of cracking around stud holes

[THE ANORAK]

time for jammy to put this in FAQ section

oh no, dont do that

nobody ever looks in there

[blakie]

Everydays a school day!

blakie

[Gibbo]

That's a very nice read. Your think it'll ever come up in a pub quiz?

I had the early alloys on my piccadilly, obviously not standard on that, they'd come off a checkmate that had been totalled.

Edited by Gibbo, 29 March 2008 - 02:04 PM.

[Black.Ghost]

Well thats quite useful.

I have white alloys on my Cooper. I thought someone had simply painted them, I wasnt aware that the Italian Job Mini had them. Good to know though.

[coop]

thanks for that. interesting.

and i want the white alloy's in that john cooper conversion pack

[Amy]

Just to add to your fabby info page Anorak..... the Cooper 35 wheels and the Paul Smith wheels were indentical. My friend sold me one of his original Paul Smith Wheels (after he crashed the car) to replace one of my Cooper 35's......

[THE ANORAK]

Just to add to your fabby info page Anorak..... the Cooper 35 wheels and the Paul Smith wheels were indentical. My friend sold me one of his original Paul Smith Wheels (after he crashed the car) to replace one of my Cooper 35's......

thanks for that Amy

[BigEnd]

Informative and thoroughly thorough as usual. Good read