289 splinned wheels.

[greenwater]

Anybody know about the different wheels used on the 289 cobras? The first serie of cobras,the 289s, came with the dunlop 72 spokes (by the way if you count them it comes to 70!!) wire wheels. Then "they" figured out that wasn't strong enough to withstand the new american muscle in the form of the 289 v-8 so came in the FIA wheel. The kidney bean was seen on the even earlyer worm gear steering 260 comp. cars.

If you look into books on the subject you will see in my opinion the nicest and very rare set of wheels on some 289s namely the american torq trust five spokes.....matched with the smaller two ears AC spinners they are beautyfull on that car!These were pure splinned none pin drive so the cars could switch from wire to solid for competition rapidely.

Any 289 specialists here who could tell me if these wheels were used on other cars at the time? I am just wondering if they had been created at the time specially for the cobras?? After all not too many different cars were on that type of hubs at the time....splined 42 mm.! I cannot find any writing on this type of wheels but can see them pictured into books like" cobras archives" by Friedman. I would love to find some but apparently nobody reproduce them and the few survivors must be outrageously expensive!!!

[cobra427hp]

The early cars did have 72 spoke wires but had a problem breaking with the flex and power and Shelby changed to the shorter 70 spoke Dunlap wire wheels. The spline drive Torque Thrust were real magnesium and I have only come across one set in for sale in my many years. I could not justify the expense at the time, but now wish I wasn't so cheap at times. If you come across an extra set let me know!

[Bob Putnam]

I suspect that the "Torq Thrust" wheels were actually made by Halibrand (and copied by American Racing later). The same wheel is still available from Halibrand in limited sizes.

British Wire Wheel lists a 6" wheel for the 289, and while they say that it's Dayton and not Dunlop, we got some wheels that I'm pretty sure were Dunlop in 7" and 8" widths. See this page , which has wheels made in special offsets for our FIA.

[greenwater]

Bob,

I was wondering wich manufacturer is behind British Wire Wheels......I had Dunlops 70 wires on my car and they showed some serious radial deflections after only 2500 street driven miles. I bought Daytons "cobra wheel" ,model 464. The standard backspacing on it is 3 3/8 I believe. They both look the same altough my dunlops had steel wires while daytons are stainless. Also ,if memory serves, there is a kind of marking on the daytons....I think it is at the root of the wires hub side...a kind of S shaped maybe... I've checked with a radial gauge my daytons and they were within 1/32 th of an inch both ways.

[mickmate]

You guys are trying to talk me out of using spline drive wire wheels on a big block cobra, aren't you! I was looking at 15x8 and 15x10 100 spoke. Any opinions..........
Cheers Nick

[Bob Putnam]

Greenwater,

Did the Daytons use the standard Dunlop spline (62mm)?

[greenwater]

Bob,

The daytons 464 are the same size/type of splined hub as my dunlops were wich I always did refer to as 42s. I measured the hub and it is indeed 62 mm outside diam. taken right on the splines. I think that generally there are two different type/size of splined hubs one being the 42 (MGs, big healys and 289 cobras) and the other would be 58 I think that is Jaguar ??

I don't know where "42" comes from but I don't think (any sanity left here?) I made it up! I know I've seen it somewhere!Another mistery is how come my new IRS ,using jaguar uprights, has the same 42 splined hubs wich are supposed to be different from jaguar's?? O.K. now were the early 427 wire wheel cars using the same feable looking hubs....?? A yes to this should reassure ones envisaging using wire on 427s? Altough I am pretty sure they were not very wide rims ...maybe 7 inches.

[Andy FIA]

For what its worth, they may be another knock on alloy alternative to the torque thrusts.
If the 289's have the same spline as the big Healeys and the MGC's, then the spline drive alloy Minilites for these cars will fit the Cobra.
The Minilites have a bolted in spline drive insert and are used successfully on classic rally and race cars in Europe with the two eared spinners.


Andy

[Bob Putnam]

Greenwater,

The Jag splines are larger than the MG/Heally/289 - roughly 73mm across the splines. I would hope that the 427 used the larger size, but I've never seen a 427 with wires. Because of lots of technical problems using the smaller spline adapters, I'm going to try very hard to use the Jag splines on all our subsequent wire-wheeled 289s, even if we can't get "AC" on the wing nuts.

[greenwater]

Andy,


I have sent you an e-mail.

Good alternative those Minilites but not sure where I can get them.

[Andy FIA]

Greenwater,

The splined Minilites are available in the UK, you could try:

www.scparts.co.uk
or
www.ahspares.co.uk

Good luck

Andy

[Turbo II]

Not sure if they are still in business but way back ('91?) these guys were the exclusive U.S. dealer for Minilites:


Select Sales Inc.
5411 NW 72 Ave.
Miami, Florida, U.S.A.
33166

Phone: (305) 888-2828
Fax: (305) 888-9029

Can't find a website though..Select Sales is pretty common company name



Francis "Turbo II"

[Andy FIA]

Does anyone know if the torque thrusts have ever been made in the Cobra 6 pin drive pattern?

Andy

[Bob Putnam]

Andy,

The pictures of the original FIAs looked like bolt-on wheels, not pin drive but -

Now you've got me curious. We just got a set of Torq-Thrusts in for an FIA - I'm going to measure them on Monday to see whether they can be machined for the Trigo 5-pin setup. Might be very cool...

[Satanpez]

Bob, I'm curious about that green street car. Rear exhaust, no scoop/bar wire wheels etc. Do you happen to remember what area of the country it was shipped to?

-steve in nj-

[Bob Putnam]

That car went to Illinois, but I think there was another one that may be more local. I'll have to check whether I have any records on it on Monday.

[Satanpez]

I happened to see a similar car last year at a car show in Northern NJ. Wasn't part of the show. Someone said it was either an ERA or Unique. I saw it for a minute, left and when I came back it was gone.

It's....basically the car I want. I'm pretty sure it was ERA, your cars are nice.

-steve in nj-

[computerworks]

Originally posted by greenwater

If you look into books on the subject you will see in my opinion the nicest and very rare set of wheels on some 289s namely the american torq trust five spokes.....matched with the smaller two ears AC spinners they are beautyfull on that car!These were pure splinned none pin drive so the cars could switch from wire to solid for competition rapidely.

Are these the Torque Thrust wheels? They look great as an alternative to wires...
(pic courtesy of SpecialK)

CSX2227

[greenwater]

Ron,

You always amazed me with your apparent endless collection of fine pics....yes those are the torq thrust . Don't you have that picture of Jim Maxwell's 289 seen in profile with some older buildings in background? If I remember well torq thrust are on it also. On page 86 of Friedman's book "Shelby archives" there is a beautyfull red cobra 289 with a black hard-top and chrome torq trust....I bet you could edit that one for the pleasure of the here members!

Now who knows the history of those wheels? Who made them,for wich other car have they been used? Maybe pure cobra wheel? Dragonsnake had them on....(pages 1-2 of Friedman's book)on pure tiny little splines?? Hey man we're talking cobra history here...that is only 40 years back...And don't I hear nobody saying "naw those were AC cars from the other side!"

[Bob Putnam]

Verrry interesting. Here's a "computer enhanced" closeup of the wheel. (It's amazing what details are hidden in photos!)


The question is - is it a real spline drive or did they drill the wheel for drive pins? There's not a lot of room there for either.