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!!!