Styling 15inch wheels on my Strada Abarth

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Styling 15inch wheels on my Strada Abarth

abarth130tc

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I have always wanted 15 inch wheels on my Abarth as you can get better selection of rubber . The wheels in the picture are KN Dyna 5 spoke made in England . The tyres are 195/45/15 inch . With the tyres is about as low as i could go and the ride is just acceptable . The tyre is wider and has more grip than the standard 185/60/14 inch as i always felt it was under tyred .Anyway the car has been tranformed in the corners . No more bodyroll and the grip is awesome . With the standard 14inch wheel side by side the 15inch the height on the 15inch is lower .I have also lowered the front of the car by 35mm without cutting the springs or using Konis .

 
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Interesting change.

The rolling radious change is minimal.

Old = 1814.6mm New = 1748.3mm

Speedo error is +3.8% reading high so on the safe side regarding them that would wan't to extract funds from your right foot :)

The original wheels had a very rare offset of ET55. You don't say what the offset of your new wheel rims are.

All I would suggest is to check the inner tyre wall to strut (front) damper (rear) top edge clearances. If I recall correctly (big question mark here) the rears with the original 185/60R14s ran quit close to the damber casing/body.

Unlike on the a Fiat Uno with a trailing link axle bars you can get away with running a close clearance at the top on the Strada. However if you plan an putting you car on a race track etc. then I would certainly check for signs of "dynamic" and "unloaded" contact. By this I mean like you see in the F1 slow motion tyre "jelly wobble" wheel shots. Bottom road contact area obviously deformed etc. but as the forces involved in surface contact adhesion are released they go into dissipation in the rest of the tyre running profile hence the "jelly wobble".

A static MOT or your own static visual clearances inspection will not "dynamic" clearances but carefully inspection after a well loaded running drive may reveal something.

You are probable OK but it certainly worth double checking everything.

Nice wheels by the way. Not fancy, butch and purposeful looking. With also provide much better cooling than the original Cromadora wheels. On our 130TC for sprints and track days we user Revolution RFX wheels, as did all the Fiat/Alfa racing boys & girls.

http://www.revolutionwheels.com/rfx/


If you are thinking of doing a track day / sprint / etc. then post back and I'll reveal how to avoid the deadly brake fade in a Strada Abarth with having to resort to expensive discs a calipers.
 
Hi the E.T is 35mm and its makes the track of the strada wider which is not bad thing . Very few wheels look good on the strada especially newer wheels . I have got another set and the E.T is less than 35mm and they stick out more i have tryed them . These are for my Fiat 131 Loads of clearence between the inside of the wheel and the rear shocks . I like Revolution RFX wheels . These wheels will allow me to fit better brakes . I had a Doblo here last week and with a bit of mods the front calipers could be made to fit .
 
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